I have a lot of respect for Pause. They have the right intentions and the resources to back it up with a quality product. But I just can't get past the, sort of, rudimentary outcome of their endeavors, and the lingering legacy of the Indiana trailer history. The frames are a crude design, while strong. The tongues are very short and filled with stuff, the frame angle in front of the body is not conducive to maneuvering or avoiding contact with the rear of the truck and there is barely room to open the tailgate. The in-house articulating hitch is an ongoing design exercise that misses the point. The tires are small, they are using drum brakes, the wheels stick out from the sides of the body and make the trailer wide, but give no more interior room. Wide trailers are harder to get through narrow spots off-road. The simple frame design mandates that the wheels will stick out so far. The body panels are really tough, but they had to plaster a huge decal over the entire side to hide imperfections in the panels and that decal will get torn up by passing branches with no way to fix it, whereas fiberglass sides can be buffed out and painted if necessary. Mor-Ryde is scrambling to make suspension and hitches for them because they have a close relationship and because Pause insists on using American products. That's fine. But there is a lack of sophistication and beauty of design somehow that leaves me cold.
Imperial, on the other hand, has a different problem. The owner Isaac is in complete control and responsible for the entire design. He is good, but not perfect. He's human. He misses the details in his eagerness to be efficient. Those problems are now showing up with poorly designed cabinets that are more like IKEA furniture than robust off-road furniture. Inadequate inverter and fridge venting must be improved. The solar is good on the new line of trailers, X195 and Roamer1, but ridiculous on the earlier ones, the X22 and XR22. Now, there have been some initial rollout problems that are a very common general issue with all new products that get rushed into production with inadequate testing. This happens across the board with all new products that are developed under a deadline. Fortunately, the venting and the cabinet issues are simple to fix, but people spending this kind of money are not patient with this kind of problem. The trailers are a beautiful overall design with lines that please and tow extremely well. The storage boxes are thick aluminum, the tongue is long and narrow. The suspension is the best in the world. The frames are a sophisticated design built by a separate manufacturer that has worked with them for years and are well done. The tires are large and housed under the trailer, with steel fenders, and disk brakes. The perimeter extrusions are aluminum, whereas the Pause extrusions are plastic. This means strength and it means awnings can be bolted directly to the extrusions without a lot of special brackets. The battery bank is enormous, at 1,080 AH of Expion brand lithium, and has heat ducted to it. There is an emergency backup charging system that helps with self recovery if the batteries are shut down, the AC is quiet and runs on 12 volts, the solar is huge at 1,240 watts. There is no ridiculous black tank. And it has 60 gallons of fresh water. It has a parking brake. My job, with my Roamer1, is to dial it in and report on how to do that simply and efficiently. That is what I'm doing. I now have about 36 modifications I have done and I'm very happy with the results. Before I got the R1, I had an X22 for a couple of years and did 50 modifications on that one. It turned out to be an extremely comfortable and capable trailer that was almost completely off grid, including its AC system. My new R1 is getting better in a number of ways and is nearly done. More efficient, more durable, more user friendly, better energy management. I'm finding the weak points and dealing with them. Anyone interested in this should come over to Xplore Trailer Community on Facebook and join the conversation. It's a friendly and very useful site for anyone interested in Xplore trailers, with a lot of capable owners. We share info on repairs, upgrades, new models and camping trips. I'm happy to share my findings and up-grade strategies.
Over the years, I have had a pop-up camper on my truck, a 20 ft Thor toy hauler, an Oliver E2, a Black Series HQ19, an Xplore X22 and now a Roamer1. I live in northern Nevada and camp on BLM land almost exclusively, but I do cover a lot of miles both on and off highway. While traveling I stay at rest areas, truck stops, and National Forests, but absolutely avoid KOAs and don't need any hookups.
