When you first see a Black Series camper, you can tell that there is a lot of additional stuff going on here compared to what you typically get in a travel trailer in the United States. So, let’s look at all those things and then determine if this is an excellent off-road RV. Let’s go! Welcome back to another video! If you’re new here, my name is MIL with Firmly Unbound, and we are here today to look at this 2024 Black Series HQ21. From what I can tell, this is Black Series’ largest travel trailer, and you can see the floor plan layout and the specs on the screen.
It is unloaded at 7,187 lbs, with a tongue weight of about 720 kg, and it’s 21 ft long. This travel trailer is towable by many half-ton trucks, but it would be best suited behind a 3/4-ton truck. That hitch weight might push the payload on many half-ton trucks, and if you’re going to use this RV for what it’s built to do, you’ll likely want a more heavy-duty off-road truck.
I first want to discuss what this RV is most specifically targeted . We’re going to walk through everything. You can tell this is a rugged, more off-road-style travel trailer. When you see it in person, you can tell just how beefy the frame is, the suspension underneath, and the rock rails along the side designed to take on impact. This is a far superior build compared to what you see on standard travel trailers, like the Olympia behind us or almost anything else.
This is most likely designed for someone looking to dry camp, not planning to take it on super extreme off-road trails, but planning to get off paved roads and camp or boondock somewhere. It’s an excellent option for that. There’s a ton of solar on the roof, a 100 amp hour battery inside, and a 3,000 W inverter, so you can run this entire camper, including the AC, without needing a 30 or 50 amp plug-in. With the way it’s equipped right now, plugged into my truck, I can run the AC and everything inside. I love that.
Now, as we go along the outside, I also want to talk real quick—I’ve seen mixed reviews online on the Black Series camper, and I have to start by saying I have seen that for every RV I have ever covered. I have yet to cover an RV that only has great reviews online and never had a single issue.
As we go along the outside, you can see this beefy frame up here—you can tell this frame is Just so much bigger than what you usually get on a travel trailer; you have this articulating hitch here, so this is going to give you a lot more off-road capability. Whether people will ever even push this trailer to the point where it needs this much of a, you know, support system and ability to use an articulating sort of hitch setup like this is—you know, I don’t know, it’s going to be few and far between, but you have it here.
Now, it requires a pin setup, so it doesn’t use a standard ball hitch. You have to have a different connection for your truck to connect onto here that it will come with. You have this brake system, essentially like an emergency brake for the trailer. Brak, so that’s nice. I am still determining precisely how much this will work, but you have that brake there.
It does have a power tongue jack, but more than likely, you’ll always use this swing-down arm with the wheel here, which also works as a tongue jack. Excellent design; the rock guards are all around, even down the side, and these two boxes open up front. This one here is going to have a propane bottle in there. You could fit—I think it will come with two 20 lb propane bottles, but it looks like it could even fit 30s; it just might be a tight fit, but definitely two 20 lb propane bottles.
Those latch close, and then you have your solar charge controller in here, so that will be a 60-amp solar charge controller—a very beefy solar charge controller there. This is all aluminum on the outside, so similar to an Airstream—it’s not fiberglass—you have that aluminum but a much more aggressive look that is consistent along the top. Then you have a light bar up front there as well.
off-road trailer
You have this High VI research speaker system, so a mid-range and low-range speaker here, a high-range speaker there like a tweeter speaker, so you get more clarity in your sound on the outside. You have these locking doors. One exciting thing about the Black Series camper is that it comes with many different keys for whatever reason. These latches here use a different key than the door, which uses a different key than other latches, and it just comes with many keys. That could be inconvenient and annoying, but that gives you a lot of different locking compartments on the outside.
Again, this rock rail system here is not just an aesthetic thing; it is designed to take on impact and protect the sides of the camper. And then, down underneath here, you can see your stabilizer legs that will drop down. And then you can see underneath here, let me get the camera rotated up for you, you can see how there are insulated water lines underneath here, so they’re wrapped in insulated water lines. And then your water tanks and stuff have this whole casing around them to protect them.
And then you can see that super beefy independent suspension system underneath. So you get a look at everything in that space. Let’s keep it down under here for a second since we’re looking at it; give you a close-up look at this independent suspension system. It has those coils, and you can see how thick everything is. This is definitely a far, far cut above everything else that you typically see in American-made RVs, where this frame and suspension are just so much, so much more beefy than what we are usually accustomed to.
It does have this custom Black Series wheel, which uses a tire. This is a 26575R16 tire, a pretty aggressive all-terrain tire you have. Then we turn back around; you have this excellent outdoor kitchen space. This flips down; you have this additional countertop space, a two-burner dedicated cooktop. This is all stainless steel; you have this sink with your water. It’s such a lovely big sink.
It does have a little bit of storage space underneath here, and then this spot right here has a drawer that opens up; however, it keeps getting stuck on a metal plate, but it has dividers for storage for utensils and stuff like that. Something behind here needs to be adjusted for this to come open. And this is where, you know, every camper will have its little difficulties.
5 Trailer Features that Bring Luxury to Long-Term Off-Grid Living
You can see the tray right here; something back here is getting stuck. I would need to mess with it to get it out, but you can see the tray there. You may know you’ll be able to see it, but it is a tray with divisions for storage. Then you have propane lines and whatnot that connect to the grill. Again, the rock guard all along the side—this will do a much better job of deflecting debris or anything that might be thrown at your camper.
The windows are massive, and you can also see the reflected material on the pull-down blackout shade that you have there. You have this armless awning up across the top, and then you have another set of speakers. Going along the back, more rock guards back here. You also have your rear stabilizers; you have two spare tires along the back—same tires, same wheels. Nice-looking LED lights that protrude out quite a bit so that they can also stick out to be seen around the spare tire light off the back.
Lots of solar panels on the roof. It also has a backup camera installed. And then this support rack here does have a receiver hitch there. It has a very rugged, more industrial look. The welds aren’t super clean on it, but it does have a very rugged design. Look at this here; it will be solid, as you can see. It has two receiver hitches that it is ultimately being secured into, so this will be able to hold a considerable amount of weight there with that receiver hitch that you have off the back.
You can see all of your windows along this side. You have a plug-in connection for a USB type-C connection, like a phone charger and satellite TV. You have your water fill stations; these do have lockable caps on them. Again, this spot locks using a different key, but this tank here locks on those. And then you have a black tank flush valve there.
Even has mud flaps along the back. See your Black Series mud flaps there. Thunder is rolling in. I don’t know if you can hear it on the camera, but it’s some pretty thunder, so hopefully, we don’t get rained on too severely. Black water here—this is probably your black tank flush valve. I don’t know why you need to fill a black water tank, so I’m guessing that. And the outdoor shower is so hot and cold there. You have a Bugatti water—I almost said water filter—Bugatti water heater here, so tankless, on-demand water heater. They finally got a black cap on that; I’ve seen a lot of other reviews of these Black Series where everybody complained about that being a white cap. You can see it on the Black Series beside us, which is white. I don’t know why they didn’t make all of them black from the get-go, but this one has a black cap on it.
And then finally, last thing outside, you have your breakers here and your storage space. I go through the outside first on this camper because there is a lot about it that makes the appeal of everything on the outside and how just off-road capable and ready it is. With that suspension system down here in the rock guards, this can clear more travel than what it might, you know, than what other travel trailers would be capable of doing. Again, most people won’t even push this camper to the limits of what it would be capable of or designed to do. But that’s everything on the outside; let’s step inside and look at what’s happening in this HQ21 floor plan.
The length here actually says 27 ft, so that spec they have online will be like the actual box length. But bumper to bumper, 27 ft on this camper. Open up this door. I love this screen that you have here. It’s an excellent actual metal, built-out frame you have, and all of those protection pieces on that screen door. You have the Black Series light that turns on there, and you do have a powered step so that this step will retract up underneath the camper there, and you don’t have to do that manually. It does have a switch for that.
As we step inside, we see that this HQ21 has a booth dinette along the back; you can see that there. However, the bedroom is behind it. As we go around here, we will look at many different things: fit and finishes, layouts, etc.
And then let me show you how I fit in the space. I also have the AC on, which is slightly more noisy than an AC. But let’s get here, move this over, and you’ll be able to see, you know, me fully standing up. The ceiling height here isn’t terrible, but it’s not tall. It’s probably about 6’4 “-6’5” to right here, the same as where the AC is. But you sit around in this U-shaped booth, and there’s a lot of space here, and this table’s stuck out far enough that there’s enough legroom for you to sit four to five people at this U-shaped booth since they didn’t give you that big of a table.
So, there is more leg space in the sacrifice of having, you know, a smaller table to do that, but there is plenty of room to move around here. The booth is comfortable; it’s alright. In every spot that I’ve sat back into, these back cushions are very plush and, you know, really give you a nice pillowy feel when you sit back into them. However, no Velcro holds them in place, which could be annoying. So they give you these curtains that can help; if you put them over them, they can keep it in place. Your windows will have a pull-down nightshade and a pull-up bug screen.
And then these all will open up—they’re a dual-pane window, like an acrylic-style window, but they open up wide as you push them out. They kind of, you know, go out like this—or like this, better for the camera to see—like that. And then you have storage space all around. These all are like spring-loaded cabinet doors, so you push on them, and they pop open. You can also notice all the lighting here; the LED light strip goes around, which is more of a warm light. These puck lights are more of a fantastic light, so you have a kind of clash of light tones there that gives it a pretty nice feel, in my opinion, overall.
But one exciting thing is this part here; it has a black reflective nature. So, although this LED light is tucked underneath the cabinetry, you can still see it because it reflects off that black material. This is neat; you have this skylight here, and it has a couple of different screens: a privacy shade and a bug screen.
Let me show you—there you go, bug screen there. And then it does pop open; you drop this down and push that up. It’s strut-assisted, and that opens up very wide there. You could crawl out of that; there’s enough space there as long as you fit through the opening. It’s so pretty lovely having that ability to open that up. Lights all around this skylight area.
And then this table drops down; I meant to show you this while I was still sitting at the table, but you flip this up right there and then push down on it, which is as simple as that. So you can see it has a strut assist in the middle, and you push down, and then when you want to stop, you latch that, and it stays in place. Then, you can put cushions down to make this into a bed, although it’s weird because the cushion folds over the edges. But it will still give you a large bed well over 6 feet long, and you can still sleep on it.
It’s not uncomfortable, and you have that additional sleeping space in this area of this camper. They’re using a grey sofa here. I’ve also seen these Black Series have more of a white-colored sofa, which is a fake leather material but has that leather feel.
Then, underneath the sofa, quite a few things are happening, so we could remove some of these cushions. You can see there’s going to be storage space underneath here. Even this is like the leather under the sofa. You have storage space underneath, so that’s all; it’s just open storage.
And even like looking under here—compared to campers in the U.S., usually you see this, like, you know, basically like plywood finishes underneath here. But this has the same wood finish you see throughout the rest of the camper, with that design. It’s a little bit more, you know, aesthetically pleasing as you peel things back.
Under this bench, you have your 400-amp-hour battery and a battery disconnect switch. And underneath this bench, you have your 3,000-watt inverter, which allows this camper to run off the battery system and run the AC and such.
You have your curtains here; they have this little string to keep them tied up. It has those gold accents in the string, looks nice, and the curtain will cover those windows and go all the way around. You have curtains on every window in this space—not going into the kitchen space, though.
From your dining position, this is what your view looks like. The windows all the way around are what set this thing apart. A camper like this gives you a terrific view of your camping environment. You have the individual reading lights up above your head right here—you have those there.
You also have a window out to your campsite here, so there are many different windows and a ton of Natural light coming in, even on a very cloudy day. You could have all the lights off here, and it would still feel very nice. Underneath, you have this shelf space. See that shelf, and then you have storage that opens up, kind of spring-loaded glass doors.
There you have your Insignia TV. It’s not a very big TV; it’s probably about a 27-inch TV. There is another shelf here and then more storage. Base up here with the adjustment for your King satellite antenna—or, I guess, it’s just an antenna. I don’t know why I said satellite, but for your King antenna.
Your control panel is right here, so it looks pretty cool. It’s interesting. These are your tank levels, and they show percentages there, and then you have your electric meter for all your power. These look like water pumps, and then you have push-button breakers. So these will pop out if any of your breakers pop, and then you can push those back in. These are your light controls. This is interesting because these are all touchscreen panels, and no indication tells you whether something is on or off, so you must look. Like, I hit that button, and I’m like, “Okay, well, that’s that light there,” but some of these I have, you know, flipped on and off, and I don’t even know what it’s turning on and off. I don’t know if it’s something inside or outside the camper because there’s no labeling on here, and I don’t know if I turned it on or off because there’s no indication if something is on or off. Having a manual switch would have been nicer than these touchpad switches.
As we go back this way, you have lots of storage in the kitchen space with this pantry area that you get on this HQ21, and it’s plenty chilly in here now, so I’m going to turn the AC off. You might have heard the noise difference and how quiet it got. It is a bit noisy AC, as they are using the GE drop-down AC. It’s not ducted through the trailer; it’s just a drop-down, and you can open up these valves here to send air in different directions. Then you have a little more storage here, no handles on any of the drawers there—all this, you know, pushing kind of spring-loaded drawers there.
The refrigerator is a Dometic 12-volt refrigerator—or, sorry, it’s a gas and electric refrigerator. So you have those propane elements to cool it, which matches the aesthetic with the rest of the camper. The microwave here does not have traditional buttons, so that’s interesting. I wouldn’t honestly even know how to start using this thing, as I always use the plus 30 button on my microwave, and there’s nothing on here indicating that, so yeah, it’ll take a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to use this microwave.
There are max air vent fan controls. Oh, here’s a light switch there. Oh, that’s the light for the shower. I just found that, and I did not know where that was before, but we’ll get to that in a second. Going into the kitchen space, you can see all your white cabinetry. It has a high gloss finish. This is where it might not be so lovely to have the push-open cabinetry as if your hands are dirty. It will make this look dirtier over time, so you must be adamant about the cleaning process to keep those looking clean.
See all your storage space down through here. You’ll have a bunch of different drawers to open up—nice-looking drawers, though. Regarding the fit and finish, the construction here feels like everything exceeds what a standard travel trailer in the States would feel like. So it’s a much, you know, more premium feeling RV. I wouldn’t say it’s like a top-of-the-line feeling thing; I certainly don’t feel like I’m in an Airstream, let’s put it that way, but I feel like I’m also not in a mid-tier or lower-tier travel trailer either, so it still feels pretty high-end.
Going along this way, you have your stainless steel sink—a substantial stainless steel sink—and it has this area where things can be set. I don’t know what this space is specifically designed for, but it has this area where you can put things. The big window in this space has an excellent LED light strip that runs the entire length underneath this cabinetry, giving it a cool look. I love that lighting.
And then more storage space up here, and then this is the other problem. It would help if you determined which side to push the cabinet on to catch that spring. And storage up here—you have a three-burner Greystone cooktop, so it has this glass cover, three-burner cooktop there, trying not to move that bubble wrap a little bit; I was trying to keep it in place.
Then you have a pretty standard oven—a little bit bigger than your standard oven, but not huge—with this Greystone oven. Storage space next to it: you have a pull-out rack system with a latch to keep it in place and storage underneath the stove since it’s not too huge. It’s not storage; those are your water pumps down underneath here, but you can see some of the insulation they added over the water lines there, and you’ll see more of that when I open this area up under the sink.
It also has a three-filter water filtration system, so you have that underneath the sink. And then, before we go any further, let me talk about the price quickly. I’m going to pull it up, but something with these Black Series campers is they currently are at what I feel is a much more reasonable price for what you are getting.
Go back this way. You have your bathroom space in this area. You also have controls for the max air vent fan in the shower. This bed here is an RV queen bed. I lay down on it, and I’m 73 inches long—it feels like it’s probably about 74–75 inches long. There’s no room to walk around this side of the bed, so that might be an issue for some people. Plus, it might be tough to make the bed with how that sticks up right next to the side of the bed. But you can see what it looks like here—a nice-looking leather headboard. Then you have the individual reading lights, so all around there looks good.
You can walk around the bed on this side; some space is here. It does have a pull-out drawer there, and then this area connects to where your outdoor kitchen would be, so it is not usable space, but they gave you a drawer there nonetheless.
You have your speakers here—the same system as outside as you go around. You have that tweeter speaker and the mid-range and low-range speaker. You have color-changing LED lights above your drapes or your curtains. We saw you have pull-down blackout shades and pull-up bug screens again on the windows. This bedroom’s massive windows let in so much natural light, which feels so different. You also have the skylight up here with the lights in the skylight, so you have that same skylight function here in the bedroom.
Then, again, you have a window on this side that will let in a whole bunch of natural light. There’s a TV already installed in the bedroom, so you also have that. You’re in a perfect position to watch the TV lying in bed, which we love.
Going back through here, it’s interesting going into the bathroom space, where you have this pretty big crack right there, but I don’t think most people will use it this way, which is why it’s likely like that. As this door goes like this, you have a latch here—flip that down, which now acts as your privacy door to this area. You could also close this door. See how a latch right here disconnects that, so there’s a little latch that pops down so you can close that door and use the bathroom like this.
This is likely how I would use it—just close that there, and now you have the bathroom door closed here. You have a mini hallway, so the toilet is on this side. You can see your toilet there, a spot for toilet paper, a window here in the bathroom, and a lovely big mirror. The considerable sink is a vast bowl sink, though it doesn’t leave much countertop space. But you have the enormous bowl sink, another mirror that swings out with the zoom mirror, and a standard mirror. I don’t know if I’ll be able to… I don’t know what it takes to get this light on. I don’t know if these are switches that need to be moved or what, but the light’s not coming on there. It does have a ring light around the mirror. Storage space up above here.
Across from here, you have your shower. Open this up, and you can see your shower there. It has some mats on the floor and a seat, and this is a waterproof area. It looks like fiberglass around the entire thing. Adjustable height shower heads, a couple of spots to put soaps or hang a towel. See how you can adjust that height there and heighten this shower? Pretty good. This is about 6’4″ or so to the right here—maybe 6’5″, so possibly about 6’6″ where the max air vent is. This is a comfortable feeling shower—wow, that’s surprising! I did not expect it to feel that big, but yeah, lots of space in that shower. That shower is a perfect size for this size camper.
There is no storage underneath the bed. Underneath this bed, it’s interesting. They have a memory foam mattress, and underneath here, you have your amplifier for your audio system. Then, under here, you have your furnace so that you can see your furnace right there. Underneath that last compartment door, you have your water lines and everything for your water heater, and that is just about everything under the bed area.
Now, as we go back out this way—again, this latch, you lift it to unlock it, and then it has a magnet latch right there that catches it. That is pretty much everything, you all.
So again, right around $60,000—I think this is more reasonably priced for this camper. It makes it a lot more enticing for me if I were a prospective buyer for this. I don’t know that I quite am looking for the off-road capability that this, you know, suggests it can do, as I don’t even know if I’d take my truck over the same terrain that this trailer could go over, but I think it’s a tremendous boondocking option. That’s where a lot of the value is in this—the ability to run the AC off solar and your battery system and get everything on in here off just that battery system alone.
Again, a 400 amp-hour battery with a 3,000-watt inverter is getting a lot of power, and there are at least 400 watts of solar on the roof. There’sUnfortunately, there’s no ladder to get up there, so I couldn’t check and confirm, but there are four panels up there that I saw, so there is lots of solar capacity. That’s what this camper will be great at—giving you all of this off-grid, dry camping power.
In addition, the excellent and aggressive receiver hitch off the back makes this a great camper for somebody looking to do all those things. You can even put a generator rack on the back.
This has one of the most fantastic looks outside with that aluminum shell, and I like how aggressive it is. But, of course, as always, let me know what you think in the comments below. This isn’t a perfect RV by any means or anything like that, but it feels like it’s above your standard average travel trailer. It’s not quite up to like an Airstream travel trailer, but the price also reflects that. Again, for the price, you’re getting something nice for what it is.
But as always, let me know what you think below; that is all I have. When it comes to a Black Series camper, if you’re concerned about, you know, quality, longevity, and service, they have over 100 different stores in 33 other states, so there are many places you can take this to get service work done. That’s also important, as there’s a lot of support from a dealership with places where you can take a camper like this to get service work done.
