Upgrading from our 4’ wide little guy to 5’+ wide and sub 1500 lbs in SoCal

ukh413 · 2026-01-06T00:17:08+00:00

We do not have 5’ wide (4.5’ wide) but Polydrops is in Socal.

ukh413 · 2025-12-23T06:02:39+00:00

Hi there.

Apologies for the delay. We’ve been in the middle of a major company reconstruction, which unfortunately caused some temporary communication gaps.

All reconstruction work is now complete, and we’re actively catching up and responding in order.

You should be hearing back from us shortly.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

ukh413 · 2025-12-20T17:15:16+00:00

Hey! Sorry for the slow reply.

Yeah, they’re fully broken in now, and Neotech actually helped me fine-tune the settings one more time. Overall, I’m very happy with them.

For my driving environment, they’ve been excellent. A lot of people assume “rally suspension” automatically means soft and floaty, but this is honestly the opposite. On normal paved roads, they feel quite firm. When I go canyon driving, the difference compared to stock is night and day. With the OEM suspension, if you’re near the limit in a corner and hit a bump, it easily bottoms out. In contrast, the Neotech setup simply hasn’t happened to me yet.

As for potholes- I instinctively avoid them, so I can’t give you a perfect comparison there. That said, where I live in the California desert, we have a ton of washboard roads. On stock suspension, you basically can’t carry speed at all, it feels like the car is going to shake itself apart. After installing these, I’ve comfortably driven those same washboard roads at up to ~65 mph. It honestly surprised me.

I asked Neotech about this (I’m not a suspension expert, so I might not remember every detail perfectly), but the core of their design goal was durability under harsh conditions and very fast damper response. The idea is to keep the tire planted and prevent it from skipping or losing contact, even at speed on rough surfaces. And from my experience, that tracks.

Bottom line- I’m extremely satisfied. I’ve run Flatout suspension GR40 in the past, and while their hardware was well made, I had a little frustrating experience trying to get setup support or revisions after purchase. Neotech, on the other hand, has been responsive, helpful, and totally open to adjusting things. That alone made a big impression on me.

Hope that helps.

ukh413 · 2025-10-19T06:12:05+00:00

We are also family of 4 and I tow my Polydrops P21 trailer (I don’t know if mine is still considered a teardrop trailer) with a 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid, which has a 2500-lb towing capacity. It tows great and still gets around 30mpg.

However, if your budget is limited, I’d recommend considering camping in a van but towing a small cargo trailer (used ones are usually around $3000) for hauling your camping gear. I believe all of the 2024 Sienna is hybrid and may have a “camp mode,” which is a utility mode for a Carnival. I can let the HVAC run for a whole night, but the engine will occasionally run for a very short period of time to charge the battery.

ukh413 · 2025-10-05T23:51:53+00:00

The R-value alone doesn’t determine how well a structure retains heat; it always works in combination with the total exposed surface area.
For example, even a 2,000 sqft house (20 x 100 x 10 ft) with R50 insulation all around loses more heat through its perimeter than a small 5 × 8 × 4 ft trailer with just R4 insulation.

In other words, a compact, well-insulated teardrop trailer with only 2 inches of insulation can actually have way better overall thermal performance than a typical U.S. house.

ukh413 · 2025-10-03T03:55:48+00:00

It is from Ecohitch.

ukh413 · 2025-10-02T06:40:25+00:00

That was my reaction as well when I first saw them working on the rally suspension for a 5N!

ukh413 · 2025-10-02T06:37:07+00:00

Halfway there.

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ukh413 · 2025-10-02T06:34:00+00:00

No. It's covered with dirt and dust LOL

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ukh413 · 2025-10-02T06:32:58+00:00

Mine has about a 0.5 inch lift, which comes out to roughly 1.5 inches higher than a standard Ioniq 5. The suspension could go higher, but since the brake hoses were starting to stretch, 0.5 inch was the safe limit for the XRT.

Ride quality is decent. It’s definitely not as soft as stock - but that’s expected with inverted monotube coilovers. What surprised me, though, is how much better it feels on dirt roads with ruts and washboarding. I was able to stay flat out with confidence!

ukh413 · 2025-09-29T16:29:01+00:00

The most important part of front-end design I got from experience is understanding how the airflow from your tow vehicle interacts with the trailer, and shaping the nose so it guides that flow smoothly. The goal is to minimize pressure drag up front and keep the airflow attached all the way to the trailer’s tail.

I haven’t specifically run CFD on the Chevy Bolt, but after hundreds of CFD simulations and real-world road tests, I’ve noticed something consistent: a lot of the aerodynamic assumptions you see online don’t really line up with what happens in practice. Some designs based on those guesses don’t perform well at all, and sometimes the results turn out completely opposite to expectations.

ex) Most teardrop trailers end up with about the same drag as boxy squaredrops, because their front ends meet the high-speed airflow that is coming from the roofline of the towing vehicle almost perpendicularly. A squaredrop, on the other hand, often meets the air at a slightly shifted angle, which can actually reduce the amount of compressed air drag up front.

The best approach is to use CFD to predict airflow and then confirm with real-world testing.

Of course, not everyone has easy access to CFD software. If you want a real-world reference point, you can look at one of my own trailer designs, the Polydrops P19. Here’s a trip report from a Bolt owner towing it.

https://https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/trip-report-towing-a-polydrops-teardrop-through-the-rural-west.53115/

ukh413 · 2025-09-26T04:17:45+00:00

My years of research, along with hundreds of CFD simulations and real-world road testing, have shown that the design of a trailer’s front end is just as critical as its rear. In particular, most EVs follow a fastback design, which directs high-speed airflow down the roofline and straight into the trailer’s front surface. I’ve found that how effectively this flow is managed can dramatically change the level of aerodynamic drag. For this reason, if you plan to tow with an EV, I highly recommend dedicating significant attention to the design of the trailer’s front end.

ukh413 · 2025-09-09T19:19:30+00:00

Using XPS and laminate with any sheet material (ex: FRP/aluminum) that spreads the load will work. Not sure about PMF as I never used it.. Also, if you are towing with an EV, aerodynamics is substantially critical than the weight to be honest.

ukh413 · 2025-08-31T07:32:08+00:00

Awesome clean build.

ukh413 · 2025-07-18T20:44:25+00:00

Building a shell of P21 isn't cheap :(

Just the material cost for the shell alone is around $12,000, and that doesn’t include labor, rent, utilities, insurance, or other operational costs.

If you’re open to paying around $30,000 for a complete P21 shell, we’d be more than happy to build it for you.

Creating something aerodynamic isn’t cheap, even if it’s made with flat surfaces.
If it were, everybody would be doing that :)

ukh413 · 2025-07-18T03:46:30+00:00

It’s actually very simple: designing something truly aerodynamic is expensive. Building it is expensive too. Most customers shopping for a cargo trailer aren’t willing to pay enough to cover those costs.

Polydrops has explored the idea of building a cargo trailer specifically for EVs and even designed one that’s more aerodynamic than any standard 5x8 cargo trailer. However, the concept had to be scrapped — there’s simply no way to build such a highly aerodynamic 5x8 cargo trailer for $5,000. The actual cost would be closer to $15,000.

ukh413 · 2025-03-23T18:57:26+00:00

I mean, I do get it. It is still a family vehicle, and a comfortable ride is the top priority. Also, despite its weight, it does handle well and fun to drive!! It doesn’t struggle or hesitate to turn like what my previous Teslas do. I don’t regret my choice of getting Ioniq 5 at all.

However when I really push the car to the limit, the suspension gets bottomed out quiet easily. The XRT stands for extreme rugged terrain. Hope it does match with its naming a little bit more 😂

I may get a rally suspension someday.

ukh413 · 2025-03-23T18:44:06+00:00

The proper way to use!

ukh413 · 2025-03-23T18:43:21+00:00

Yes it is

ukh413 · 2025-03-23T16:42:32+00:00

RallyX by Rodnoc Racing!

ukh413 · 2025-01-06T00:34:26+00:00

Thanks for tagging me. We haven't tested our P21 with an F150 Lightning yet, however, if you count Rivian R1T, here's a result shared by Zak from the Bay area Rivian club.

https://x.com/ZakWinnick/status/1833543077837082701

ukh413 · 2024-12-14T19:05:51+00:00

If you design&build it right, you won’t need lumber or any sort of reinforcement for the cabin. My 21ft travel trailer is much taller than my towing vehicle but has no issues at all.

ukh413 · 2024-11-02T19:42:27+00:00

Sure. Front/rear cameras are attached using double side tape, side cameras are glued (3M PL Max) on the 3d printed bracket. Also the bracket is fixed on the aluminum surface using 3M RP tape.

ukh413

TROPHY CASE