Teaser template has no value for $node->['body']['#value']

After switching to contemplate my teasers no longer display the 600 character body text that is default for drupal. I am trying to put the full body text into a text area displayed within the teaser. I want to use a text area because I want to control how much space is used for displaying the body text, not base it on the amount of text. The problem is $node->['body']['#value'] is totally blank in the teaser portion of the template. However, when I look at the body variables I see everything just fine and am in fact using that value in the body template with no issues. Is there a reason this is not visible to the teaser? Just to be clear - the teaser shows the variable as being available, it just has no text. Also, the body text in question does contain some HTML, could this make a difference?

thanks