Our EOS 11.5

Chasingopenspaces

Active member
Our EOS 11.5

We’ve owned our Boreas for about a year now, and I found this site invaluable when we were trailer shopping over about 4 years. I’m starting this blog mostly for my own entertainment but will post it here to put a little more content about the camper here. I call ours the 11.5 because it was the prototype EOS and has some differences from the final version. Most notably it has a timbren suspension and a lock and roll hitch. It also has a clamshell roof instead of a full pop top. A couple small things, the grill doesn’t have a windscreen (yet) and the pantry doesn’t have a pass through door to the outside kitchen. Also it has a modest 200 Ah of lithium and 300W of rooftop solar. Haven’t missed the pass through at all, no windscreen is frustrating at times if it’s pretty breezy. It also has a lagun table mount instead of the pedestal on the final model, and no support jacks.

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Our camper had a rough beginning in life, as it was in a fender bender essentially just off the lot from what I can tell. Just as well for us, a pristine boreas would have been outside our reach indefinitely. it fixed up well as it was all body damage and is road worthy once more, and pulls better than any trailer ive ever towed.

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Projects I’ve done on the camper so far:

Swapped the brakes out (old ones worked fine, DMV wanted initially to be able to lock up the rear tires which is really damn hard for 32” bfgs under a relatively heavy camper to do

Fixed the wiring so that everything passed through the smartshunt and the battery percent was accurate

Fixed the shower, the faucet handle had a leaky cartridge and the faucet was some Chinese brand so just swapped the whole thing out

Replaced the shower head with one that is light and can turn into a spray nozzle, nice for filling waters at night or prepping coffee in the morning

Resealed the shower, shower pan seal was leaking probably from the accident

Added bungees to the walls to hold up additional clothes and to hold food into the pantry

Added a bike rack to the front storage box

Foam insulation behind kitchen to prevent drafts when open
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What we love about the camper
-tows great
-Solid frame and suspension, it can go pretty much where the truck can with the exception of turning around being a forethought before going down an unknown road (Chevy Colorado diesel 2.8L Z71 with a leveling package and 32” tires)
-modularity is amazing. Loud camping spot? Bears? Top pops down
And it gets quiet and secure. Setup is so fast. I worried/ thought about whether that part would be annoying but it takes 10 seconds to pop the top or pull out the kitchen.
-high end components
-truma is so quiet. My old camper’s furnace sounded like a helicopter taking off. This one sometimes I feel the vent to see if it’s on
-huge fridge/freezer affords plenty of room


Dislikes
-Spots for easy access to clothes are lacking. Under bench storage is not convenient for grabbing a shirt here and there. We hung mesh nets which have made this a lot more functional
-lots of thermal bridging with the aluminum frame. Considering a thick paint to cover/insulate or a fabric or something. Doesn’t matter at all in the cold but I am curious how much better it would do in heat without that.
-300Ah or 4 of lithium would be nice. Might make the change eventually
-wish there was a rear hitch on the camper for a bike rack.
Neutral
I’m not completely sold on the garmin system for controlling everything. It has worked flawlessly so far but if power had been off for awhile you have to wait 45 seconds for it to boot up to turn on or off a light. If it ever loses power I believe we could use the furnace, but lights, tank heaters would not work either.
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What it’s used for:
Family camping trips to established campgrounds
Boondocking/exploration
Hunting trips deep in BLM land of rural west
Trips lengths range from overnights to max so far of 9 days






Future projects:
Windscreen
Adding some sort of utensil drawer to the kitchen like the eos-12 has
Adding lithium
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Favorite accessories:
Milwaukee battery powered shop vac
Rice cooker/water boiler
Camming wheel leveling chocks
200 W of portable solar panels

Future projects:
Replacing kitchen table with a decorative hardwood version
Pulling out vinyl floor and putting in luxury vinyl planks
12V a/c??

Future accessories
Magnetic spice rack
Magnetic paper towel holder
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rehammer81

Active member
That's awesome you have the prototype. I have the 2022 demo unit.

Honestly I think the clamshell roof might be better and solve the one main issue I have had. The pop-top roof on mine has enough movement on rough road and trail that I have broken 4 roof latches. The movement just stresses the eye bolt part of the latch and it snaps. I think the clamshell wedge with a long strong hinge at the front bed end of the box would hold the roof in a more fixed position when closed.

I removed the giant center pedestal table. It's nice big table but just too in the way for just the two of us and the dog. We'll never use the second bed. So much nicer to have the floor space without the table. I've considered adding a Lagun Table but so far haven't missed the table.

I agree with lack of quick and convenient storage for clothes and things like that. I'm actually going to be removing the small cushion next to the pantry under the Garmin dock and building a dresser there.
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Chasingopenspaces

Active member
Love the dresser idea. Yeah that extra cushion area doesn’t seem to get used much with us either. I’m interested to hear how you like it.

I don’t hate the clamshell. the person farthest from the door can’t sit up fully in bed but hasn’t been that big of a deal. Which fire pit is that? Been thinking about getting one of those
 

rehammer81

Active member
The fire pit is a Howl Campfire. It is the nuclear option of propane fire pit. Not cheap in any way but in my opinion the most complete propane fire solution available. Unlike most propane fire pits, it actually radiates heat around it instead of just sending all the heat straight up in a big impressive flame. Best to just look it up yourself and research then me trying to regurgitate info. We love it. It's great to sit around when you actually need heat. If you just want the ambiance then you leave the radiant heat tubes off and adjust the A-Flame to your desired level. We wanted something we could use in any location no matter the fire restrictions common in the southwest.

I started a thread about it in the Camping Equipment section.

When I finally get to building the dresser I will post it in the EOS-12 thread. Right now I took the cushion off and bought one of the three drawer plastic dressers from Target. We just bungee cord it in place for travel.
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DFNDER

Active member
We just got rid of the table too because the long bench is fine for our daughter. Do like having a table though so have replaced it with a floor mounted Lagun using a mount I got from VanMart. Also got a double arm for the lagun so I can push the table completely over to one side. Have the best of both worlds now. Permanent table, which we like, but easy open access to the bed and more room to move around. Also works better for office work since I can pull the table closer for computer work. Also added L-Track to the top frame and hang bags made for sprinter vans that make for easy access to close. We almost never use the under seat storage except for stuff we don’t need much. Also added mesh nets and sticky hooks in the shower to hang coats. Best addition yet was my gutter system that eliminates rain from coming down between the awnings and the camper. We on the East have this thing called rain which apparently doesn’t happen in Colorado, and the kitchen is useless without a gutter system in a rainstorm. We love the EOS, but these additions really make it so much better for us.
 

Chasingopenspaces

Active member
We just got rid of the table too because the long bench is fine for our daughter. Do like having a table though so have replaced it with a floor mounted Lagun using a mount I got from VanMart. Also got a double arm for the lagun so I can push the table completely over to one side. Have the best of both worlds now. Permanent table, which we like, but easy open access to the bed and more room to move around. Also works better for office work since I can pull the table closer for computer work. Also added L-Track to the top frame and hang bags made for sprinter vans that make for easy access to close. We almost never use the under seat storage except for stuff we don’t need much. Also added mesh nets and sticky hooks in the shower to hang coats. Best addition yet was my gutter system that eliminates rain from coming down between the awnings and the camper. We on the East have this thing called rain which apparently doesn’t happen in Colorado, and the kitchen is useless without a gutter system in a rainstorm. We love the EOS, but these additions really make it so much better for us.
Ha we haven’t run into the rain issue yet here camping in Nevada and California either but will keep that mod in mind!
 

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