Aero Teardrops Off-Road Trailer Walkthrough

this is a comprehensive trailer walkthrough of what i would consider one of my favorite teardrop trailers on the market the aero teardrop now as usual stick around i'm going to share three things i like about this trailer and the things i think can be improved i'm also going to share the five trailers that i think are comparable to this in the market but different prices different functionality just giving you a better understanding of what's out there for you so hey everyone i'm brian with aero teardrops and today we're gonna talk about one of our 2022 steel hc trailers this trailer's name is maple kind so all of our customers get to name their trailer so everyone has a unique name which is kind of fun so this is an example of our extended tongue option the tongue on this trailer is about oh just about two feet longer than our standard tongue and the nice thing about that is it gives you multiple options for storage on the front this trailer has our tongue basket and a box and inside the box is where we store the battery or multiple batteries depending on the configuration this has an xbn 360 lithium battery inside the box it's a 95 amp hour battery also has our swivel tongue jack flip up tongue jack if you want to call it with the wheel on it makes it super easy to maneuver the trailer around it just pushes by hand so if you're not that great at backing up a trailer having that wheel is is great uh two inch ball on the front and we'll move along the side here um this is our optional spare side mounted spare tire and this steel high clearance trailer has a standard wheel and tire package on it so it's a goodyear wrangler tire 30 inch all-terrain tire with a 15x7 aluminum american racing wheel so nice wheel and tire setup at the standard package and a 14 gauge steel fender yes you can stand on them i'm more of a tire stander but i'll show you you know you can hop up here stand on the fender if you need to to to get to the roof rack pull things out of the basket and whatnot if you have a rooftop tent up here it's nice to have another place to to stand this trailer also has our optional side mounted propane tank and since it also has a pro pex it has a hard mounted propane system and we'll we'll walk over that or walk through that later on the side here is our extended side table we have two options for side tables we have a standard length that's 26 inches and then this extended length is 36 inches passes back past the back of the trailer for a little bit of added counter space all of our trailers come with rear mounted stabilizer jacks it's a nice crank down jack really low profile folds up out of the way uh less likely to get caught on things like a scissor jack this is an example of our classic cabinetry that we offer we offer two styles of cabinetry our classic cabinetry has a five piece solid shaker door this happens to have our rustic maple option really classy looking cabinet doors so instead of making two separate walk-through videos i'm going to sneak images in here of their standard highway model now the model that you've been seeing has an upgraded cabinetry the model that you see here with the aluminum sides the model that i've been taking out this is their standard cabinetry it's using a cnc router it's wasting less wood i think it looks really good and you don't have to pay extra for this design but this also gives me a chance to show you the model that aero teardrops built for me now long story short not only was arrow teardrops nice enough to build this trailer for me they also decided to donate all the profits of this trailer to charity so what that means is when i'm done taking this out don't worry i'll take care of her they're going to sell this to the public and all the profit is going to go to adventures without limits you know my background in adaptive physical education that's what these guys do or at least that's where they started they help people with disabilities get out and enjoy the outdoors in the same way we all do and we all should but they've also expanded into helping people who have social economic barriers and other barriers from stopping them from getting out there so i'll talk about it more in a future episode but let's get right back into this walk-through nice big storage here in the back for your dry goods or plates cooking wear you name it the shelf is adjustable to four different heights so you can configure it to hold just about anything this trailer also will have our light leaf drop leaf panel system on it and this is the solar controller for that all of our galleys have a 120 volt gfci receptacle and then this is your switches for water system and overhead lights in the galley i also have a volt meter and a power port 12 volt power port plug in all kinds of 12-volt gadgets back here below the counter the optional cooler slide out pulls out nice and far you can put a 45 quart yeti cooler fits perfectly in here as well as the cfx 335 dometic cooler we built the space to fit both of them and there's a number of other coolers and plug-in fridges that will also fit in here as well every slide-out cooler drawer is also pre-wired with a 12-volt power port so if you decide not to do the fridge up front and add it later you already have your 12 volt power back there to power it next to it is a nice big storage cabinet the seven gallon water carrier inside it's on a pullout drawer makes it nice because once this is full it weighs about 50 pounds so being able to lower it into the drawer easily without having to you know fish it into it into the cabinet is really nice also getting it out here where you can use it is really handy too then it has a travel lock to help it stay put while you're traveling on the right here two big drawers 18 inches deep on ball bearing slides they fully extend so you can use the whole drawer lots of storage we try to you know make use of all the space in our trailer so you have plenty of storage that covers the galley and we can go inside oh how can i forget maple kind is uh equipped with our 21 gallon water system so under the trailer at the center line of the axle is a 21 gallon water tank with a an electric um water pump and the nice thing is is you can fill this tank up with 21 gallons of water and because it's really close to the axle center line it's not going to affect your stability or your tongue weight you won't really notice it once you're traveling down the road this is the inlet and outlet for the water system it's all quick release hoses this is a quick release for the propane system that connects to what the on-demand hot water heater which is inside this case i'll open that up and show you so this is an on-demand hot water heater it all quick connects to the water system in the trailer you get a nice nice hot nice hot water from this you can use it you know to wash dishes to take a shower you know lots of uses with this system and on the roof here is um our roof rack options so we use a rhino rack roof rack as our as our roof rack system really robust system vortex bars will hold a couple hundred pounds but this customer opted for the thule roof basket so this trailer comes with the optional max fan deluxe roof vent that we offer it's a 10 speed fan reversible also has a thermostat on it so you can turn the thermostat on go on a hike if your trailer heats up inside it'll kick on and start circulating air another nice touch with the steel all the steel models steel and steel hc is a standard stargazer window this is a dual pane window so nice helps with condensation and such but standard on all of our steel model teardrops and now let's take a tour of the inside of maple kind so all of our doors have dead bolt locks and lock them from the inside for security they all have sliding windows with screens get the ventilation going through the roof vent really nicely really nice cross breeze they also come standard with a porch light on either side so you've got an led porch light both sides of the trailer and they both have their own switch so when you have to get out in the middle of the night you can light your way really nicely same with the ceiling light each side has its own switch for its own ceiling light as well as some reading lights up here at the head of the bed reading lights do night light and full strength for reading inside again we have the upgraded well not upgraded so to speak but the classic cabinetry that we offer with the maple cabinet doors this trailer also has a propex furnace so what the vent is there and the console the thermostat is to the right of it and another 120 volt outlet as well as a 12 volt power port so standard on all of our trailers every model we build is a full electrical system this trailer is equipped with a power center that controls the 120 volt side of the trailer as well as the 12 volt side of the trailer and the nice thing about that power center is the the 12 volt side of it is auto detecting for whatever type of battery you install so if you install a lithium battery on the trailer it will it will read that and change the charge voltage to accommodate the lithium battery or if you have an agm battery it will also do that as well as a standard wet battery we've got folding cup holders and all of our trailers on one on each side nice for a cup of coffee in the morning or a water bottle at night and these corner shelves also are standard in all of our trailers it's a usb port underneath the shelf there it's iphone sized so yeah so cell phone fits really nice there or reading glasses wallet you name it yeah so really nice feature about the interior of our steel and steel hc is this interior table setup we have these mattresses special made for us they fold into a couch here at the front of the trailer they also tumble out flat into a bed so i'll show you how that mattress tumbles out first and then we'll fold it back into a couch and i'll walk through how the table sets up is really quick and easy so the mattress just tumbles it's all connected together you don't have multiple pieces to worry about it's just set up it's a nice medium high density foam so it's really comfortable to sleep on at night you don't feel yourself bottoming out on the floor of the trailer which is really nice especially if you have like some bad shoulders or something like that so me having bad shoulders i sleep pretty well in one so you're just gonna pull the leg out from from this foot well here it plugs into the pedestal on the floor and then the pedestal underneath the table and then actually to get in it's just like getting into a car you're just going to slide yourself in and you're nice and comfortable inside you can play a board game eat a meal the weather's bad it's a nice place to hide out i'm about 5 11. got plenty of headroom so yeah it's a great option to have especially in the pacific northwest where the weather can get foul on you during your camping trips now time for the three things i really like about this trailer number one it's that fit and finish and this trailer i'm going to tell you guys there's nobody out there that's going to compete with this trailer in terms of price and fit and finish now is it like a 40 000 trailer with leather accents and chromed out pieces no but for the price that you're getting i don't think there's anybody out there that's doing any better and number two it comes back to price again now many of you know this when you hop on to a company's trailer building website you get there and you see the base price and you're pretty excited about it but by the time you put in all the components you need and you walk out the door you're looking at 30 sometimes 40 000 well this one was a complete shock to me because i hopped in there they already come with the baltic birch they already come with a ton of features that they feel should be standard so i put in every component that i thought was perfect for either a couple or a single traveler to go to all the blm land all the national forests and like the fridges and the fans and the stealth window and uh suspension and all that it came to 22 to 23 000 that's not the base price that's what it came to with all the components and as you know when i go to another company 22 to 23 is typically the base and number three number three it's a teardrop uh that's a that's enough said if you go watch our walkthroughs we have a lot of different styles of trailers but when it comes to the end of the day i'm always going to fall back on my love of a teardrop i think no trailer does it better in terms of storage in terms of usability in the field maintenance longevity uh how it works in inclement weather how easy it is to set up and tear down that's it's a teardrop now the things i dislike is very interesting i've never had a video like this and just let me explain to you i went through oregon and washington and i hit every teardrop manufacturer i could find i think i missed one in oregon maybe two and every one of them were great teardrops but there were things that i didn't like there were things that i would change in the build now when i came across aero teardrops i knew i'd find something because i was using this teardrop to go to all the other companies so i was going to know this trailer intimately by the time i got back to the shop the only suggestion i could give brian was just adding something under the hurricane hinge uh just kind of a best practice but it doesn't impact the longevity of it i really couldn't find anything wrong with this trailer and so is this trailer better than the others in washington and oregon no i'm not saying that but i'm saying they didn't try to reinvent the wheel they didn't put anything weird on it they didn't skimp on anything i honestly couldn't find anything wrong with it so to me the only thing i can complain about is potential future pricing talking to them with the price of birch rising and supply issues i could tell they were ready to bump up the price a bit i like the price where it's at i think it's a great deal right now the top of one has been discontinued and i think this is a great replacement for it i would say it's the same on every level in terms of fit and finish functionality i know you topple people are going to get mad at me for saying this but very similar trailers very good quality if you like one i think you will like the other it is time for those five comparable trailers the first one i think you should compare this to is the topo one this is a trailer from escapod that to me is top of the industry in terms of stick built teardrops now unfortunately jen and chris from escopod just announced that they are retiring or no longer making this model and going all in on their topo2 but i think it's still worth looking into you can pick them up used and it's also great to compare these two trailers now speaking of the toppo 2 another great route as you guys know all last season we took out a bean trailer very similar to the top 02 from escopod these are composite-built trailers tons of benefits from composite i'll put a link in the description of my bean trailer walk-through plus a video about why composites may be better than traditionally built teardrop trailers another option that will save you a lot of money is looking at square drops very similar to a teardrop trailer but per square foot you're getting more usable space i would suggest starting at hiker square drops or maybe runaway i'd love to send you guys to matt and wendy's channel i'll put a link to them they are the hiker experts and i'll also put a link to maybe three or four walk throughs we have done of square drop trailers now if you don't want to go across the country to find yourself a trailer right in your home state you probably can find the tag boondock i will link the walkthrough below but you can pick this up at any large rv manufacturer that carries smaller trailers and then last if you're looking for something bigger if these trailers are just a little too small check out the colorado teardrops mount massive it comes with bunk beds it's a bit bigger for a growing family link in the description as well right here is a list of our walk through playlist click on this you're going to find some trailer that meets your needs i almost guarantee it for those of you who already have a trailer thanks for coming along for the journey i hope you found something interesting in this build that maybe you can add to yours or sparks a new idea stay safe on the road and we'll see you in the next episode

Channel: Playing with Sticks

Views: 136,724

Keywords: teardrop trailer off road, camping overland trailer, off grid trailers, teardrop trailer offroad, offroad trailers, overland trailer, teardrop trailer, overland, camping, offroad camper, timbren suspension, offroad campers, compact trailer, teardrop overland trailer, expedition trailer, teardrop camper, best teardrop trailer, playing with sticks, small camper, off road teardrop, off road, off-road, aero teardrop, small camper trailer, camp, travel trailer, camper trailer

Id: gQO32K8VXDo

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 15 2022