2020 Black Series HQ 17 Review Part 2

JumpJ

Adventurer
THE LITTLE THINGS. They can’t even cut the decals properly! The exterior solar lite worked once at the dealer and never worked again. All the cupboards had drill waste in them from the manufacturing process and when we switched on the cooking fan inside this cloud of black dust fell down?? Paint job around the hitch is so bad I’m redoing it……………………..$50K c’mon Black Series you need to up your game. Why do you want outdoor speakers on an overlanding rig? Does this mean they will be installing a 52-inch flat panel so we can watch the game? I’ve always thought of overlanders as folks who love being in the outdoors away from the masses. Are we to be besieged by kegs and team colors the next time we are on the edge of the North Rim? I hope not.

WARRANTY RESPONSE: okay so as with all camping units there’s always something that pops up but buyer beware with the Black series. Outside shower head cracked, fresh water filter cracked, leaking sink/shower, front off-road light full of water, shabby underbelly paint job, some water lines not even insulated………………………………………..not what you would expect on a trailer that starts at $47K. Worse is the “Chines Manufacturing effect”. At least sell USA plumbing fittings. I spent hours and hours trying to match up the pin hole fittings for the sink to no joy. I’m now faced with going through the entire plumbing system because A) it will freeze in cold temps. B) It’s Chinese plumbing-really small stuff that no one can match in this country. Black Series paperwork puts a lot of emphasis on their sub-contractors like Dometic. So it will be interesting to see how they handle my warranty claims on the trailer as none of the sub stuff has failed-yet!
CONCLUSION: without proper off-road use yet.

I hate to say this but to be honest I would not rush into buying an HQ 17 series YET! They claim the growing pains for launching in the USA and the 2018 and 2019s are overcome with the 2020-well they are not from my experience, and I am frustrated with my purchase. Could the dealer have done a better prep job-yes without a doubt but ultimately it comes back to Black Series. These are big big trailers. Touted to be off road capable. Then if you are going to tout that you need to prove that to consumer. You are not pulling them comfortably off road without anything capable of pulling less than 8,000 lbs. I’m sorry but if you want to take this anywhere it will fit- you are going to want that comfort in knowing you can pull this sucker anywhere and out of trouble. In the last five years the Overland market has exploded here in the USA. So, in time other large off-road trailers will enter the market. Until then I would be careful with the Black Series HQ 17 and I would also make sure you have plenty of time between your purchase and your first use.

The plan going forward for us is to wait for the parts to come in, and then seriously look at what needs to be done to get this in shape for our first off road test in March. I hope I have been able to give you some insight. I think the word is “caution” when buying an HQ unit today. Good Luck. I will report back after our first true off-road trip with updates. Love to hear any sensible suggestions or input I can pass on to our upgrade team.
 
Having read both of your post I can not dispute any remarks you have made as I refused to drink the Chinese Bling Kool Aid. Your comments just reinforce what others have posted about their experiences.
Be prepared to be threatened with legal action and censured for your comments. It has happened here in the past and entire threads were deleted.

My questions to Black Series owners is why in the world would you pay an exorbitant amount of money for something that you have to either repair or modify before ever getting to use it?
You would come out way ahead of the game purchasing a U.S. manufactured off road camper for half the price. Yes they do exist just not to the extent they do in Aus.

One statement you made disturbs me and makes me wonder.
Love to hear any sensible suggestions or input I can pass on to our upgrade team.
Who is "Our upgrade team" and since you used the word "Our" are you somehow connected to Black Series Camper? You posts slant one direction while that statement leans the other.
 

Romer

Adventurer
Based on his review I doubt he is associated. His upgrade team maybe separate than the Trailer company. For example, my upgrade team on my 200 series Land Cruiser is Slee offroad in some cases :)
 

Romer

Adventurer
I am curious why you started two threads though rather than just posting the part 2 in the same thread to keep them together. For historical purposes I would recommend copy and pasting part 2 into your first thread and deleting this one. Just a suggestion
 

theluckyone

New member
THE LITTLE THINGS. They can’t even cut the decals properly! The exterior solar lite worked once at the dealer and never worked again. All the cupboards had drill waste in them from the manufacturing process and when we switched on the cooking fan inside this cloud of black dust fell down?? Paint job around the hitch is so bad I’m redoing it……………………..$50K c’mon Black Series you need to up your game. Why do you want outdoor speakers on an overlanding rig? Does this mean they will be installing a 52-inch flat panel so we can watch the game? I’ve always thought of overlanders as folks who love being in the outdoors away from the masses. Are we to be besieged by kegs and team colors the next time we are on the edge of the North Rim? I hope not.

WARRANTY RESPONSE: okay so as with all camping units there’s always something that pops up but buyer beware with the Black series. Outside shower head cracked, fresh water filter cracked, leaking sink/shower, front off-road light full of water, shabby underbelly paint job, some water lines not even insulated………………………………………..not what you would expect on a trailer that starts at $47K. Worse is the “Chines Manufacturing effect”. At least sell USA plumbing fittings. I spent hours and hours trying to match up the pin hole fittings for the sink to no joy. I’m now faced with going through the entire plumbing system because A) it will freeze in cold temps. B) It’s Chinese plumbing-really small stuff that no one can match in this country. Black Series paperwork puts a lot of emphasis on their sub-contractors like Dometic. So it will be interesting to see how they handle my warranty claims on the trailer as none of the sub stuff has failed-yet!
CONCLUSION: without proper off-road use yet.

I hate to say this but to be honest I would not rush into buying an HQ 17 series YET! They claim the growing pains for launching in the USA and the 2018 and 2019s are overcome with the 2020-well they are not from my experience, and I am frustrated with my purchase. Could the dealer have done a better prep job-yes without a doubt but ultimately it comes back to Black Series. These are big big trailers. Touted to be off road capable. Then if you are going to tout that you need to prove that to consumer. You are not pulling them comfortably off road without anything capable of pulling less than 8,000 lbs. I’m sorry but if you want to take this anywhere it will fit- you are going to want that comfort in knowing you can pull this sucker anywhere and out of trouble. In the last five years the Overland market has exploded here in the USA. So, in time other large off-road trailers will enter the market. Until then I would be careful with the Black Series HQ 17 and I would also make sure you have plenty of time between your purchase and your first use.

The plan going forward for us is to wait for the parts to come in, and then seriously look at what needs to be done to get this in shape for our first off road test in March. I hope I have been able to give you some insight. I think the word is “caution” when buying an HQ unit today. Good Luck. I will report back after our first true off-road trip with updates. Love to hear any sensible suggestions or input I can pass on to our upgrade team.
WOW! Finally someone who ACTUALLY owns an HQ17 on here posting a real review and laying out the issues; thank you, this is what I have been waiting for. I have been in the same boat as you and have wanted the HQ17 for the same reasons as you but have been weary of price and interior quality issues. This post sums up all my assumptions and I will be holding off on buying one. Great post.

Thank you.
 
Last edited:

theluckyone

New member
Having read both of your post I can not dispute any remarks you have made as I refused to drink the Chinese Bling Kool Aid. Your comments just reinforce what others have posted about their experiences.
Be prepared to be threatened with legal action and censured for your comments. It has happened here in the past and entire threads were deleted.

My questions to Black Series owners is why in the world would you pay an exorbitant amount of money for something that you have to either repair or modify before ever getting to use it?
You would come out way ahead of the game purchasing a U.S. manufactured off road camper for half the price. Yes they do exist just not to the extent they do in Aus.

One statement you made disturbs me and makes me wonder.

Who is "Our upgrade team" and since you used the word "Our" are you somehow connected to Black Series Camper? You posts slant one direction while that statement leans the other.


Well Hillbilly it seems it's quite obvious that those interested in this trailer don't have a lot of feedback to go off here in the US market since this is the first real review laying all these things out for us. There has been one other thread with a review not even close to this detail. Also, what legal action has been taken here in the US....name it and I'm all ears. That's all heresy overseas talk that happened elsewhere. This is a new product for US market.
 

theluckyone

New member
Well Hillbilly it seems it's quite obvious that those interested in this trailer don't have a lot of feedback to go off here in the US market since this is the first real review laying all these things out for us. There has been one other thread with a review not even close to this detail. Also, what legal action has been taken here in the US....name it and I'm all ears. That's all heresy overseas talk that happened elsewhere or in the US on non HQ trailers. This is a new product for US market.
 
Last edited:
There was a thread on here that people shared their viewing experience of the HQ series when it was first introduced in the U.S. Their observations were basically the same as this review. That thread has since been deleted. There was legal action threatened against a few members here if they didn't cease and desist there comments. The deleted thread got very heated when a dealer promised he could do an impartial review of HQ campers.

Seriously there is a line of campers built in the U.S. that offers offroad capable suspension with 4 season insulation and fully enclosed underside. And no they aren't stick and cardboard construction either. Granted they don't have leather interior and fancy countertops like the HQ. Cost is about half of the HQ.
 

mep1811

Gentleman Adventurer
There was a thread on here that people shared their viewing experience of the HQ series when it was first introduced in the U.S. Their observations were basically the same as this review. That thread has since been deleted. There was legal action threatened against a few members here if they didn't cease and desist there comments. The deleted thread got very heated when a dealer promised he could do an impartial review of HQ campers.

Seriously there is a line of campers built in the U.S. that offers offroad capable suspension with 4 season insulation and fully enclosed underside. And no they aren't stick and cardboard construction either. Granted they don't have leather interior and fancy countertops like the HQ. Cost is about half of the HQ.


And the line of campers is called ?
 

JumpJ

Adventurer
Thanks All- I had to do two parts as the forum has a word limit and picture limit. I tried loading a couple of videos but no joy. I will try again when I do the off road review. I'm not in any way connected to Black Series. Quite the opposite. Like many I got excited about a family sized-off road capable trailer. I can afford to make mistakes. Other may not be so lucky so trying to point out what I have found. As for my "upgrade team" - let's just say I'm just able to afford a small team of people who can look after things where my technical expertise fail whether it is a plane or a off road HQ17 :).
 

Romer

Adventurer
the word and picture limit is each post not thread. You could have just made it a second post in the same thread. Just letting you know if you have more reviews coming up as it is easier for others when searching for info
 

JumpJ

Adventurer
Thanks Romer-noted. The latest on the warranty response is very mixed. The solar light, front night light and safety bolt are on route. The faucet "has been ordered" and when I asked how long -zero response. If I lived in Ca, Az or anywhere warmish. I'd be grounded but as it is March is not that far off for our next trip. Another note is the main door. I woke last night to find it flapping in the wind. Even after I made sure it was closed earlier. It is a terrible design and very unreliable. I will try and post a video.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,530
Messages
2,875,577
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top