I don't really know if you would consider a trailer as 'gear' but in this case. a honest review needs to be done due to the lack of info in the American marketplace.
For the record, we rented our OPUS op4 from Rvshare... so this is as unbiased as one can get. Our money, our time, our experiences with the Opus and it's equipment.
The particular OP4 we rented was a late 2019 model, in very good shape overall from a great owner... I can't say anything but nice things about the owner or our experience with RVshare to date. The 0p4 however is a different story. We rented the op4 because we were considering purchasing one and we wanted a field test prior to making the commitment and I am glad we did.
Our plans were to leave Dallas and take 14 days touring the western United States overlanding the south and north rims of the Grand Canyon then moving up to the Grand Staircase then over to Glenn Canyon. We planned to tour more than park and in hind sight a tear drop style or expedition box trailer would have been better suited for the format of our trip but the advertising stated "up in less than 3 minutes with little effort". So we took the roll of the dice and went with the op4. Mostly due to the perception of more usable space.
First, i was totally shocked by the lack of storage and galley space on a trailer that long and while the space of the tent was nice it was a mess to take down daily. Our first issue with the op4 came when a unshielded wire from the heater system cut through it's protective cover and shorted on the heater housing. This little event occurred right after we pushed through a west Texas hailstorm and ef-3 tornado event. about 40 miles west of the worst weather to imagine when pulling a trailer we stopped for fuel and during the stop I smelled electrical smoke and upon inspection found a rolling fog of white smoke coming out of a heater exhaust vent.
Quickly we deracked the top rack, swung it open, popped the fore and aft clam shells and hit the inflate button in the control console. Anxiously in about 3 minutes the tent was inflated enough for me dive head first into the smoke filled room. Popping the hatch I saw the issue and quickly cut the power leads from the battery compartment two bays over. Noticing that none of the wiring was labeled and that none of the wiring was in wiring looms or hoops. I also noticed the sprawl of coponents into various bays rending them useless for any tyope of storage. I also noticed water lines plumped in and through bays that held electricity. an issue that I would never see in a sailboat. I also noticed all of the intenal cabinets were in fact press board and laminate. Not all that high quality after all.
due to this electrical issue, we lost the ability to use a heater, or shore power. Thankfully the owner had two zamp solar panels that in utah put out 13.4 volts and in fact bypassed most of the chopped or burned wiring. So we survived the worst part of the trip... and moved onward.
After a few days on the trail, it became obvious the up and down of the tent wasn't the issue. it was the loading and unloading of boxes on the floor of the tent on wheels that became the issue. the tent popped up in 5 minutes or less... getting stuff off of, or out of took about 45 minutes... there was an issue of design that could not be ignored.
on the road the op4 pulls straight, even with 40 gallons of water in the tanks. On the trail it seemed to not even be attached to the Defender. And this is mostly our 2021 Defender 110's doing. sitting on 33in tires it was simply a goat.. went anywhere without issue and due to its power.. nothing slowed it down or stopped it. factually, it's terrain modes prevented any form of stupidity... think mountain goat on steroids... and you might be close.
After a week out ...we decided to camp in one spot pulling a new RV park in Escalante Utah named Yonder. We recommend... a bit pricey... but on par with other parks in utah the time. We uncoupled the op4 and used it as a base camp while we explored the Staircase... we'd rather have taken it with us.. but due to electrical issues... and lack of heater. Yonder's abundant daily hot showers, morning coffee and breakfast helped us salvage the trip. While we didnt camp were the mormons did 100 plus years ago... we camped in a luxury park with a small town feel meeting tons of nice people also getting away from the plandemic.
on our return we took the Burr trail over to Bullfrog basin.. and then went on to Colorado for a night in the mountains.. before meandering back to Texas with our last night spent on a farm road just inside New Mexico about 8 miles from the Texas border. With 60 mile an hour winds ... we lost two straps on the rain fly but never folded the tent.
Overall the op4's cruisemaster knockoff suspension was great... it pulled straight and was only mildly annoying due to the electrical issues. But the tent design pulls it's on the go ability factor to damn near zero. you can't pop into a rest area to catch a few... you have to find a sight to put it all up... and that was an issue more than once. The size is about right.. and in fact we are designing a new expedition trailer loosely based on the length of the op4 in closed form. The 40 gallons of onboard water was ideal, as was the roll and lock hitch. The tent was the main issue... and always will be for our type of travel.
all in all... i'll give the Op4 2.75 stars. mostly for poor execution of wiring and component layout. If you want to set it up for two days and explore... its an option. but if you are more 'shoot and scoot' ... take a pass.
Also the Dometic fridge pulled 2x the watts our larger snowmaster pulled (yes we took 2 fridges).. one in the Defender.. one in the trailer... so it's something to consider.
Happy exploring.
For the record, we rented our OPUS op4 from Rvshare... so this is as unbiased as one can get. Our money, our time, our experiences with the Opus and it's equipment.
The particular OP4 we rented was a late 2019 model, in very good shape overall from a great owner... I can't say anything but nice things about the owner or our experience with RVshare to date. The 0p4 however is a different story. We rented the op4 because we were considering purchasing one and we wanted a field test prior to making the commitment and I am glad we did.
Our plans were to leave Dallas and take 14 days touring the western United States overlanding the south and north rims of the Grand Canyon then moving up to the Grand Staircase then over to Glenn Canyon. We planned to tour more than park and in hind sight a tear drop style or expedition box trailer would have been better suited for the format of our trip but the advertising stated "up in less than 3 minutes with little effort". So we took the roll of the dice and went with the op4. Mostly due to the perception of more usable space.
First, i was totally shocked by the lack of storage and galley space on a trailer that long and while the space of the tent was nice it was a mess to take down daily. Our first issue with the op4 came when a unshielded wire from the heater system cut through it's protective cover and shorted on the heater housing. This little event occurred right after we pushed through a west Texas hailstorm and ef-3 tornado event. about 40 miles west of the worst weather to imagine when pulling a trailer we stopped for fuel and during the stop I smelled electrical smoke and upon inspection found a rolling fog of white smoke coming out of a heater exhaust vent.
Quickly we deracked the top rack, swung it open, popped the fore and aft clam shells and hit the inflate button in the control console. Anxiously in about 3 minutes the tent was inflated enough for me dive head first into the smoke filled room. Popping the hatch I saw the issue and quickly cut the power leads from the battery compartment two bays over. Noticing that none of the wiring was labeled and that none of the wiring was in wiring looms or hoops. I also noticed the sprawl of coponents into various bays rending them useless for any tyope of storage. I also noticed water lines plumped in and through bays that held electricity. an issue that I would never see in a sailboat. I also noticed all of the intenal cabinets were in fact press board and laminate. Not all that high quality after all.
due to this electrical issue, we lost the ability to use a heater, or shore power. Thankfully the owner had two zamp solar panels that in utah put out 13.4 volts and in fact bypassed most of the chopped or burned wiring. So we survived the worst part of the trip... and moved onward.
After a few days on the trail, it became obvious the up and down of the tent wasn't the issue. it was the loading and unloading of boxes on the floor of the tent on wheels that became the issue. the tent popped up in 5 minutes or less... getting stuff off of, or out of took about 45 minutes... there was an issue of design that could not be ignored.
on the road the op4 pulls straight, even with 40 gallons of water in the tanks. On the trail it seemed to not even be attached to the Defender. And this is mostly our 2021 Defender 110's doing. sitting on 33in tires it was simply a goat.. went anywhere without issue and due to its power.. nothing slowed it down or stopped it. factually, it's terrain modes prevented any form of stupidity... think mountain goat on steroids... and you might be close.
After a week out ...we decided to camp in one spot pulling a new RV park in Escalante Utah named Yonder. We recommend... a bit pricey... but on par with other parks in utah the time. We uncoupled the op4 and used it as a base camp while we explored the Staircase... we'd rather have taken it with us.. but due to electrical issues... and lack of heater. Yonder's abundant daily hot showers, morning coffee and breakfast helped us salvage the trip. While we didnt camp were the mormons did 100 plus years ago... we camped in a luxury park with a small town feel meeting tons of nice people also getting away from the plandemic.
on our return we took the Burr trail over to Bullfrog basin.. and then went on to Colorado for a night in the mountains.. before meandering back to Texas with our last night spent on a farm road just inside New Mexico about 8 miles from the Texas border. With 60 mile an hour winds ... we lost two straps on the rain fly but never folded the tent.
Overall the op4's cruisemaster knockoff suspension was great... it pulled straight and was only mildly annoying due to the electrical issues. But the tent design pulls it's on the go ability factor to damn near zero. you can't pop into a rest area to catch a few... you have to find a sight to put it all up... and that was an issue more than once. The size is about right.. and in fact we are designing a new expedition trailer loosely based on the length of the op4 in closed form. The 40 gallons of onboard water was ideal, as was the roll and lock hitch. The tent was the main issue... and always will be for our type of travel.
all in all... i'll give the Op4 2.75 stars. mostly for poor execution of wiring and component layout. If you want to set it up for two days and explore... its an option. but if you are more 'shoot and scoot' ... take a pass.
Also the Dometic fridge pulled 2x the watts our larger snowmaster pulled (yes we took 2 fridges).. one in the Defender.. one in the trailer... so it's something to consider.
Happy exploring.
