Living Full-Time in a Tiny Teardrop Trailer (Camper Full Tour!)

Hey guys, Tristan here with SUV RVing and occasionally I like to feature other people's Adventure mobiles and other people's rigs on this channel to give you ideas on how you can make it work on the road in any vehicle you have and today we're featuring Eric . He has a YouTube channel called Escape from Normal Life. he has a Subaru Forester, so he has an SUV, but he pulls a little

teardrop

trailer

, a little

camper

, so I've never talked to anyone who has one of these. I have never interviewed. Someone, I've never done a

teardrop

caravan

tour

before, so I thought it would be interesting in case it fits the way you want to travel, if it fits your desired lifestyle on the road, so that we're going to do a

full

tour

of his setup and talk to him a little bit about how and why he travels and all that, so let's go ahead and hand it over to Eric, yeah, I was working a job that for 16 years was a great job but in the end it just wasn't for me and I had wanted to travel for over 20 years and traveling meant traveling all over the country.

In one year it was a great adventure and took a lot of planning to achieve. here, but I finally got here and I love it. I'm nine months old, mom was coming to the end of my year-long trip and I was actually hoping to go a little over a year, so my teardrop

trailer

that I live in

full

-

time

is a little trailer from 2012, the small one is actually the brand it's not just the size and uh yeah it's perfect for everything I do it's just me uh you can sleep two in there but it's just me so it gives me a lot. of storage space in a minute you'll see the back opens up here that's my kitchen like my cooking area so it's absolutely great.

I love it. I typically use it in open, dispersed camping spots like the ones we are in today. I'm not too. big ones in established campgrounds, they usually have too many people and they usually have a price and I left my job to do this full

time

so they charged me. I had the luxury of having a little money saved to do this. full time, but that means I also have to watch my money and the camps cost about thirty dollars a night, so that adds up very quickly and I find that I get everything I need here in the wild.

I'm completely ready. I have solar power which you'll see in a moment so I can go off the grid for about a week with my water situation and it works for me so come on let's take a look so this is my kitchen this is my cooking area . Upstairs and this is it, so what I love about this space is that it gives me a lot of prep area. First, these are my two burners. Get this out right here. Double this. I have two burners here and there. Go originally. I was using these little green one pound tanks for cooking, but I quickly realized that they are very expensive, especially in California, they were about nine dollars a piece, so while I was traveling I was able to make them. get rid of these little ones I think they're like five pound tanks uh a gallon maybe I'll take six and I have two of these so I have one up here that I always use and then I have one on my tongue area that I use the trailer, uh, which I use as a backup because sometimes I run out of gas and I need some gas, so I have an extra one, so this is perfect for my cooking setup.

Obviously, this is the cooking space and what I really like about this is that when this comes out, this whole area here is another place where I can put food, you know, things from my water or whatever that I'm not using, just get out of my way and then this becomes my preparation space, the space I'm in. In fact, I'm going to cook. I have two big cutting boards here, most of the things that I had at home or most of the things that I have with me are things that I had from home, so I had these cutting boards that I had. lots of utensils and things.

I like real utensils. I have some plastic ones, but of course they can melt on a very hot stove or anything, especially because I cook in cast iron, so I like real things like that and then this box is kind of my dry goods, but it also has some seasonings and things in there, so I have some. I always click to have a very clean space. I love cleaning my counter space when I'm done cooking, so I always have some cleaning back here. I have some. canned goods and stuff like that back here this is a little trick that actually works great for me where I have my phone here you see it mounted this is actually a bike mount that I removed from the back I put some velcro on it and Bam I have a place to put my phone on and the reason I like it is that now with facial recognition, someone texts me or something, I can touch it and look at it and unlock my phone just by looking at it, but I'm always listening to podcasts and music .

I'm a big music person, so now I only have audio. I can hear it which is great and I can easily see what the song is because I always wonder who the song is. paper towels you can see here uh this is a little thing that I have that I love, it's a little folded close to what I like is that it easily sits like this or walks with me to the side here, that's where uh brush teeth shave this is where I put my contact lenses or something and it's great, it's hands free and I have to do it.

I have to crouch down a bit, but it's a perfect view for the most part, so yeah. that works great I love this and then I put it away I put it away I put it back in the box I put it back in the box what comes that way it doesn't break because it's a mirror the guy who built this for me is a friend of mine who built this for me and it's cool because it gave me kind of compartments, so this compartment has a little divider here and then I have all my plates here, perfect size again, some more utensils here.

I have some Reynolds Wrap stuff like that here in this area, this box has been converted to cookware, so I have my cast irons. I have a big cast iron like 12 inches. I believe this is a small eight inch camping set that you can buy on Amazon. I bought this for about 30 dollars, it has a teapot, a small cooking pot and then this box has been converted back into cutlery. I like to cook with real things because they don't melt and since I cook in cast iron, I might like this. get in there like scrape things so I love having real cutlery um and then this little area has a little measuring cup of things spices right in this area so yeah it's perfect for all my stuff in here so there it is where I spent a good amount of my time uh not just cooking but sometimes hanging out you have my chair here I love this rocking chair pick this up I mean you can't go wrong table right for drinking music I love it so that's my area of kitchen my setup in the back, dropped to the side, I'll show you a look inside, so first of all, I love these big doors.

I have one on each side. I usually use this one because it's much easier for me to get in and out the other side. I have my bed right here, I'm actually inside so the sun doesn't hit my face and I actually have a little chair. I'll show you in a minute. I can sit in here, out here, get out of the sun, just sit very comfortably. You can see my feet are planted on the ground and I'm ready to go so let me take off my crime shoes inside and you can follow me and you can see how I live inside this so one of the things that's a great little trick to me, the reason I take out my dirty shoes, shoes off the dirty floor. shower cap, grab your shower cap, there you go, no more mess in your trailer.

I love this little rug that's actually on top. I only have one REI. and the good thing about it is that if the dirty guys get in here, which they often still take out, shake it out, there won't be any more dirt in there. I also put a rug down here just to give it a little more of a homey feel. um underneath me is actually just a linoleum floor or something uh it's not very attractive it's not very comfortable to sit on so the carpet gives me a little more comfort uh actually I'm just sitting on a little stadium seat and what I usually do here is a little pillow behind me for the old backrest, there you go, I can sit back and relax, watch some movies on my phone, watch some YouTube, watch the SUV go and, yeah, I could lie down, really I can get in out of the cold, the rain, anything, this.

It's my little house, so the bed obviously to my right, this is a sleeping mat made by Nemo and, um, it's very comfortable for me, it's pretty good, like three, three and a half inches thick, so it's a little thicker like a sleeping mat. with a good sleeping bag last night um we're in Stanley Idaho and last night it got down to 31 degrees 34 degrees something like that so it's pretty cold so this bag is a 35 degree bag works pretty well uh I also have a fleece liner in there and just to give me a little more comfort because this is my home.

I took these king sheets and I folded them with some fabric glue and made kind of a cocoon on the inside, so now I have some sheets and my bed and you can see I also put those sheets on the mattress here, so I feel a little more comfortable, feels like a real bed to me, I'm not just sleeping on air, this underneath, I originally bought it as a pillow to put on top. the mattress but I personally thought it would be more comfortable but I personally found that it actually hurt my back a lot so I took it off the top and put it on the bottom and the reason I put it there instead of just throwing it away .

It's completely because it now helps block cold air from rising under the mattress and I have camped many nights in cold temperatures. I think the coldest night was like 16 degrees, so it was pretty cold, not in the trailer but outside, uh, but it definitely is. It helped me, I think, and gives me a little lift. I'm not sleeping right on the ground, it gives me a little more elevation. Also, the really nice thing about these windows is that the shade gives me a little privacy but also more light when I want it. Come in and these bug screens that you see here, just attach them with Velcro and you're done.

I can actually have my door wide open, good airflow, no bugs, on a really nice night in some really good spaces. In fact, I have slept with the door completely. open and yes, I have been good tonight, very comfortable on top of me. The nice thing about this trailer is that it actually has a fan so I can turn it on and get a little bit of flow, but I also like to just have it open and then it gives a feeling of a little bit of sunlight. I have cabinets now my cabinets are all my clothes so I tried it.

I am a fairly organized person. I try to be at least as organized as possible. It's easy to find things when I need them, so the right side of my cabinets has become a bit more. winter clothes because it's summer now and I don't wear a lot of these things, but I have some hats in there, I think I have a sweatshirt in there or something, then I have shorts, shirts, socks and underwear in the middle and pants, that's it my flow and I try to keep it organized, easy to find, stacked, easy to access, it just works for me, so, carbon monoxide detector, because in the cold I've actually slept with. a I don't sleep with it on, but I actually heated the trailer with a Mr Buddy Mr Heater Little Buddy Heater.

It's a propane heater, so you don't want to use propane all night, you won't wake up in the morning. but I'll put it in the trailer right before I go to bed and it only takes me about 10 minutes, not even 10 minutes, to heat the whole trailer up a good 20 degrees, so the carbon monoxide detector is here obviously to make sure no In the mirror it's great to take out my contact lenses at night I usually take out my contact lenses it's the last thing so I'm already in the trailer I've already taken off my shoes I don't want to go out and use that reflection of yourself before it's so perfect and the Velcro comes off right away and I can take it anywhere if I need a Bluetooth speaker, a person with a lot of music, like I said, um, in a good clear space where there's no one else.

I'll take this outside and get it going. Upstairs, just listen to some music, so here on this side, first in this container, it's kind of a mix container. I have a kind of first aid kit. I have allergies, so I have some Zyrtec and stuff like that in here too. a lot of stuff when I hit the road coming from home so I just had some bandaids in there and some hydrogen peroxide which I haven't used on the road yet but I had it so I didn't want to get rid of that um bandages and stuff well, so here this space has also become a place to put clothes that I'm still actively wearing, it's not really dirty because sometimes it gets cold at night like I said last night, but today during the day it's going to hit 80 .So my clothes that I wear at night can go here and the clothes that I wear at night as myshorts and things I wear during the day when I change pants. at night go and continue here and then this space has also become a place to put the essential bottle, a small heater that uh doesn't heat the space as much as I expected, but it's a small heater, I have to warm the space. in the cold temps of course you need some TP and then these are chemicals to break down the waste in my toilet which you'll see in a moment.

I have a small portable toilet that I can use on the road. The power inverter is also on this On the other hand, it is a 500 watt Bestec power inverter and it is perfect for my setup. I don't need to plug in much. I have a laptop, I have a smartwatch, and I have my phone, so 500 watts was perfect for me. You can see where I have. I had my phone cable plugged in this morning. The only thing about the trailer is it's pretty good lengthwise, but it's not very tall. Now I'm six feet tall and can get on my knees and almost stretch my head out. but I hit my head here, which is fine when I'm just doing this, but when I need to put my pants on, it's a little different story.

Another thing I wanted to put in here just to make it more homey. The trailer has, no. I don't know if it would be like that if you can see them from here. The trailer has these lights that clip on but they're pretty bright, especially when it's dark outside, the doors are closed, it's really bright, so I wanted to shine some light on this. It's a nice space when I'm watching a movie or something, so I have these little lights here and they come with a remote control, so there's all kinds of different settings. Now it's a little bit slow and you can dim them, you can make them brighter.

There is a little sleep timer, so yes, I love these little things. They are colored lights. What if you don't want colors? I have these that are little white lights and I actually turn them on mostly because they're dim enough. it just reduces a lot of these bright lights, reduces that bright light here. I can watch a movie, I still see things, I take my contacts off, things like that, but they're not super bright and I turn them off, there you go, so it gives me a little bit more of a homey feeling in a small space.

It's about finding things easily but also getting them out of your way. These little hooks from 3M that you can pick up anywhere are great for my keys and I can reach them with just my arm from the outside in and I grab the keys easily. In fact, I'll put my car keys and everything in there when I'm not using them, speaking of more lights, I'm a big light guy, these little pop lights, that touch, turn off, are great because not only can I pick it up and take it like that? I can take anything. I really have them.

I don't let the camera see them inside. Here, come on, he goes, uh, in there, and now I can really see in there. in the dark because right now I can see the light really well, but at night, if I need to grab something that's a little bit harder to see and again, they just take off, uh, little magnets, so I love those little lights. I make a lot of detours. It means I'm off the grid. I need power, obviously, to run some of my electronic devices, as we all do, so what do I do? I have solar power on top.

It's a 100 watt panel I mounted on top of the trailer that works. inside to a power inverter, but also to my charge controller, so my charge controller is up here and what I love about this is that these walls are not carpeted, so it's really just Velcro. I can easily put it on and off if I need it to be stuck in there, but I can turn it on and off if I need to and this particular brand has two USB ports so I usually do this at night when my phone is usually dead. I need to charge it.

I can plug it into the power. inverter but it's on the other side of the trailer since I'm sleeping here. I plug the USB port right here and then this cup holder becomes a place to hold my phone, so I actually just put my phone in here and it charges all night. underneath that is just a little plastic cabinet where I keep extra stuff in there, like contacts, I had some, I think an extra pocket knife in there, some extra pocket knives, uh, I have an extra car key, um, just miscellaneous stuff, some cables. , something like that and I literally just Velcroed it on and then it didn't hold up that well so I had to tape it to get it out of my way and then the rope here just keeps all those doors closed so they don't move and come in driving and then maybe it's hard to see, but from this angle I actually have a little nightstand here I have my glasses when I take out my contact lenses my wallet here's a contact case a couple of things up here this obviously has something of power it has some 110 Here, the thing about the power on this particular Teardrop is that although I have solar power, these will only work when connected to the mains, so I like to have them if I ever get the chance to stay at a friend's house where Maybe they didn't have an extra bed or an extra room where you could sleep inside, but they said yes, park outside, sleep in their trailer if you have to and then plug into the house for shore power .

I can still plug in whatever I need. here, so I don't even have to worry about solar power. I could be in a garage or something without solar getting there, but I can still get power up here, so it's been pretty convenient. Also one last little thing, a little thermometer, just to give me an idea when I wake up in the morning exactly how cold it is because sometimes I sleep in places where there is no Internet. I can't just check the weather on my phone. One last thing is this little box here and mostly just toiletries.

I have a little face cloth here that I can wipe my face with when I wash my face. More contact solution. I have some cologne and things that I had when I hit the road. A tissue like I said, a serious allergy, so I'm. always sneezing, that's basically it, it's more like miscellaneous toiletries and stuff when I hit the road I had a can of bear spray because I hike alone quite a bit and go to some places where there is wildlife, but on the road. Someone had given me a can of bear spray, so I actually have one in the trailer for self-defense, but also something has once reared its head inside.

I can get him out of here pretty quick and then I have two more in the car. which is pretty good so I bought this trailer used and was lucky to find it used for 4500. This is a 2012 model and I bought it in 2021 but as new I expect to pay around 10000. I think this one when sold new It was ten grand now, that's a basic model for something that you won't get much more in the kitchen area or anything like that. I said all that construction I had to do myself or someone else did it for me all those things if you want someone to do that for you as a company, do it for you expect to pay 20 to 30 or even 40,000 for a tear, but a good indirect number to start with is about ten thousand dollars for a tear of these screens.

They are great, I love having these screens open for this nice big door, but sometimes it gets too cold to have the whole door open or on in a place where maybe an animal can poke its head in, so these doors here really have their own windows and there's a little screen here, so in the cold this is a nice big window that gets a lot of draft in. In fact, last night I got into the trailer and reached into it while it was in the trailer. Next to the window I noticed a little bit of cold air coming in so I have these reflectors, this is actually the one that goes on top for my ventilation but I have a bigger one that goes over the door here and that it's great for keeping some warm air in and as a bonus it blocks all the light coming into the trailer so I can get a little more sleep in a while and no one can look in the trailer when I have information on how I can shower in the road, well there's a couple of ways that wet wipes are one, two are a road shower.

I was lucky enough that someone just gave me this one, it's obviously mounted on my crossbars here or on my roof rack and this is, I think it's four gallons and it obviously has a place to fill it with water and then you can pressurize it, which I have a tire pump for the car that also serves to pressurize this, so when I go to use the shower, a hook that is facing up turns on the car turns on the pump and pressurizes it. I'll show you in a moment. In fact, I have a shower head that I can put in here and Bam, I showered on the way.

I have a private tent so I can set it up and really get some privacy uh I love this it's actually been really hot the temp gauge reads up to 118 but it's over it was really hot last time I used it so it's been really cool to have it on the road these lights right here are great at night it might not be easy to see there in a day but at night I got them in. I got to a campsite and they need to unlock the door to get in here, very dark so I can just put these on once in a while, although I actually just stuck my head out from the inside and just turned this on if I need to pick up my shoes or something from the outside, like this I like to have these little lights on here, they're actually quite pretty. side really everything is the same I love having double doors from time to time I crawl here if the sun is on that side more of the trailer I say on this side of the trailer and can do the same thing take my feet out crawl there or I had an awning pole here, so that's what this big metal pole is now.

When I hit the road, I basically had a bunch of dash cam stuff because I had been camping for a couple of years and had a big 12 foot by 12 foot tarp. which I would just set it up for a little bit of shade and it's actually a place where I can put it, I just clip it there with some carabiners and now I have a nice big parasol so I'll show you that. in a minute on this side, I actually have my solar panel, this is a 100 watt solar panel and as it is, there are some channels that go right here on the top of the roof rack and the screws mount down there, tighten them and ready to use.

A little added bonus. I actually put some zip ties in here just to make sure they would hold if for some reason it ever came loose, but I checked periodically and this isn't going anywhere. It's the flange down there, how I did the wiring. It's unique to this trailer, so the wiring runs downward. You can see my magic tape work and it blends in perfectly and that wiring runs all the way to this little drain plug. You wonder: why is there a drain plug here originally when? This tear was built. There was a little sink back here, so down here you can't see it, but in this part of the trailer there's a little gallon.

I believe it is a one gallon tank and a small water pump. There is a small sink here and you can wash the dishes, but the previous owner said he took it out because it was not very big and very useful, but you can take out the sink but you can't take this out, so this drain plug allows you to make that water comes out while you're doing the dishes, I repurposed it as a place to put my cables uh for my solar, so I didn't have to drill the drop of the chair, which was a big concern for me.

I don't want to do that so again reuse what's great about when you buy something used like a teardrop is that sometimes you get extra bonuses and the previous owner threw these two big lock boxes in front so this box let me start. In this box actually because I'm not on that side, it's a little bit harder for me to stretch. This is my camping box. Again, I try to be as organized as possible. It's easy to get things out. This is my little Mr Buddy heater. uh uh little Mr. Buddy, excuse me Little Buddy Heater and again I put this inside to warm up the trailer before having the shower on the road.

I had this portable shower. This is a little Nemo. I think they call it Helium. I don't know. name but it is a small portable shower that I still have with me I can use. I'm really just looking to get rid of it. This is my tarp that you'll see me put up in a minute and I'll use it for shade. but I've also used it to get out of tent stakes for rain because I actually have a tent with me, so I have some tent stakes, a big bag of rope, and some carabiners. You can't go wrong when making any type of camping rope. and carabiners and you'll see that I use a decent amount of these when I put up the tarp uh all kinds of Lights The little pop lights are cool, they're solar charged, this one actually changes different colors so it's cool.

Hang it up, but camp, these string lights areincredible. I love them. I don't remember the authorized brand. I don't remember the brand. I'll find it and let you know, but this one is also solar powered and then these string lights. I don't remember how far they go, a good 15 feet, maybe 20 feet, and I'll set them up for camping. These things have three settings, like a medium dim and a bright one on the smallest setting. These things will work all night so I've actually put them on a campsite, leave them on all night in the morning they're still on so they're great, great investment if you camp a lot, mosquito nets I've had to use a lot lately.

Pretty bad mosquitoes that come in the summer months and then when I set out I actually had a bunch of candles so I thought I'd use these candles a lot on the trail because instead of using electric lights that have to be recharged and All I thought I would normally eat a lot at camp. I haven't used them once, they'll just take up a lot of space, but I have them here and could light some candles at camp. This is to start the fire. I'm pretty bad at starting a fire. I can keep it on, but it's starting a fire.

I cheat. I turn on the heat and they are in a plastic bag so they don't get wet. So I have some extra propane tanks because when I first went out on the road cooking, that's all I was using so I already had these extras and then someone gave me these two again, uh, I think they're five gallon tanks or one gallon, five pound tanks and they keep this extra up here, uh. as a bonus it's always full and ready to go when that one empties I'll switch it out and fill the other one there you go so let me jump in that's my camping box if you want this box is a little bit of everything first , here's my shower head, so this is cool, obviously it's a long cord, this is an RV shower head, it actually has a little button here that I can press and basically this will stop the flow of water so that don't waste water, so if I do I'm sitting there laughing, you know, during my shower, the water doesn't come out because it's about four gallons of water and that's not much if you just let the water drain.

So you stop the water flow and is in a good metal hose that will not break easily. Another big advantage of buying used is that again they throw in a few extras and the previous owner put in a huge boot on wheels. I left this caravan. unattended and I know it's not going anywhere because this thing is definitely not going to get where you can roll it and then there's a ton of other stuff here. I have some of my Chucks for my trailer, so I'm going to roll out. I just got some new gloves for collecting firewood.

My hips don't get dirty. Two extra small burners that I don't really use so it's kind of a waste right now but I have them and then down here when I first went on a trip I was grilling a lot so I actually have a little bit. of charcoal here, but I quickly realized that charcoal costs between 10 and 12 dollars a bag depending on where you are and I was only getting about three meals out of a bag of charcoal, so it was adding up pretty quickly, so I love cooking and again over an open flame but it got pretty expensive so now I almost always cook over propane but if it's nice enough I can start a fire I'll just cook over it so that's been great but I still have a left a little bit of charcoal and then I also have the wiring for the trailer, which is my ground power cable so I can hook up directly to someone's house or a campground if I really had to stay at a campground in Texas because there's not a lot of dispersed. camping in Texas so it's an established campground and it had electricity so it allowed me to plug in and get power from there so when I bought the trailer it had these boxes and it had a rack for a spare tire but it didn't have a spare tire and I travel alone on the road full time for a year.

I wasn't going to go without a spare tire, so I bought a huge spare tire. I put some locks in there, so now I can run away with this, so yeah. I love having it there, in fact I already had to use it once. I actually had some problems with my tires, not a flat, but I had to change my tire and then personally remove those propane tanks from one of those, um again, five pound one. gallon tanks two three months on average and filling one costs like three dollars, in fact the last place I filled it was three dollars a gallon without being a member of this place.

I don't remember the name of the RV and to play in the place three dollars, fill it up or become a member, it was 99 cents and being a member was free, so if you pay three times as much for the same thing, I don't know why you do that. So it was a dollar to fill it up and that will last me about three months so it definitely beats these little green tanks that are like six bucks each and I get a week out of one of those so here are those two retractable poles. You'll see me use them in a minute to lift the tarp and, yes, I'll use them to get them out of my way but not to make them fly away either.

They're back here on the trailer tongue and it's just a bungee cord holding them down. I always keep the rope there ready to go so I don't know how to put it back there every time you'll see I can't actually do it. This is because the strings on your health and doing so will stretch. I don't remember what length they will go to, but you'll see why I use them in a minute to get the tarp off my head when I'm out. standing under it so it took me about 10 minutes to put this up so not much and yes it will add a lot of advantages for the umbrella but I can also get up out of the rain and put my chair there. and I sit there and sometimes I even keep the trailer door open there and turn on the power from my laptop to the power inverter inside and I can work for hours just editing my own videos and stuff there, these retractable poles are not even extended all the way out up, so I'm six feet tall, I'd say it's about six and a half or so, so now it's up here.

What I really like about this tarp is that it has these little hooks and these hooks allow me to Just put this here and Bam, the reason this rope is here is because if I really wanted to, I could take these hooks that are also on the end of the tarp and I can actually raise this all the way up, so I can't even have it. this on the ground, but I like to have the tarp on the ground like this because now it just creates a big shadow. I find that if I put it up with these holes at the end, then the sun still comes in, so this rope is just anchor points for staking, so if I put them at the end it won't fly away, but in here it's pretty good.

I could probably tighten it up a little bit more, just get a little more taut and it's pretty good, it's a little bit windy and if I leave this on overnight, which I usually do if I put it on it makes a little bit of a sound and inside the trailer, while I sleep, it kind of echoes, it can be a little noisy, so yeah, I usually don't put it on. pick it up if the wind is going to be too strong, this is as much wind as I like to put it in and, uh, because it actually got caught in the wind a couple of times and I have some holes from tearing it, this is a 2020 Subaru Forester Sport Edition on the finish line and I bought it before I traveled full time and before I had the tear so this was primarily a daily commuter car for me and I bought it for a couple of reasons to start with it's great on gas.

Mileage before getting the teardrop, I was getting 29 miles per gallon pulling the teardrop. I'm getting about 20 miles per gallon so it's not too bad, I'm still getting pretty good gas mileage so it's a great commuter car, throw away, uh, the tear. pretty good, the Forester has a maximum towing capacity limit of 1500 pounds, the trailer weighs a thousand pounds dry, this particular model and I have an extra 450 pounds on that one, so I'm pretty much on my Max, uh, I went with the tear on any other. type of setup for various reasons when I hit the road I thought I was going to do everything in my car I was going to sleep in my car I was going to cook in my car I was going to do everything from my car but the The luxury of having something to sleep in comfortably was very attractive, gave me more space and a much better setup for cooking, so the teardrop was a great option, mainly because of the weight.

I'm not going to get something very big, obviously I can't get a fifth. a wheel or something, plus a fifth wheel, not really my style, too big, too much to carry. I didn't need any of that, too fancy. In fact, I would say that for my style I like being outside better. so the teardrop is a great option, another cool thing about the teardrop is that it can go pretty much anywhere the car can go. I don't have many problems when it comes to cities, getting around cities, gas stations can be a bit complicated. It's a challenge, but other than that, it's pretty good.

I can also disconnect from the car quite easily and can leave the trailer and just take the car somewhere. And the tear doesn't weigh much, so I can pick it up. pick it up off the tongue and pick it up and move it somewhere, so if I ever find myself in a position where the car stops and I can't go back and I can't turn around and I need to get out of there if I need to, in fact, I can disconnect the trailer from the car very easily, lift it off the trailer tongue, turn it around and then take the car to the other side, so yes it has a lot of advantages in the teardrop, which is pretty much about the car, it's a great car .

I love the gas mileage again. It's a new car for me, so it's still under the factory warranty and I purchased an extended warranty, so another big advantage of riding this particular car now is that if anything happens to it, I'm pretty prepared. I can take it to a Subaru dealer and they will take care of everything else so yeah and I just bought some new tires on it that are much better than the factory tires than these sometimes. The roads I'm on are a little beat up, so these are BFGoodrich Trail Tas terrain. I don't know much about tires, but I do know that they had good reviews and were rated perfect for what I use.

It's a good Rogue tire but also great on gravel so I bought this box while I was on the road and it gives me a lot more room in the car, as you'll see in a minute this is a Thule. I think that's how you actually pronounce it, so I originally bought the box to primarily house my inflatable paddle board that's back here and actually, it's obviously folded right now and this pedal board folds up pretty small, like you can see, it's actually in a backpack. style, but that's originally the reason I bought it just to get it out of the car and have more space, but I found that I actually have a lot more use for this.

I have some extra shoes up here. I have the pump that is necessary for the paddle board, you also have a life jacket. I have a little watertight box that when I go paddling I can put my phone on the keys, things like that so they don't get wet, so there are a couple other things that go with this and I like it. said the bombshell, uh, other than that, I actually have a hiker backpack, uh, when I go hiking I usually only do day hikes, but that's perfect for that, this is a privacy tent that I use when I use my shower occasionally and then, in a minute, you.

I'll see I actually have a portable toilet. I can actually set this up very simply and use the bathroom and use the shower. I have my tent back here. I actually had to make a car, a tent for camping in Oregon. I stopped at a campground. with the trailer and they say yes you can stay here but you can't sleep in your car it's just a tent camping which was quite nice it was actually a beautiful area. I don't remember the name but Beautiful area I set up the tent and it gave me that whole camping experience which is nice.

I have some laundry stuff here. I don't even remember what's here. Oh, car washing stuff. I have a lot of things to wash cars with. here, um, soap wax, car wax, things like that. I like to have a clean space. This is my house, so I like to have a clean space. um. I keep an extra sleeping bag here when I come from Florida when I'm car camping or just taking weekend trips. it's just a 50 degree bag and I quickly learned along the way that a 50 degree bag is not going to cut it when you sleep outside and let's say New Mexico in January so I have a 35 degree bag that I always sleep in but it's an extra sleeping bag. bag and I have some friends who want to meet me on the road so now they have a space to sleep and this is an inflatable mattress.

I think it's a queen size inflatable mattress so I can spread it out into a teardrop shape and still have it. I have a little bit of space on the sides, you can put shoes and stuff like that, so that's amuch of what is here. I also have a tent. Sorry, it's not a tent, but a table. A small Coleman folding table. I never use it. I bought it when I used to camp during the weekend camping week, but I have it, so it's up here, so in the back of the car I have my cooking essentials, but a couple of other things.

I have my cooler back here, this is an IMX igloo which stands for injection molding and I can't tell you the real science behind injection molding but in my comparison where I made a video about this cooler I get very good ice retention . You can see my refrigerator, uh, my review. In that, see how many days of ice you actually get, but compared to the Roto molded coolers from Yeti and Orca and all the others, those coolers are around 300 bucks, this one is 150, so half the price and I'll tell you right now that I got very good comparable ice retention, very cool and uh I added a little bit of light here and this is a bike light and the reason I put it there is because at night I leave it on and then I can open the top and shine there, so at night, if I need to get into a cooler, I won't have to search in the dark, such a cute little hat, if you want water, uh, I always have about nine gallons of drinking water with me, so I have two four gallon tanks I have this one and I have this one um the reason they're different because I got them at different times in my life so that's where they're different.

I actually use this one more than anything else and that's why this one is back here right now because it's almost empty and I love this one because this big mouth there is very easy to fill, you can fill it almost anywhere and then it has an adjustable spout, let me turn it, you have a little bit. of a splash of water or just a lot of water, so I love this camp of this water container, then I have this one that has my back. I'm actually using that one currently because it's almost sold out and then I personally love a gallon. uh container because it's a lot easier to take it inside somewhere to fill so many national parks and other places that have a water filling station inside that are mostly just built to handle or fill a bottle like this so I can still put this under one of those and then I had some cold water for the day for some drinking water, uh, okay, what else is here?

Okay, this big guy, what is this? It's probably a luxury item, but an essential luxury item. I would say this has been very helpful in times where I'm not near a city where I can go to a public bathroom, or I'm in a spread out terrain like I am now, where I can go into the woods and do anything, so this It has been very helpful now I can hook this up to the trailer and can use it. When I'm sitting my head hits the top of my trailer but it works or I can take it somewhere like we do. today and I could put up that privacy tent that you saw earlier and use it outside, so I love it and the really cool thing about this is that it actually has a flushing mechanism, as you can see, which you can see in action and it has two tanks, It has a top tank. which is a three gallon tank which is your fresh water and then at the bottom there's a get this out of the way it's a um I think it's about five gallons and it's going to keep your waste in here so that's your black tank um and I can tell you. right now.

You can store things there and it doesn't smell bad. This was a bag I had at home that I just throw Tupperware in and why don't you walk away every time? But its great. when I need extra food for dinner and I have some gloves specifically for cleaning this up so they stay here out of the way and then I always have like a towel or something around me because again, I love clean spaces. It's my home after all, so you'll see me in the campgrounds a lot of times taking things in and putting things in, there's a little bit of dirt in there, I just clean it up, I just get all that dirt out of there, the cooler, since it's on the ground, especially dirty floor like this.

I always wipe my feet before I put them in there, so yeah, I love having an extra towel to wipe up spills, like there's a little bit of water here where I got water from earlier. Put it in my water container, scrape, clean, okay, so back here, some boxed wine, just the best line of Walmart boxes you can get. I had a ton of car wash stuff when I hit the road and it's nice to have a clean car every once in a while. so a little container here at the car wash, that extra bucket serves as a good place to put water if I need it um yeah, I've used it a few times to put some water in there um, so this is a folding stool which I actually used to get into the box on the roof, um, and I love that it lays flat and I keep it up here and you'll see it was kind of a game of Tetris to get everything back here, but mostly nothing moves while I .

I'm driving and that's why it's in this particular order for me in this particular car and the way I have things, this doesn't change too much, things slide around a little bit, but nothing where it falls off, no water spills about nothing fun. In fact this was originally in my trailer the whole time and it fell over a few times so it's not very good luckily it was before I used it it was just water but yeah it's much better back here on my side, where I am now. kind of like my pantry, um, I bought this car organizer long before I did all this just to put all kinds of miscellaneous things in, but it's been a lifesaver, you can see, I have miscellaneous things, um, string and some envelopes, I've never It is known, you may need some. let it out for some reason, in fact I think I had to do that with something recently anyway.

Pantry stuff, so mostly dry goods, snacks, things like that that I normally eat. I don't like these mountain foods, but I usually bring at least one because they are great as a snack for lunch, sometimes you get lazy and don't want to cook, so they are convenient for that, soups and things like that, I also keep some condiments in here , I actually have some spaghetti sauce because I make spaghetti from time to time. I'm a big fan of salads, salad dressings, just condiments in general. I'm about to run out of coffee and that's why I have this big bag of coffee here so it'll be ready when I run out.

In the cafe I have some sandwiches in the trailer and then I have two areas of fruits and vegetables. I have this big bowl that holds all my fruits and vegetables. I like fruits and vegetables, so it's nice, none of this stuff is just running around. I'm here wandering around when I drive, so Elizabeth's bowl and this bowl also serve as my salad bowl, but I've also made it a big meal in this, compared to the plates I have in the back, I might do not contain a complete meal. It's been pretty convenient and this is actually a lunch kit that I used to get from my old employer and it has more vegetables in it and I like it because then you cover it and these vegetables will stay pretty good.

I mean, the car gets pretty hot here. It's not a refrigerator, but it stays in the shade and the sun doesn't hit it, so I think this keeps certain vegetables pretty well, onions pretty good, tomatoes pretty good, I've got some peppers in here too, so yeah, and then it goes back to play. of Tetris, everything fits together very well, nothing moves around here and then this particular organizer had two front pockets where I keep my Clif bars in the front because not only are they great for going down the road, but they are also great when I'm driving, I can carry my arm back and I have to have a snack on the road.

Your side of the car, the side you're closest to is almost empty and I'll tell you, it's a good feeling when you live in your car full time. In fact, I had this whole area of ​​nothing is full of jackets, uh, for the winter, but I recently put them in other places. I actually put them all in a bag here that's nested here. This is a bag from a company called Mateen, who I did a review for, if you're interested I can send you the link for that, but yeah, I put almost all of my winter clothes in here which gave me all this empty space and it may seem strange, why do you want the?

The next extra space is just that you travel, you don't need it, it's just about getting some space back and having a little more space. It's really nice to say, "Hey, I actually have this extra space now. I can put something back in here if I need to." but it's nice to have a little more space, another organizer that's great for flashlights. I have some camera equipment. I have some batteries. I have these little reusable zip ties. I have some pug spray. um, just a mix of closer things. you on the floor I have some things, one of them is a vacuum cleaner.

I have to tell you it's probably the most essential thing you can have when you live in a

tiny

house because your

tiny

house gets dirty from time to time so I use it to vacuum the seats here I use it to vacuum the trailer to get all those little particles out of sand, dust and dirt from there. I love reusable grocery bags. I try not to use as many plastic bags, so I like that. I have reusable grocery bags and then I have my trekking poles set up here so at the bottom my dirty trekking pole is sticking out so down here I had this big box and it's actually just a tackle box but I don't use it . like fishing gear, I use it, I took it as one of the most essential tools you can have on the road, duct tape that will save your day over time, uh, drill, I have something, um, I put that stuff in there, we have some crazy glue, another thing you can always not have.

Too much convenient glue for the road, set of sockets and under this is just a ray of tools, most of the things I had when I had an apartment and you pick things up, so these little hooks have been super useful on the road again . I can hang my car keys on them. Sometimes I hang telephone cables and things like that on them, they are very useful. Velcro is essential on the road, you'll never know how much you use it, so I actually had glue from home that I just brought. With my stapler I had it, I won't bring it, yeah, and then screwdrivers and I had to make some cables when I got the power inverter, so I had some extra cables here for that, but oh, and then the cable ties, get some cable ties.

You'll never know how much you use them at camp. I have various lengths. I have very long ones, some shorter ones. I usually have ones or shorter than this, but you'll never know how much you use zip ties on the road, inside the front of the car. I have a couple of things in front of me first, from time to time in my camp, which I am at. It's very buggy, so I'm not left out, so I have these. I'm sure you've seen them on SUVs before you got these. They go over my window, unfortunately they only fit the back window, although I below said they would fit the front, no, but I'll put them over the back, put the back windows down and then sit down. the driver's seat at night, um, when it gets dark and the bugs are really bad or something and I watched YouTubes or Hulu or something, you know, in my free time at least I don't have to suffer inside with the heat or anything I can roll down the windows and have them so they're up here and as I mentioned when I got on the road I was lucky enough that someone gave me a can of bear spray, someone I found a can of bear spray at a campground that I'm sure that someone wasn't too happy about losing a can of bear brakes, they cost about 45 dollars each and then I had a can that I bought when I first went out on the road, so I have more bear spray here, but I I like to have one on the driver's side and on the passenger's side.

I've never had to use them, but if I'm ever at camp and an animal comes in because it sees me smelling myself cooking some meals, I can write to you and I can understand, in fact, I've kept this in the kitchen area several times where I know I'm in Bear Country, so it's great to have them on both sides, driver's side or sorry, passenger side is empty. I love it. that when I first went out on the road, before I bought my roof box, it was full of all kinds of things, mainly shoes on the floor, now down here, what you're looking at right now, trash bag.

I don't normally use these larger garbage bags. I just got this and that's why I'm using it now, but I usually use a grocery bag when you buy groceries because they're smaller, but there are two things down here. I want to point out one. one of them is this little shoe cart, the backpack that you saw earlier in the car, which contains all my winter clothes, right now a company called Mayton and inside that travel backpack was this shoe cart, so now your dirty shoes and these are very dirty. They have been in the dust out here, get in here and there is less dirt inside the car, an essential piece that I recommend to anyone,You don't have to be a full time traveler, get one and it's a portable car jumper because you never know when you're going to run out of your stranded car battery and there's no one around to jump your car.

This one is amazing, it's made by Noko and this is a lithium ion battery. Now it's cool because it's size I. In fact, store it under your car seat. I just brought it out to talk about it today and it's two things: a car battery jumper, so here's the alligator clips that come with it and the USB. I actually plugged my phone in there for the last time. At night and charged your phone, so it's a power bank and a car jumper, it's great. Oh, and one last thing, he actually has a flashlight on. Oh there they are, you can use them in the dark, so yes, you may not be able to turn on the lights. but this one actually has a few things I love, one is being able to show you how good the battery is.

I just charge it so I can see it shows green and then it has reverse polarity protection so you can't reverse your clamps which is nice and a few other little bonuses. I don't forget the nitty-gritty, but this is a big love, this laptop. I think it costs around eighty dollars. Another good reason why I love this car is because of the carplay it has, I think. It has an eight and a half inch touchscreen and it's huge for navigation when you're driving and everywhere I go is new to me so I always use Maps. I always have the screen there, the phone will charge while I'm in the car connected through the internal USB ports, but it's not the fastest charging system.

I think it's about an amp, so a long time ago, before I traveled full time, I bought this little top-of-the-line power inverter. still 200 watts not a ton a couple of reasons I like this 12 volt plug it in there and then you have uh 110 uh so I can plug my laptop into this and I actually plugged my laptop in while I'm driving and just carrying the laptop. Actually, I'm not using a laptop. I'm just charging the laptop while I'm driving and then it has two USB ports on there and they're two and a half amps so I can charge. the phone twice as fast on this and I couldn't have a Char and like I was explaining to Tristan here, uh, when I go on a hike and my phone's battery is a little low and I know I'm going to be filming and stuff on my hike, I plug my phone in here, drive to the campground for the hike and this will charge it twice as fast on the phone so I got more power than just plugging it into the car personally on my trips every month.

I'm personally spending about thirteen hundred dollars a month, that's gas prices, which are a little high in the west, they're a little higher than even in the east. I think groceries have been a little higher here, unfortunately I've found out, but I also have some personal things at home and on the go that I spend every month regardless, each month I start with a stash. I have storage at home that storage every month is about 93 per month so I have that on my monthly cell phone bills one of the reasons I like my phone is that it has two lines or two SIM lines so I have Verizon and T-Mobile so this gives me the benefit of the flexibility of having two different carriers sometimes Horizon is the best as it is here sometimes T-Mobile is better so this gives me the flexibility of having two lines, but that means two cell phone bills, so I have those and just a few other miscellaneous things, food, I already mentioned. gas, a couple of other things that I spend every month that definitely add up, so I'm personally spending about thirteen hundred dollars a month.

I don't always include them, but I should get better at including things like, um, if I have to buy new shoes. If I have to buy a new jacket when I hit the road for the first time coming from Florida. I didn't have proper winter gear so I had to get a couple new jackets on the road, car buddies, and car maintenance is a whole other thing when you live in your car or travel full time in your car. or you travel as much as Tristan does, then you find that you're going to be doing a lot more car maintenance, obviously you're burning more gas, but you also have to do more oil changes, so my oil changes are only synthetic, so it's a little more expensive and instead of every six months, I do it approximately every three months, so it is an additional expense to consider.

Unfortunately I have had some maintenance issues with the trailer, luckily nothing major with the car but with a trailer it broke down. an axle once and that was about eleven hundred dollars, so that's in my monthly expenses, so my monthly expenses averaged thirteen hundred dollars, but some months or more, some months it's a little less, but that's a good average, very good, Eric, thanks for sharing your configuration. with us, I hope you enjoyed all the tips and information from the team. He provided a lot of good information here and Eric, why don't you tell people where they can find you and how they can follow your adventures?

I'm escaping from normal life, that's the name of my YouTube channel, also on Instagram, where I post daily photos in reels. Instagram makes you type just one word, so technically it's insta, oh technically it's a cop out. Normal life, but you can too. find me just typing escape from normal life on YouTube. I'm talking a little about everything. I think I have something there for a little bit of everyone. You don't have to be a full-time traveler to probably find some. of tips or things you would like to see on my channel. I have tips from

living

on the road to gear review.

I've done some bag reviews. I made a more interesting review. I've done a couple of other gear reviews. Sometimes, they are just beautiful. landscapes if you're just interested in some entertainment value and just want to see some interesting parts of the world, but recently I've also been sharing personal stories from the road, so if you're interested in finding out a little bit about what it's like to live full time and what it's like to be a solo traveler. I've got that stuff for you too, so yeah, I think there's a little bit of everything out there for you, a lot of good stuff to watch on his channel and us.

We'll put links to those and then if there's a specific piece of gear you're interested in, we'll try to list all of those things in the video description as well. Thanks everyone for watching, thanks again Eric for sharing his setup. See you next time, be sure to check out Adventure Know-how, my new site where you can get access to a map of all my free campgrounds, plus monthly bonus videos you won't find anywhere else. Learn more at Adventurenewhow. .com and for links to everything else related to SUV RVing, visit suvrving.com. Links to these sites and more will be in the video description.