Escapod TOPO 2 cold weather review | 4WDTalk - Overlanding and offroad Forum
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Escapod TOPO 2 cold weather review

GunRunner

GunRunner

Active member
These are composite trailers, so how do these fair in cold weather? What I'm referring to is if you are going offroad and that thing is flexing and stretching and getting banged all over the place. Will that material start to crack?
 
Why would it? These things are one piece with hardware like hinges and brackets bolted. Shouldn't be no different than wood or aluminum trailers.
 
The only issue with that type of a structure is impact. You would have to repair it the same way you would the gel coat on a boat. This will probably be easier then repairing a conventional plywood trailer.
One advantage here is how ridged it is. If you build a conventional tear drop using wood (most are), the wood will have flex unless you build a heavy support structure (think roll cage). Over time the wood will fatigue.

The positive side of a fiberglass/gel "egg", is its rigid, forcing the suspension to absorb everything like its suppose to. Its also lighter (if they built it correctly).
Insulation wise, wood is better but neither will give you any real insulation. This is why they layer insulation in the walls.

The negative is impact repair. A plywood trailer will absorb a blunt impact better (tree branch) Its hard to say which will hold up better to a sharp impact but, I'm leaning toward plywood.

All of this is based on speculation and what I've seen over the years. How any trailer design really holds up depends on where you drive, how ridged they made the structure and if they actually built the suspension correctly. Proper suspension will alleviate almost all the issues between the designs with the exception of impacts. Unfortunately, most "off-road" trailer companies fall short on suspension.

When I built my tear drop (ok, its square), I wish I could have done a fiberglass/gel shell like this.
 
But that is the same as cars back in the 70s when fiberglass was used in more construction of cars
 
Saw one of these on the road, very nice. Bigger in person than what they look like online
 
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