OK, it’s not made entirely of recycled milk cartons, but a lot of it is! And that’s just part of why Escapod thinks it just created the ultimate version of a nearly century-old camper design. The Escapod TOPO2 MTB teardrop is being marketed as something that does it all. This camper is made out of fiberglass mixed with recycled material (there’s your milk cartons), has 23 inches of ground clearance, and even has a built-in toolbox with professional tools to repair a mountain bike.
The teardrop has been ‘reinvented’ in about a million ways ever since it was popularized in the 1930s. We’ve seen teardrops made out of beautiful wood like vintage boats, we’ve seen all-metal teardrops, we’ve seen all fiberglass teardrops, and we’ve even seen teardrops adopt squared-off shapes to become so-called “squaredrops.” There are even teardrops so tiny and so light that they can be towed by a motorcycle. Colorado Teardrops even tried to put a huge 75 kWh lithium battery into a teardrop before the company went bust.
This is all to say that there is a ridiculous variety in teardrops out there. Those are just the factory-built ones, too. Lots of crafty individuals still build their own teardrops from scratch. Given the insane market, a lot of companies try to stand out. Escapod says it has one mission: “To build the best damn camper known to man.” That’s an ambitious mission, and the TOPO2 seems to try its best to live up to that promise.
Escapod
This story starts with Chris and Jen Hudak. If Jen’s name sounds familiar, it could be because you know her from her pro skier career and for being a finalist on The Amazing Race. Anyway, in 2014, the couple was looking for the perfect teardrop camper for people who live an active life outdoors. The couple searched a sea of options and found teardrops that were either poorly built or overpriced, but nothing that was both built well and affordable. So, Chris pulled out a napkin, sketched out his idea for the ideal teardrop, and then built it.
The couple had so much interest in their trailer that they decided to turn it into a business, launching the Dreamscape trailer in 2016 under their new company, Escapod. These first trailers, as well as the first TOPO that came in 2018, featured more traditional wood construction reinforced with aluminum skin.
The TOPO2
In 2021, Escapod announced its next evolution. The company ditched the old design and started with a clean sheet, creating the TOPO2. This new trailer featured an entirely new body made out of a single piece of fiberglass reinforced with a PET core made from recycled milk cartons. Escapod is happy to note that there isn’t any structural wood at all to be found and that there’s nothing to rot should a water leak happen.
The fiberglass and plastic are used everywhere, including the entry doors and the galley door in the rear. Inside, there’s 42.5 inches of vertical room and a full-size mattress that’s 6 inches thick. This time, the cabinets aren’t handcrafted wood, but HDPE and honeycomb composite with birch doors.
One unique feature of the TOPO2 is how the rear hatch opens and closes. Normally, a teardrop trailer’s rear hatch just latches closed, but the hatch’s struts are always trying to push it back open, often resulting in a crack in which dust can get in. The TOPO2 design uses latches that pull the hatch both downward and inward to create a full seal.
This composite body is supported by a laser-cut, hot-dip galvanized steel frame. This special frame is designed with fenders that you can step on and has easy mounting points for bolt-on accessories. All of this rides smoothly thanks to an independent, trailing-arm suspension that Escapod says is supposed to work like a mountain bike: “With 4.5″ of travel per side, the shock-in-spring system keeps tires grounded over large bumps while offering a softer spring for smaller obstacles. Independent movement on each wheel reduces cornering lean, enhancing control and overall performance.”
In terms of off-road chops, the suspension is complemented with either a pair of General Tires in 265/75R16 size. The TOPO2 comes in three variations: The Nomad, the Voyager, and the MTB. The Nomad gets General Grabber AT/X tires, the Voyager gets General APT tires, and the MTB has General Grabber X3 tires.
All three models have 23 inches of ground clearance, a composite body, and a nifty suspension. The real major differences among the three are in content.
The base Nomad doesn’t have solar panels, water storage, a roof rack, a heater, a cooktop, a refrigerator, or really anything else but a 120 Ah lithium battery, LED lights, and a roof fan. This model doesn’t even have alloy wheels, but basic steelies. In other words, you’re basically paying for the shell, the suspension, and the basic electrical system, and the rest is up to you.
If you’re not interested in building out your own trailer, you can get the Voyager, which adds all of the bits I said were missing from the Nomad. So, now you get a sink and a two-burner stove, plus a Yeti 75 cooler. You also get 140W of solar, a 21-gallon water tank, a forced-air heater, a water heater, and an outdoor shower. The interior is a bit more comprehensive, too, featuring a heated mud room for boots and jackets, tiered cabinets, and a stand for a laptop for working on the go. There’s also a really cool stargazing window, which is one of my favorite trends in teardrop campers right now.
For Mountain Bikers, By Mountain Bikers
This month, Escapod has announced a new edition of the TOPO2 called the TOPO2 MTB, a trailer that Escapod markets as “The World’s First Purpose-Built Mountain Biking Camper.” From Escapod:
At the heart of the design is Escapod’s custom-designed Switchback Hitch, a swing-away hitch that allows full galley access on the back of the trailer, even when it’s loaded with two bikes. It locks securely in three positions for stability off-road or at camp. The Switchback Hitch features a bull bar, RotopaX mount, and a Feedback Sports Mechanic Clamp, making trail-side maintenance quick and easy. Also integrated is Küat’s new Piston ION E-bike Rack – also debuting and Sea Otter –which is ready to transport any pair of e-bikes up to 80 lbs. and rated for RV use. Similar to the TOPO2, the ION is over-engineered for reliable use in rough conditions to make it easier to access the best places to ride.
A Feedback Sports Team Edition Tool Kit is integrated into the galley on the rear of the trailer, while a Feedback Sports Slide Lock Clamp Head attaches to the bull bar, making trail-side maintenance a breeze.
“Mountain biking — and being able to easily access all kinds of rugged places to ride — is what led my wife Jen and I to create the Escapod brand in the first place,” said Chris Hudak, Founder of Escapod. “We built out the very first model a decade ago to fuel our own weekend mountain biking adventures, and that design inspired us to start a company. So building out the TOPO2 MTB is in many ways coming full circle for us. This is more than just a comfortable place to sleep — it’s the ultimate mobile base camp for riding.”
Not noted here is the fact that the MTB doubles the standard battery storage to 240 Ah and also comes with a spare tire, which the standard TOPO2s do not. You also get a 1-gallon RotopaX jug.
In short, the MTB edition is more or less a Voyager, but with kit made specifically for mountain bikers and with some options checked by default. I don’t do much biking, but I do think it’s cool how there’s a toolbox integrated right into the trailer and filled with tools so that you can wrench on your ride if you need to.
All versions of the TOPO2 are said to be true four-season campers, and early reviews do seem to suggest that you can be comfortable camping in the cold in the TOPO2. Escapod notes that the options list is long and includes an air-conditioner, a roof tent, rock rails, an annex room, and more.
Likewise, the TOPO2 measures in at 13’9″ long and 7′ tall, making it able to fit into most standard garages. Weight varies. The bare-bones Nomad weighs 1,650 pounds while the loaded Voyager hits 1,920 pounds. The MTB weighs the most at 2,100 pounds.
Features Come At A Steep Price
Now comes the hard part. You might have gotten excited when I said that the original TOPO was just $13,800. The new construction methods and materials have hiked the price, and perhaps more than you might expect. The basic Nomad costs $33,990 while the Voyager pumps up the volume to $43,990. The MTB demands $10,000 more to reach $53,990.
This pricing places the TOPO2 variants at the top of the teardrop market. The closest competition that I can think of is the Bean Trailer Black Bean, which is another fiberglass design geared towards outdoor lifestyles. That one starts at $44,690, but Bean says the average Black Bean is $55,690 after some options are added. There’s also the Cedar Ridge Vega 2.0 XT, another fiberglass design that’s smaller and sitting at a price tag of $37,995.
On the other hand, a Bean Trailer Bean Stock 2.0 is also fiberglass and costs just $19,999. Sure, it doesn’t have the fancy suspension and isn’t advertised as being four-season rated, but that’s a huge chunk of savings compared to even the Nomad. So, there’s a lot of good to say about the TOPO2, but you will pay for it.
That’s unfortunate because I like what the Escapod TOPO2 is made of. I love the fiberglass construction, the toolbox seems pretty neat, and camping in one of these sounds pretty cozy. But given the price point, I’m unsure if the camper will reach as many buyers as it could. But if you’re looking for the ultimate in fiberglass teardrops and have lots of money, I can see this being a potential contender.
Top graphic images: Escapod; depositphotos.com
4-season rated, but not a mention of insulation? Might be good down to freezing, but much below and anything you touch is going to be really cold even if you’re dumping a lot of heat into the small space. I suppose it’s not an unusual claim for a trailer manufacturer (who also like to call reflectix R-6 when sandwiched between layers), but still.
That I like. Normally I have to pack a bike repair stand in my truck if I want to have a nice place to work on it (which happens pretty regularly if I’m on an extended bike trip).
Now onto the things I don’t like so much.
What does “rated for RV use” even mean in the context of a bike rack? It just slots into a hitch receiver.
This is stupidly expensive. I guess it’s for the dentists who ride Yetis?
(Yeti bikes are very expensive so the running joke in the MTB community is that they’re only bought by dentists)
I also always wonder about how these plastic trailers are going to hold up over time. You can make plastic durable in outdoor settings, but you have to know what you’re doing and be willing to spend the money on the right materials. Are recycled milk bottles the right material? I don’t know, but I hope this manufacturer does.
I’ll stick with my Casita, thanks.
Are ‘professional tools to repair a mountain bike’ different than regular tools?
“decent tools” vs. “shitty Temu tools”
There are a lot of bespoke bike tools. I’ve amassed quite a collection of bottom bracket tools over the years because the damn manufacturers can’t pick one standard and stick to it.
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, there are so many words in this article that don’t have a typical meaning I feel like I need some sort of cheat shet to parese it.
“RooptaX”
“also includes a Sea Otter”
Man does it make me feel out of touch with teh youts…
A decent NEW pop-up camper with more living space is like $10k. A 32ft hard-side with a kitchen and a bedroom is this same price at MSRP, and they’re always on-sale. I really don’t get how these companies think they can get people to pay this much.
The term you are looking for is ‘Veblen goods’. Items that are more desirable (for some people) because they cost more
Wow tent prices are looking better all the time with campers so very expensive.
This does have some nice features and does look like good effort to make a fully usable camper (love having the fenders be strong enough to stand on). But, tear drops just don’t make sense to me, at least at any price over a couple grand. You get a more secure place to sleep but still have to be outside to cook, get dressed/stand, go to the bathroom, do anything that requires more than 42″ of vertical space (and I’m pretty sure that 42″ is before the mattress). How is this better than tents and and equiped vehicle?
Yeah, those prices are absurd for what you get…and it hardly has any space
These things are worth about $5k, no more. These sky high prices are just a wish, no way any of this garbage sells for anything close to that. Not happening. Dog house on wheels.
“This camper is made out of fiberglass mixed with recycled material (there’s your milk cartons)”
Would any of that be interior?
In the late 80s or early 90s Ford actually experimented with using plastic made from recycled milk jugs for interior parts but abandoned that effort when they found that on hot days the interior of the test cars would smell like old milk and they couldn’t resolve that issue despite repeated attempts. That was a good three (!!) decades or so ago, though, so one wonders if that issue has indeed been resolved. One would hope so, as there’s probably nothing like going glamping and waking up to the cloying fragrance of old milk on a hot day.
Having shopped for a bicycle tool kit a couple of years ago, all I can say is that there are huge differences of quality among the choices. While I didn’t find this particular brand of tools while I was shopping, I suspect that most folks already have a set of tools that they are already using. In addition there are always home-made tools that need to be included in a personal kit. Having formed spaces for a specific brand of tools seems, well limited, and forcing into one particular brand of tools. Having a generic drawer for such tools I would think would be a better idea.
The use of recycled PET is interesting, the integrated bike rack is useful, the tool kit is gimmicky, and the $53,990 price is crack pipe. I’d prefer to keep my tools in a tool roll or box, for flexibility. I’ve gone camping with my MTB and kayak, and we just put them in the truck and used a rented Lance trailer. Plenty of headroom, a flush toilet and room for gear. I generally have all the tools I need for a bike trip in my Camelbak anyway
I thought we were past the 40 grand teardrop, but I guess not. I have to wonder how they are selling these days post COVID and pre-recession.