The Small Camper "Built to Last!"

hey there this is Jen co-founder of escapod trailers you may have seen me before on this channel thanks Drew showing you the original Topo and today we're here to give you an up close and personal look at the Topo 2 Jen from escapod is going to be taking us on a tour of the widely popular Topo 2 today and as usual make sure you stick around as I'll be sharing the three things I like about this trailer and the three things I think can be improved over the last few years we've seen more and more teardrops coming into the market Market really giving the impression that they're really rugged and really wellb built designed to tackle the toughest train and toughest conditions but what we're finding is that they're still using old-fashioned construction methods that do have vulnerabilities over time and the potential for breakdown if they're not really really cared for the top O2 changes the game this is a trailer that is going to be more durable than anything else on the market it's going to stand the test of not only time but any weather that you throw at it you have yearr round use of your water system because we were able to create more space by bringing the body over the wheel well uh to move all of the Mechanicals on on the inside of the trailer and then of course we have a single piece structural composite body that's going to keep all elements and it's raining on us now all elements out of the inside of the trailer there's no structural wood on this trailer there is no internal structure that is separate from the body that can rattle apart that can delam minate over time this thing is not only aesthetically beautiful but extraordinarily capable the other thing that moving to composite uh the other thing that that allowed us to do was start to think about shape so teardrop trailers historically are somewhat Limited in uh their size and their shape because of the materials used to build them with the composite we were able to completely redesign this mold the shape of the trailer and what we wanted to do with it so what we said is okay well how can we get more functionality out of this trailer without increasing the overall footprint we didn't want to lose Mobility we still want to be able to get to remote places we still want it to be lightweight optimized for that Outdoor Living um so we went to this body and we brought it over the wheel well which is something that previously using wood and aluminum and these really two-dimensional pieces we haven't been able to do so this actually increased the width of the body of the the trailer by a foot without increasing the overall Dimension to the outside of this tire where the original too footprint is going to be very similar but that body is about a foot narrower we'll look at the inside and what that gives you um in a little bit but the uh other thing back here that that allowed was for us to move all of the mechanical systems in the top O2 on the inside of the trailer so you'll notice the exterior of this trailer is very clean you're not seeing a lot of those bolt-ons with spare tires or shower boxes or different accessories mounted on the outside of the trailer because we were actually able to put them on the inside of the trailer so behind this knife set this is actually an access panel that pops out that's held in with magnets this is our truma Combi EC plus it's a dual-purpose um water heater as well as Forest air cabin heater the heat source is propane on that unit um that is inside here that has um ducting that runs to the inside of the cabin to provide cabin heat but it also runs heat into the rest of the um Mechanicals and utilities where we have our 20-gallon water tank so that water tank lives behind here again on the inside of an insulated trailer because we have the water system completely on the inside of a heated trailer you can use the water system year round so as temperatures drop below freezing with most teardrop trailers with water systems that are mounted externally on those trailers the pipes become susceptible to freezing as long as you're keeping your thermostat set set above freezing and you're keeping that cabin heat on um you can use your water system so we've camped in this in 15° weather and come out the next morning and turned on the water and had hot water immediately we've got our cutting board here that stows away just up here over those knives when you are uh traveling down the road um you'll also notice the absence of a cabinet face that is because that cabinet face has been repurposed uh to use as a side table so we have that set up over here this is like such a great height for prep work it's made out of HDPE so it's that plastic kind of cutting board material great place to do additional prep and really expand your kitchen you can mount that on either Fender and then we have a couple other features obviously the sink um this is a nice addition for the topo2 something that we have not put in a trailer previously one of those reasons was because we had structural wood in other trailers and we had concerns if we ever had a leak uh that trailer is going to get saturated with water and that water damage can be challenging so you have running water in a sink um that runs just out of drain off the side of the trailer you can attach a hose to um a threaded hose nozzle uh run it away from your camp or into a bucket to catch that underneath here we've got a spot for um sponges you can put spices in here dish soap and have everything that you need for uh cooking and doing dishes when you are done cooking um because the counter height uh went a little taller on the top O2 in order to fit a larger cooler or fridge um we opted to drop the stove into a slide out so we have a two burner stove and a slide out here and then additional storage underneath for cutlery and utensils up front here we have a ton of storage in the tongue box is integrated into every um top O2 there's a light in here as well so if you need to get in here and access anything in at night you can see what you're getting uh we have LTR mounted on the back here so you can mount different things use tie downs to secure that to those anchor points we'll continue talking about some key features of the exterior of the topo2 um one of those is going to be your fenders so these are standon fenders they are coated with a bed liner so those are going to hold up over time gives you a little bit of grip as well if you need to step up on there um as well as the fender step by the door uh every topo2 comes standard with our free ride suspension so that is a trailing arm shock and spring design so it controls both the rebound and the compression really well and provides a really damp uh Towing experience it's super smooth adds additional stability on the road up front here is an add-on this is these are our Rock sliders they're great for additional protection on the bot but also serve as an additional step so if you need to get up top onto the crossbars for anything you can use that as a step we talked at the beginning of this video about the single piece structural composite body and there's one aspect of that there's other players in the game doing a single piece composite shell uh we call ours a single piece structural composite body because there's no separate internal structure so our body is made of layers of fiberglass with a pet cord that's actually made from recycled milk cartons um that core varies in thickness throughout the trailer depending on where we need more or less strength so you'll notice up top here this is a feature that we call the Mohawk um this is all the height of this comes from the core so that is to provide a really deep Anchor Point for the track system that we have for the crossbars up top there the other cool part about using uh the infusion process to create this body body is that we can embed different material uh we can impregnate it with different material so we can put wood pucks or um rubberized pucks that control vibration so you're not going to worry about delamination and things vibrating apart over time above me is the Dary 180 awning this is the smaller of two options that they have in the 180 we love the 180 for a teardrop trailer because it gives you coverage from tip to tail on your trailer on the other side we have our standard roam awning there's also a really nice Annex room that we pretty much sell to everyone uh it really increases the livable space of your Teardrop trailer and gives you a protected area to wait out a storm one quick note on the water system I mentioned that we have a 20-gallon water tank on board the topo2 so you can actually just gravity fill this if you didn't want to move your teardrop from camp and you ran out of water in the water system you can just take your vehic icle with your Jerry can refill it somewhere and bring that water back in um if you are planning on drinking your water please make sure it's clean potable water that you are putting in here and not river water feel like I need to say that so a couple things to note on the cabinet structure here we have a modular design so these actually slide out and you can move them over depending on what you want to fit and store in here this Center unit is fully removable so this lifts out this comes out this removes and behind here is an access panel for for uh the rest of your utilities closet so behind there you have your lithium battery uh the standard option on the topo2 is a single 100 amp hour lithium battery it also comes standard with 140 W solar panel that setup regenerates itself so well that you can camp off- grid for quite an extended period of time and not feel limited by your power system the 110 Outlets that are back here and then there's one in the cabin if you want off- grid access to the 110 outlet then you will have to add the inverter it's a 2,000 watt inverter we're pretty spoiled in the Mountain West with our weather we have dry conditions even when it's super hot in the summertime it cools down significantly at night and for the most part a four-speed max air fan has been more than sufficient for our use in a teardrop trailer however the more that we begin to kind of expand across the US the more customers we have in the south in Texas the more we hear requests for an air conditioner so we have in installed the RTX 1000 it's a unit from dedic it's a 12vt air conditioner now we're going to take a look inside my favorite place on the Topo two the cabin before we enter I do want to give you a look at our screen door uh this is an optional um upgrade no need for velcro or anything additional you just roll that up and climb right on in all right here is the inside of the top O2 I love spending time in here which is funny because normally when you are teardrop camping you just want to be outside but this is such a comfortable place not only to sleep but to wait out of storm if you need to uh let's start with the elephant in the room which is our giant Stargazer window this beauty is 2 and 1/2 ft by 5 ft wide it opens um there are struts on either side that you just tighten down we'll keep that closed for now because of the rain um but that provides such giant surface area for cross ventilation to come into this trailer and really allows you to feel like you are still living outside even when you're inside other things to note in here we have a soft touch headliner across the entire interior um we have a few soft pan or flat panels here um that allow you to like Mount little hooks for your keys and things to keep you organized also provide a really nice aesthetic touch and bring a little bit of that Baltic Birch warmth that we loved in the original too um back here we have our headboard storage and in here right now I think we have two or three camp chairs in here so you can see just how big this storage space is it is so deep there's just so much room in here for additional storage whether it wants to be camp chairs or additional bedding anything else in terms of bed space this is a true queen-size bed it is a 6-in memory foam mattress and it sinks down a little bit beneath what you are seeing just at that entryway um that entryway panel on the floor is removable so you can clean it out nice and easily and there's a little pocket underneath for your shoes we're calling that our mudroom it's a great spot when you're getting in your Teardrop trailer at night uh and you're wondering where should I put my shoes we now have a solution for that and then tons of interior storage in all of these cabinets this is just Chris's clothes he's got we have six t-shirts here we've got two shorts a pair of pants additional towels on there's still there's so much room for clothing in there and then we have our Center compartment as well which doubles as storage in both of these compartments and then also a place to set your laptop if you are waiting out of storm and you want to sit back and watch a movie you can put that up there but we don't have that screen right in front of you acting as Temptation when you really should be outside we'll go through kind of all the storage and then we can come back to some of the utility aspects of the trailer so just on the inside over here we have what we call our nightstand so what you're looking at here we've got a spot for um Beverages and flat surface for water bottles we have your wireless charging and then we have additional USB charge ports on the back here and then underneath there's additional storage this a great spot for uh books your reading glasses Keys anything that you don't want to lose on the inside of your trailer next we're going to talk about the heat systems we talked about that Dual Purpose truma Combi EC plus earlier that is your water heater and also your forced air cabin heat there are four vents that come into the cabin the location of these vents is strategic to blow an air curtain of warm air across the window which provides an additional insulation layer so windows are always going to be the place where you're going to lose the most heat out of the trailer if you're camping in cold weather so that air curtain actually provides insulation it also helps manage condensation we have camped in this trailer in 15° weather and woken up with this thing completely bone dry for anyone who's camped in a small trailer in cold weather you know how crazy that is it was it was actually surreal I looked at Chris like how is this even possible um um and such an enjoyable pleasant experience so again to that durability Factor no moisture on the inside of your trailer and it's just going to help you keep this thing beautiful longer on the center here you're going to see our control panel so this unit is giving you a readout on your battery levels um as you move through this it'll also give you um the internal cabin temperature as well as your tank capacity and then it's giving you a readout on the amperage so we have our fridge plugged in and running we have our Rock rail lights on the exterior lights on and our interior lights all the way up those interior lights are on a dimmer switch so you can turn that down and then the inverter has a switch as well so if you want to turn your inverter on you just power that on and then this is your solar controller and then you have your truma control and you can set your cabin temperature you do the same thing with the water and I haven't even showed you the shower so we should probably do that this is another you know just kind of following our goal of minimizing the amount of holes that we put in the trailer and not wanting to have things bolted onto the outside we had to come up with a creative solution for for a shower so your shower head has a hookup inside the cabin here um again that that truma takes care of heating the water for this and then this is your mixer um and then to mount the shower we have a magnet attachment that just pops on to the side of the trailer here and then holds your shower head so you can set up your little privacy curtain and you have your water coming out and lastly we're going to give you a look at the light Leaf solar panel this is our partner up in Canada um they make these panels it's 140 watt panel and it's fully removable so you can take this off uh use an extension cord to move it away from your trailer and position it towards the Sun to really optimize that charge throughout the day time for those Pros when I first got into teardrop trailers I loved gals with lots of doors drawers specific areas for storing but I quickly found that this meant I needed to find gear that specifically fit in each compartment this was tough and often led me to using gear that I wouldn't actually prefer using the too 2 alleviates all of this by making their Galley cabinets modular this way you don't have to find gear that fits the space you make the space fit the gear the second and probably most unique Pro is that this camper is designed for Four Season camping for many of you with onboard water you have to winterize your system if you decide to camp in weather below freezing you either have to blow out the lines and then winterize again after your trip or you switch to a more dry camping temporary setup what escapod has done with the too 2 is put all the weather sensitive components inside the body of the trailer that combined with the water system for heating it enables you to Camp year round without freeze ups as long as you do have electricity and Propane on board you're going to be good out there and outside of this feature I really like just the small details of this trailer take tongue boxes for example they're never ergonomic design choices there's something just awkward about reaching down into boxes on the top o two you can see how they cut the opening so that you can reach in more horizontally versus vertically and then I want to note how they brought the trailer out over the wheels Every Teardrop could benefit from a little more space next to the bed eliminating That Awkward dance to not get mud or dirt on the bed is pretty Priceless and I also like that they still included a little bit of Fender protruding over the wheels I use this as a guide when reversing the trailer and it's extremely helpful to have okay on to those cons in our last escapod video on the top of one many of you noted that the stove was dangerously close to May's face while she was cooking and you had a good point all trailers come with sacrifices to the build when you lift up a trailer for more extreme off-road use like the black bean trailer or the Topo two here you're going to sacrifice Galley height however they did a great job alleviating this by placing the stove down low in a slide out the only suggestion I can give is potentially adding some sort of airbag system that allows a trailer to be lowered when in Camp mode and this would also help level that camper when you arrive at Camp my second con is getting into the nitpicking category here some of you are going to find this trailer a bit on the cold side aesthetically I like how they added some of the wood from their original design to warm up the space but to some people this will still have that sterile feeling that some composite trailers give off one easy way to warm up this trailer a bit would be to reduce the daylight bulbs used on some of the applications on this trailer with more warm lighting I think this also helps with your night vision as well when going in and out of the tra trailer if I was to nitpick again here I'd say I wouldn't mind 6 to 10 additional Ines of head height but at the same time I also get why they keep it at that height for overlanding even at 42 and 1 12 in of Headroom that they offer that's still a little taller than the industry standard if you're looking for a comparable trailer to the topo2 make sure you check out our black bean walkthrough here on the left or our video here on the right about why we chose to purchase composite or fiberglass trailers over other trailers on the market and as usual stay safe on the road and we'll see you in the next episode