Incredibly STRONG yet LIGHT! Carbon Fiber Teardrop Camper

teardrop trailers of this size typically weigh over 1 000 pounds but not this one how does 480 pounds sound to you one finger literally one one finger and what if I told you the manufacturer claims it's not only the world's lightest but also the strongest full-size Teardrop trailer on the market well these weight and strength advantages come from one thing a 100 carbon fiber and fiberglass constructed cabin I took Atlas from Aero teardrops up into Washington to see how this Innovative trailer was made and to show you the two different models they have available spoiler alert check out what one of the models can do and as usual you're going to want to stick around to the end of this walkthrough as I'll be sharing the three things I like about this trailer and the three things I believe can be improved hi I'm Matt with uh Rift carbon campers we're located out of Tacoma Washington we make the world's lightest and strongest full-size teardrop trailer it is 100 carbon fiber and fiberglass Construction and it is one piece everything from the floor to the walls all the way around to the roof there's no seams in the construction of this trailer the benefit being without seams there's no place for this to leak there's nothing to seal on top there's nothing to crack open there's no wood to soak up any moisture that may leak through your trailer there's less points for water to get in not only is this the lightest I want to stress this is not just the lightest trailer but it's also the strongest it's nothing flimsy about it everything from the trailer even the fenders are completely carbon fiber the roof is solid there's no weak spots so everything you see on and in this trailer comes standard we have the it's a Yakima rack on top everything everything you see is Yakima Yakima awning basket roof rack and the cool thing about this is too is that loaded with everything you see here everything it weighs just about a thousand pounds just under a thousand pounds and it's got the timbering 2500 HD suspension underneath it so you have about 1500 pounds of extra of extra weight that you can load onto this before we break down into too much I'm going to head to the nose of the trailer break this thing down from the nose back so up front here we have we call this the beak box it's a storage box that's broke down into two compartments the first of which is in the front just some additional storage anything from power cords wheel locks on the sides here we got two of these compartments on either side and so up here is all over our Electronics we have a 2000 watt renergy solar inverter 100 amp hour lithium ion battleborn battery next to our battery we have our solar hookups right here and this trailer is one of our prototypes so we take this thing out a lot it is well used it's got some scratches to prove it during the summer I probably sleep more more nights than this than I do at home and so this here is something that on our newer models we have a pull out here for easy access for solar and you don't need to open this up every time you need to hook up your solar panel our shore plug-in if you take a look at our frame it is powder coated aluminum frame we have these nerf bars around the side for Extra Protection of your trailer even right here is carbon fiber and so this is a half inch thick panel of carbon fiber and so you can stand on it just like you can stand on everything else very very strong same thing in the back working our way up over here because we're all about uh protecting the trailer it's like we know that there's all kinds of rocks there's all kinds of debris out there you might back into running too who are you this is Gus oh I'm good so let's take a look at the galley inside so in the galley again everything on this trailer comes standard we have a dual zone fridge and freezer mini Traeger Pellet Grill all your basic utensils and pass through Drew's favorite the pass-through we even have a little extension off of the kitchen right here take this guy slide it in there put your grill or your favorite cooking device on here and just expanded your kitchen and this even too is carbon fiber we got your power hookups right here on this side we got another one over there put both have we have four USB hookups as well so you can charge your phones your devices so the inside this is one of my favorite Parts about the trailer is that the doors open upwards so everything on the side of this trailer this is all molded in one piece and then we see and see out the profile of the trailer and the door opening and then we take the cutting for the door and we make our own custom-made door and so what this allows us to do is we have a nice wide opening so for some of you bigger guys out there you want to sit right here you're not squished on the side you got plenty of room to move around and with the door opening upwards you got a little bit of shelter from the from the Sun from the rain staying nice and dry as you're getting ready for bed let's talk about clearance a little bit so underneath to the bottom of the frame is right around 19 inches and then at your lowest point here we got just over 17 inches of clearance so right here we got the ko2s which actually match the same tires that I have on my jeep that I pull it with so some manufacturers sell an RV size queen bed this is the same size queen that you have at home part of why I love the pass-through is right here if you cook dinner if it's a little rainy outside you got a little table right here for the pass-through someone's sitting inside you can pass some food right here you even got a little bit of a breeze coming through and on our new models we even have a little table that's on a slider right here that will slide out right here 22 inch deep table you even have your Cubbies right here and then again on the newer models we have light fixture up here and we even have a fantastic fan which is fantastic fantastic fan open up your ports right here you press the button and then it sucks all of that air out you can shut these doors open up your windows and it's going to give you a nice breeze coming through your trailer so just want to hit real quick on the construction of the sidewalls and the roof and the floor we have carbon and glass and then carbon and glass with the foam in between there it does a few things helps with vibrational vibration dampening helps insulate keeping you nice and cool or warm in the winter when it's cold outside it also helps add additional strength to the trailer I give it a little bit separation between the layers of carbon and glass over on the side over here we have power you have a couple plugs right there USB and your energy control module right there this is our smaller trailer it's not really small size wise but it's a lot lighter this trailer weighs in at about 480 pounds with everything you see here the unique thing about this trailer is you spend this kind of money for a camping trailer it's great but what if you could use it year round and this trailer allows you to do that because it's set up as a camping trailer but this wall comes out this is our unique latching system we call this our latch flap most of these latches we find even though they say that they're waterproof they still leak so we put these on just to give it an added amount of seal this opens up and as you can see we have a kitchen back here not a finished kitchen but one that you can bring all your your utensils to your your two burner oven or stove it's got two coolers back here and it comes with a Yeti Goal Zero this wall comes out it only weighs about 20 pounds I'll show you right now how fast it comes apart and how light it is all of our power on this trailer is on the wall so when you pull the wall out everything comes out that's electrical at one time you have two screws one here and then it's got two pegs at the bottom on each side that this sits inside of so essentially you you pop it off of that like that and you bring the Shelf right out and you have a full utility trailer you pull the mattress out and you can get eight foot of stuff in here what's your ceiling height in here from floor to the top of the ceiling is God I'm not even sure to tell you the truth probably about four eight or so guess that's fine and a half and both of these in these beds and both of these trailers fold up into a couch before I share the three concerns I have about this trailer let's talk about the three things I really like number one let's just get the obvious things quickly out of the way I love the light weight the use of carbon fiber to make the trailer stronger and impervious to water just to give you guys another example of how solid these things are built when you shut the door it's got a nice hard shot just like a car door and I love the removable kitchen Galley wall having a dual use trailer to me it's hard to put a price on it number two I like that this trailer isn't just coming from some hobbyist garage Chris and his son Matthew bring Decades of composite expertise into this design we don't come from the RV and trailer industry we actually come from the sporting good industry I've started working in the water ski industry when I was 19 20 years old then we started our own wakeboard company which was the first wakeboard company Wake Tech and through the years we built many products you can see some of them right here the rift brand of snowboard skateboards we built wind turbine blades we built F1 parts for race cars we've been in this industry for many years Matthew started molding wakeboards with us at Wake Tech when he was 11 years old [Music] why did you do this why did you move into composite trailers one of the biggest problems that they have in the trailer industry is that when they sell somebody a trailer they have to usually upside of upsize their car or their truck or sell them another vehicle and number three before I bounce into the things I would improve I love the Simplicity of this design because it's made from carbon fiber my guess is that there could have been a tendency for the designer to make this trailer more Cutting Edge this would be what I often Define as people trying to reinvent the teardrop trailer and in my opinion this is where some manufacturers fail like I say often there is a reason why the standard teardrop design has been so popular for so many decades especially the kitchen Galley layout now for the three things I would improve on this trailer number one is the fit and finish when I visited Rift carbon campers I was seeing little details that were not on par with other campers in the industry especially at this price point their choice for accessories and finishes were coming out of what we call on this channel the large RV industry and we believe that's not the greatest place to Source your materials and knowledge from now let me first say the bones of this trailer are solid I'm only talking about the finish work here and even that my guess is that the finishes have already been updated since I shot this video during my time with Chris and Matthew I pointed these little details out I also suggested that they take a field trip to other small camper manufacturers in the area to give them a better idea of what we as a community expect from a finished trailer they were very eager to take the feedback and I could tell they were genuinely planning on putting it back into the design number two this one's just semantics but I think it's important Rift claimed that this trailer is the strongest full-size teardrop on the market while carbon is incredibly strong like anything else it has its weaknesses the main one being that it's susceptible to point stresses or high shock for typical applications like driving on gravel roads or boondocking in national forests and BLM land I don't have any concerns with this trailer I truly believe pound for pound this is the strongest trailer on the market however I just want to clarify that although this trailer is strong most overlanders would not consider this an off-road trailer there are other composite trailers built more towards handling daily off-road use but those trailers do come with the trade-off of being 1500 pounds or more although this is the dislike section of the video I must admit what they built here is what I personally would prefer over an off-road trailer most of us don't need an off-road trailer we need a trailer that can do it all pavement gravel and the occasional off-road use and that is what they built here and so that brings me to number three I really couldn't think of a third issue with this trailer so consider this to be more of unsolicited advice for Rift and their team here are the current prices for their two models the rift utility camper is twenty nine thousand dollars a base and the larger Rift Adventure wagon is thirty nine thousand dollars at base with this company I see the potential for a third trailer in their lineup and that would be an off-road trailer not only with the right components and overbuilt design would this truly be the strongest trailer on the market I think it may also be easier to sell because you're now in a market that fetches top dollar imagine a bean or escapod style trailer built with carbon fiber for those of you on a tighter budget but winning a lightweight composite trailer check out this video on the left which is the walkthrough of the road tow camper by camping and for those of you wanting to know more about composite off-road campers I'd suggest this video on the right which is a walkthrough of the black bean trailer as usual stay safe on the road and we will see you in the next episode

Channel: Playing with Sticks

Views: 125,934

Keywords: teardrop camper, teardrop trailer, off road, off road trailer, light camper trailer, rv, travel trailer, small travel trailer, tiny camper, small camper, micro camper, playing with sticks, alaska, camping trailer, best small camper trailer, rv camping, teardrop camper tour, fiberglass trailer, trailer under 1000 pounds, lightest teardrop trailer, small trailer, teardrop trailer design, teardrop, camper, trailer, camping

Id: TshIa0i7IDQ

Length: 15min 23sec (923 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023