Lightweight Camper BUILT TO LAST! (You Won't Believe The Price!)

so this is why I came here this is the road toad I came all the way across to Wisconsin just to see this trailer just to show it to you all right okay hey guys it's Drew and this is the lightest most affordable Teardrop trailer on the market if you know anything about camper trailers you know that their number one enemy is water unlike traditional wood Built Trailers the road toad teardrop is a composite built trailer that's essentially impervious to water meaning a leak of any size isn't going to put your trailer in Jeopardy or require immediate repairs so let's get right into this walkthrough and as usual stick around because I'll be sharing three things I like about this trailer and the three things I think can be improved this is our newest product which is the road toad we have it as a separate product line from the camp in because it truly is a different trailer the whole philosophy behind it is different where the camp in is high-end High features all the bells and whistles this is more of a simplistic a minimalistic approach to a teardrop we originally looked at tear drops and the appeal of a teardrop is it's lightweight and it's low cost and the problem with the campaign is it goes the Other Extreme and we looked at it and we we went out we looked at all of the the companies that were making lightweight small in inexpensive teardrops and most of them were not really well built they were unfinished wood they were you know they fell apart they leaked and we said okay is it possible to make an inexpensive lightweight trailer and when we looked at that the road toad was a result we came out we found a material that had never been used before in a teardrop which is a composite it is a corrugated plastic core with an aluminum skin inside and out so the sidewall on this trailer is only 3 8 of an inch thick or 10 millimeters thick but it has the same rigidity as a piece of three quarter inch plywood that allowed us to make it very lightweight so to give you a point of reference the side wall the entire sidewall on this trailer weighs the same as just the skin on the camp end so that makes it that's where we get a lot of the savings we've had some options so this one has it has the front storage box it has the diamond plate front for stone damage it has the the Stargazer front windows and also the spare tire we offer different size couplers so you can match if you have other trailers with a two inch or an inch and seven eighths coupler we can match the size for you so the side walls are all the flat surfaces that you see are made out of that that corrugated core with the aluminum skin the curved surfaces like the hatch and the roof are made out of a thinner material that has a solid core it still has I don't know if you can get a close-up here you can see it still has the the plastic core and the aluminum skin inside and out but of course it's much thinner and we actually run this material through a roller that allows it to get this curved shape then when we put it together the primary thing that holds the the trailer together is the trim the trim is a custom Extrusion that uh that locks onto the roof skin and it locks into the side wall and is sealed into the two and so it makes for a continuous seal there but it also reduces the amount of Labor required to build it it also reduces the structural components required and still ends up with a very strong trailer so this is the Abode model the Abode model has a galley built into it some storage underneath the countertop and then there's some cabinets on the inside our other model that we offer is we call the totes and the totes is from the outside it looks like the same exact trailer but when you open the hatch in the rear this partition the countertop and this lower partition are all gone and it's basically a fully open cargo trailer uh that way you know you can you can throw your mountain bikes in there you can haul your band equipment in there and if you want to you can sleep in it uh also we get customers that want to customize their trailer maybe make their Galley a little bit different so they buy the totes model and then they they fabricate their own Galley area that will meet their needs better you know then this hatch just closes down and I closed that hatch yesterday on Lynn's camper it felt like air it's like a feather yeah what do you think that hatch weighs uh the full hatch off the trailer is probably less than 20 pounds yeah so this whole trailer is very light this is our heavy model of the the road Toad and it weighs 470 pounds and it has a gross weight of a thousand so you can pull it with a smaller car that only has a thousand pound Towing rating and as you can see this this is you know there's there's not a lot there and I'm not a bodybuilder obviously that's never been done on the channel we've lifted a tongue and I'm lifting the heavy end you said this was the heavy this is the heavy one so what is the other one coming in at uh it's just over 400. and then this one is always in this configuration I can't remove this wall to haul correct correct where the tote I have the ability to make it a camper and then right switch around the next day and it's hauling my yes now the one thing that we recommend our customers do because this material has that thin aluminum skin and it's a painted surface if you took a cooler that had some grit on the bottom of it and you loaded it up here and it bounced down the road it might scuff this surface so what we recommend customers do is customize their trailer this is just a vinyl flooring peel and stick you can lay these out and that gives it a nice protected coating but it also allows the customer to customize and do any pattern they want you can get this to look like marble or wood or or Italian tile or whatever but it allows you to kind of customize it and make it your own you know we've got a couple lights in here this one is actually configured to work with the the battery packs like the the go zero or the the jackery um where you basically plug this into your jackery and that provides all the DC for the the trailer you can plug this into the AC of your jackery and provide the AC for the trailer so here you see we've got a DC port USB ports and 120 volt AC ports there's also a volt meter and an amp meter that monitor the usage of the power in the trailer and then there's also over here you've got a Shore power connector that you bring your extension cord to and that comes through the trailer so that you don't have to close a cord in the door or the hatch with the weight of this I'm assuming there's no spare tire on it it has a spare on the front yeah yep um a couple options the standard one comes with a roof vent but you can upgrade it to a powered fan and then we also have a couple different fans that you can install in it so inside the the road toad we have a very basic interior also we actually carpet the ceiling to help with minimizing condensation and then there's some very basic Cabinetry in there we found that the even though the Cabinetry doesn't have doors the soft goods you know clothing and and uh towels and such that you put in there stay put and for a lot of customers customize it by putting some little double stick hooks similar to like the Command hooks on the face and then they put a little cargo net over the opening if they want to help retain things but you can see it's a very basic interior leads a lot for customization for the customer but it also gives you a nice dry place to to stay when we had originally designed this trailer because of the material that we used the material we use is very lightweight and we were concerned that it would not hold up to the abuse that a teardrop trailer requires so when I built the first prototype I actually left it attached to the rear of my car for a year driving to and from work and I've got a about a 25 mile commute each way and I would take the back roads go down the washboardy gravel I would go through the find all the mud puddles I could Splash through try to Bounce It Off railroad tracks and pretty much abuse it as much as possible just to see what would be the first thing to break and it turns out that the first thing that broke was the axle which was only rated at a thousand pounds so we now use a two thousand pound axle but just have the Springs adjusted for the thousand pound gross weight of the trailer was it that was it just an axle issue yeah later that the Prototype I gave it to my daughter and she continued to use it she used it to move twice so she loaded all of her possessions in there and one time she did grossly overload it and she actually did break the tongue of it too uh because she did overload it and we then reinforce the we actually beefed up the frame and or made the tongue about twice as strong as it was in that original one just so even if people overload it we don't have a problem there obviously this one has some options we've got the front windows we've got the front storage box the spare tire the diamond plate front but in addition to that we could add we have a roof rack option that puts a set of Yakima racks on it then of course you can put whatever you want on that we also have a solar option where we put two solar panels on the roof that allows you to run off grid without electric hookups this trailer is configured to work with a like a power pack in the rear we can actually add in a battery built in with a charger so if you want a turnkey system we can fully configure it so that it's ready to go off grid if you have the solar option and of course once it has the battery and the charger in there anytime you plug into Shore power you're recharging the the battery let's get right into those three things I like number one the obvious one is weight but how does it compare to other trailers on the market well let's compare it to my favorite beanstock teardrop from Bean trailers that trailer dry now mind you it had quite a few add-ons that made it way somewhere in the 1800 pound range even without those add-ons it's still sixteen hundred pounds the road toad trailer comes in at 400 pounds that literally means you can stack Four Road toads on top of each other and still weigh in at one base model Bean composite trailer even the smallest 4x8 teardrop trailers on the market with no bells and whistles usually comes in at about 600 to 800 pounds number two composite you know as usual I'm going to sing praises to composite materials this is really what caught my eye initially about this trailer it wasn't the weight as much as it was its ability to handle water exposure remember in all my bean trailer videos I often mentioned that I wish Bean made a paired down model that was lighter and more affordable well that's where the road toad fits in now is this a one piece fiberglass shell like the bean trailer no but let's be honest with ourselves one piece is great but let's say at some point five years down the road this trailer that's not one piece develops a leak because it does have side walls and a roof with connecting points like a traditionally built wood teardrop what is that water going to do to the materials you used you may get a puddle right you may get some mold if you don't find the leak immediately but in terms of damage that will impact your trailer in the long run that really wouldn't be much of an issue number three the price now I know all three of these seem obvious but together they make one of the if not the best argument for why this is the most incredible teardrop on the market not only is this trailer light enough to tow by any vehicle essentially impervious to water and cost less than almost Every Teardrop trailer on the market this trailer company isn't new to the teardrop game meaning this isn't coming out from some new pop-up company this trailer is made by Camp Inn camp in that name should ring a bell not only are they one of the leaders in terms of quality and sales in the industry they have been around for over 20 years I don't think any teardrop company currently in the market has been around for that long in terms of years of experience designing repairing and selling teardrops this company Reigns Supreme and again all that wrapped up in the lowest price and weight on the market but it can't all be Rose's right does this trailer have any issues well here are the three things I would improve on this trailer if I had the chance number one the hatch latching system this is a problem I've come to find plagues probably all composite build trailers even my experience with Bean trailers has led me to believe composite Galley doors are just difficult to latch properly I think this has to do with the lightweight nature of the doors bingsley's doors are half the weight of a typical Galley door they just don't have the umph to properly close now mind you they do always close but they do take a few seconds to manipulate the position of it basically to ensure it latches properly on the bean sometimes you just have to give it a bump with your hip on this trailer you can see right here it just needs a bit of jiggling not a big issue but something I believe they can alleviate if they put their minds to it number two I would like to see some sort of shelving system or drawers for the Abode model the counter for food prep that they have integrated into the galley is nice but there's a reason why 99 of us teardrop owners either have storage cabinets or drawers in our Galley kitchens I consider these to be essential for teardrop owners I understand the philosophy behind this build and why they want to keep it simple this is not only for weight but also for owner customization I get that but I still think it would be nice to have an upgrade option with a bit more of a standard style Galley with cabinets number three is a very simple upgrade with those interior open cabinets I think having cargo Nets is an upgrade option from the factory would just be a nice touch I think they would look cleaner than an aftermarket install and they would add some functionality for the folks who need it there's two videos you need to watch this video on the left explains why fiberglass and composite trailers may be better for you than traditionally built teardrops and the video on the right is a walk through of the current or one of the current lightest teardrop trailers on the market notice I didn't say most affordable the base model of this trailer comes in at only 389 pounds now although not as affordable as the road toad it still comes in much lower than most trailers on the market as usual stay safe on the road and we will see you in the next episode

Channel: Playing with Sticks

Views: 317,151

Keywords: camper, camping, rv, teardrop trailer, travel trailer camping, lightweight camper, lightweight trailer, small camper trailer, travel trailer tour, teardrop camper, affordable camper, budget trailer, camper you can tow with a 4 cylinder vehicle, playing with sticks, alaska, camping trailer, camper less than 1000 lbs, camper van, teardrop camper trailer, squardrop camper, simple camper, travel trailer, camper tour, trailer tour, road toad, road toad camper, small camper

Id: LYfhQwDzD0s

Length: 16min 46sec (1006 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2022