Anyone built a teardrop trailer/camper?

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JimD

Jim
Senior User
I have no experience with a teardrop camper but they look interesting. I like my little HF trailer, however, and would recommend you consider one for the base. They are inexpensive but mine is holding up well and gets used pretty often. There are different capacities available but mine is rated for 1100 lbs, if I remember right, and was about $300. It bolted together (LOTS of bolts).
 

dwminnich

New User
Dave
I have no experience with a teardrop camper but they look interesting. I like my little HF trailer, however, and would recommend you consider one for the base. They are inexpensive but mine is holding up well and gets used pretty often. There are different capacities available but mine is rated for 1100 lbs, if I remember right, and was about $300. It bolted together (LOTS of bolts).

A lot of people build these on a HF trailer frame. What keeps all those bolts tight? Lock washers or did you use something like Loc-tite?


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Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
As far as plans, have you considered the archives of Popular Mechanics? This looks like something that should be right up their alley in the 60s.
 

dwminnich

New User
Dave
As far as plans, have you considered the archives of Popular Mechanics? This looks like something that should be right up their alley in the 60s.

Yep, PM had at least one set of plans for such a critter shortly after WW2, (including guidance such as, "line the cavity around the stove with sheets of asbestos...", which haven't aged well). :) Lots of other plans available, too, although I'm looking for actual experiences rather than plans. I'm sure I'll design my own, while liberally borrowing ideas I find along the way.

As an aside, I'd never found a good use for Pinterest before this, but it's proving to be a good tool to find and save design ideas. Huh, who knew. :shrug:


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Truefire

New User
Chris
Well I haven't built a teardrop but certainly gave a thousand thoughts towards building one. I did however build a slide-in truck camper out of Nida-Core composite panels, which I used for four years to get me through school at NC State. I lived in that baby for four years...sold it, its up in Maine now but it served me well.

Browse around on my blog and you can view the entire process....acquiring composite panels, fiberglassing......everything in between.....and on the truck. Custom Truck camper blogspot--One Guy's Slide-In Truck camper project.

Lots of fiberglassing detail, making fiberglass structural 'peanut butter' compound and lots of other detail which you might find beneficial towards your build. Perhaps!
 

Truefire

New User
Chris
Dave you're on to it!! It'll be the perfect little solution for what you just mentioned. Really all your'e looking for is a mattress and a little stove kit away from home. I've seen inside teardrops, there is plenty of room for sleeping. Not much room for standing :rotflm: but your'e gonna be doing that outside behind a tree with binocs anyway, right? I say go for it. MY sleep loft in my slide-in truck camper was similar in size to the foot print in those teardrops- essentially the same size area as a twin mattress.

Although, I used high density foam from a foam company down in Florida instead of a mattress. I'll try to find the company and paste the link. I slept many many nights in that camper and always slept better than any bed I've ever laid in. That $100 piece of foam slept better than my $1200 mattress at home. The rigid underlayment which supported that foam was part of the equation. What I'm trying to say is, I think you will enjoy it thoroughly. I"m so glad I listened to myself when I was contemplating the camper build for school. Most wanted me to just room with someone and thought the idea was silly. Of course I ignored them all...LOL. I loved it..added that element of adventure. Plus, I came out of school, not owing another mortgage.

We only live once! I say do it. Just start building. Heck, if I was closer, I would come over and help you get started. It'll be worth it. Plus, it will keep you connected..
 

petebucy4638

Pete
Corporate Member
These campers are about as minimalist as you can get without resorting to a tent. They do have the advantage being dry and reasonably warm under almost any conditions and you can safely lock up your gear inside them, which you can't do with a tent. The downside is that few, if any, of these campers, have bathroom or cooking facilities unless you want to count a Coleman stove as your kitchen. Some designs do have cooking facilities that are accessible from the outside. They are not going to do you much good when it is raining. As for gas mileage, you can expect that any trailer will significantly hurt gas mileage when being pulled by a small car. One of my cars is a 2010 Subaru Forester. Towing an empty 5x10 utility trailer with 2' sides and a 4'6" diamond mesh tail gate cuts my gas mileage by at around from 29 mpg to around 16 mpg.

If you get an aluminum frame for the trailer, that will help keep the overall weight down. Spruce framing is standard for these sorts of builds as is aluminum siding - think airplane construction. The campers that I worked on were built years ago. I don't think that they are evolved all that much from the 70's and probably much earlier.

I know a lot of motorcycle riders who would be pretty happy to have such plush accommodations at the nd of a long day riding. These guys can pack everything that they need on the back of a Harley Davidson, then they get to put up their tents in the rain and try to cook dinner inside a wet tent. I guess that everything is relative.

If you are looking for an economical shelter that has all of the basic amenities - bathroom, kitchen, beds and the ability to stand up, you might want to take a look at some pop-up tent campers. If I were in your situation, that is probably what I would do. You can find good used pop-up campers at a good price, not that the new ones are too expensive to start off with. They tend to be relatively light and you might even be able to talk the wife into going with you.

Pete


Yeah, well this won't ever get used when my wife is along... Nope, not gonna happen. :) Another of my hobbies is birding, and having recently retired I anticipate having plenty of time for some birding trips, maybe a week at a time. When the location is interesting, my wife will go along and we'll call it a "vacation", and stay someplace with full facilities. But I can justify to myself a lot more of the solo jaunts if I don't have to stay at a hotel, and have the ability to cook most meals for myself. My younger self was happy tent camping, but I've gotten spoiled over the years and would like, at least, a mattress and pillow.

Something light that I can pull behind even a small car without significantly affecting the gas mileage seems just the ticket.


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ste6168

New User
Mike
Not sure what your budget for this looks like, but another option (something I plan to pursue in 20 or so years when our kids are grown and out on their own) is a cargo van conversion. Obviously, the budget for something like this is much larger than a simple teardrop camper. Going this route, however, may be "cozy" enough to coerce the lady to tag along. Basically, replaces the car camping/tent setup. Something similar to this is what I have in mind:

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JimD

Jim
Senior User
The HF trailer has lock washers for the frame bolts and they seem to be working fine. At this point I'm sure there is some rust helping to lock things in place. They don't include the floor or fasteners and I lost some of those bolts. I bought some that were too short and I couldn't use lock washers. Longer replacements have been working fine for years.

Even though the bolted construction works, if I had a welder I would weld it up. More work but it would be sturdier. The bolted construction also doesn't allow the plywood floor to be completely flat on the frame. It isn't a problem but it isn't the way I would prefer to do it.
 

gazzer

Gazzer
Corporate Member
Chesapeake Light Craft has a kit. CNC machined marine ply put together using the "stitch and glue" boat building method. I'd love to build one and actually started on my own design. Somebody special to me keeps reminding me of the other projects that are higher on the list, though.
 

ehpoole

Administrator
Ethan
Chesapeake Light Craft has a kit. CNC machined marine ply put together using the "stitch and glue" boat building method. I'd love to build one and actually started on my own design. Somebody special to me keeps reminding me of the other projects that are higher on the list, though.

I was just about to post the same link as this just happened to pop up in my suggested videos on YouTube a few minutes ago, but it is not a pop-up type kit, though it may still provide some inspiration. Thanks for beating me to it!
 

dwminnich

New User
Dave
Sure you can build one cheaper?


Description
PriceYearLengthSleepsLocationStateListedSource
2016 American Teardrop OTHER $2,5002016


Most DIY-built versions seem to run much more than this on the second-hand market; that is a good price. I haven't put together a full list of expenses, but based on the major components, I would hope to come in between $1000 and$1500. :shrug:.


In any case, I know I'll have a heck of a lot more fun designing and building my own.


By the way, in my research I found this site, http://tnttt.com , dedicated to this sort of endeavor. Lots to read there before I'm anywhere close to decided.



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