Necessity is the mother of invention, and the Earth T250LX trailer is a very good example in this sense. Born out of a desire for a lightweight towable that could be pulled behind the family car, no matter how small, it is also dubbed the lightest RV in the world.
That title, of the world’s lightest, is not official, but at 250 pounds (113.4 kg) of dry weight, this trailer is definitely in a class of its own. It’s even more special if you consider the fact that it can offer accommodation for an entire family and provide the basics in terms of storage and food prep.
Its origin story includes a regular guy and his desire to take his family on the road, a Fiat 500, and chicken feathers. Feathers, indeed.
The Earth T250LX trailer from New Mexico-based Earth Traveler is ultra-lightweight and compact, with certain off-road and off-grid capabilities. Technically, it’s not a pure teardrop trailer but a hybrid between teardrop and pop-up: as you can see in the photos and the video included with this story, it has a teardrop shape in travel mode, but at camp, it employs four total pop-outs and pop-ups to considerably expand available space.
Photo: Earth Traveler
It all started with a 2014 planned family vacation that had to happen with the family car of the moment, a Fiat 500. Angel Irlanda, the regular guy doing the planning, soon learned that whatever solutions available on the market were either not applicable to the needs of an entire family or were too heavy for the kind of vehicle he had. Irlanda didn’t think that there was a gap in the market that needed to be filled when he designed his first Earth trailer. He just wanted that perfect family RV for himself.
That trailer was the T300, the predecessor of the model we’re looking at today. The T300 is also very lightweight, using a monocoque shell built with a composite that uses a chicken feather-based material reinforced with fiberglass and resin. The T300 tips the scales at 400 pounds (181.5 kg), so for its lighter and more durable successor, the T250LX, which was introduced in 2021, carbon fiber with kevlar and Corecell was used.
As far as layout, though, both models are identical regarding the standard spec and the options to upgrade with add-ons, including flexible solar panels, kitchen features, curtains, and even a collapsible dinner table slash desk. The T250LX is the pro version of the flagship model if you will. It is also the more luxurious version since it’s priced three times higher than that one, which means a starting price of $38,500.
But for this kind of money, you get the perfect and perfectly-towable family RV of your dreams, Earth Traveler promises. With a maximum payload of 850 pounds (385.5 kg), the trailer has Timbren axle-less suspension and SumoSprings Trailer Helpers for a smoother riding experience and reduced swaying, and rides on ST145/R12 tires. Ground clearance is 13 inches (33 cm), but it’s not like you’re going to take your Fiat 500 off the beaten path.
Photo: Earth Traveler
In travel mode, the trailer is 11 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 5 feet high (3.3 x 1.5 x 1.5 meters), but it effectively blows up in size at camp by means of two pop-up walls (with integrated custom cots) and two pop-up sections on the roof, one at each end. In camp mode, the trailer’s exact dimensions are 11 feet in length, 11 feet in width, and 7 feet in height (3.3 x 3.3 x 2.1 meters), and it becomes the perfect base for an entire family with two adults and two children. The walls and ceiling are insulated, and every opening in the waterproof tent sections comes with mosquito meshes and blackout covers.
The interior can be whatever you want it to be, spatial constraints considering. There’s storage in the floor, which is also where you can add a mobile kitchen. The standard package only includes 5 LED lights and the removable floor mattress, but you can add more off-grid capabilities, an extra battery pack, and additional tents, depending on how much you can tow with your vehicle and your plans for the entire rig.
“Since cars vary significantly in their power and tow capacity, I designed the interior of the Teardrop Trailer with a semi-modular concept for the planned amenities with the objective of keeping the weight at a minimum and also avoiding unnecessary add-ons that could compromise the weight,” Irlanda explains. “In this way customers could be able to customize their own Teardrop Trailers according to the capacity of their vehicles.”
Irlanda built for himself and his family the perfect RV and then did the same for friends who saw it and wanted something similar. By 2017, when he launched Earth Traveler, he was ready to put his experience into a family-run business. They might not be huge players on the RV market, but it’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on them.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News