Thats what i thought, but I thought i would ask anyways... thats how you learn! I am planning on builing it 5x8, based of the "Trailer for Two" design, only widened a foot. Thanks again! Jordan
Here's the one I built a couple years ago. I built it a little bigger than most so that I could haul my Harley inside then take it out and setup for camping. Pulls fine behind the rod without the bike in it and no elec. brakes. Do it you'll love them. But be perpared because they will get more attention than your rod.
Yeah, I think thats the only thing I am going to dread... Pulling into the Flying J and having people coming up, and asking a ton of questions, or be like "thats a neat setup, what are you using for _________?" and "how many horeses is that putting out?" and "How does it haul through the mountains?" and "You Built that? Got pictures?" or "Iv been thinking of doing that for years, mind if I take a look?" Its still going to be fun though! Oh well... Jordan
Someone once told me "if you are going to build a teardrop, you better not be shy" Every time we go out we are approached. It is not a bad thing at all. You will get set in answering the same 4-5 questions. 1 Do you sleep in that? 2 Who made it? You did! Noway, cool 3 Tell me about it 4 Look, there is a kitchen in the back even - do you really cook in this too? 5 ... and lastly "Can I see inside?" ... I tell people to visit my website and ask more questions... Heck I once parked next to a $1.2 million dollar motor coach and no one looked at it - they swarmed my lil tear! Loved it! I also camp with other teardrop folk a few times a year (at Teardrop gatherings). You can find gatherings posted here: http://www.teardrops.net/ As a mater of fact we are packed and going camping this coming weekend. Look out coast here we come! ...
Im not really too worried aout answering questions, and showing people it, I just dont want to have filling up turn into a two hour thing... Jordan
Jordan, not that big of a deal - 2-5 minutes max! then people move on...They really don't want to "move in"... Don't worry - and please don't plan "extra" time for your outings. ..Have fun building
Thats good to know. This is going to be fun! I cant wait for some free time to start working on this... Jordan
Great job, that's a really nice trailer!!! I wish I could talk my wife into camping in one though... No shower or potty... No go! At least she tolerates the '39
Ran into to a guy and his wife at Charlotte GG a few years back from Oregon. They towed a teardrop trailer behind their T. They were putting over 20,000 miles a year on it just doing car shows and camping. They loved it. Their son was with them, he drove a small truck that carried extra parts and gas a**** other things. A real family adventure. I kind of envied them, except for the T bucket, I prefer something a little larger. TooTall - saw yours at York a few years back, I think I still have photos of it someplace.
I talked to my buddy last night, and he sounded pretty excited to get started on building one. We got talking on where exactley we are going to go, and this is kinda the plan... Day 1- Drive from Madison Wi to Hill City, SD Day 2- Mt Rushmore and the Badlands Day 3- Deadwood, Needles Highway and Custer state park Day 4- Hill City to Cody, Wy Day 5- The museum in cody, and the Rodeo that night Day 6- Sleep in, then go the the Erma for lunch, see this one sharp shooter guy. Day 7- Leave Cody, and go to West Yellowstone Mt, Via Beartooth p*** Day 8- Yellowstone Day 9- Yellowstone Day 10-Yellowstone Day 11- Yellowstone Day 12- West Yellowstone to Hungry Horse Mt. day 13- Glacier Day 14- Glacier Day 15- Glacier Day 16- Glacier Day 17- Hungryhorse to Miles City, Mt Day 18- Miles City to Ulen, Mn Day 19- Hang out with some of my favorite relitives in Ulen Day 20 Ulen to Home! Yes it is going to be a LONG *** vacation, but is going to be a ton of fun! Oh yeah, its going to be expensive too, but Im saving already for it, so we should be good! I also Bought this really cool metal cooler that like four feet wide and 16" deep, and 18" tall to go on the tounge of the trailer, along with a two burner coleman camp stove and a old coleman lantern for a total of $20!!! both the stove and lantern work too. Sorry for getting off topic! Back to teardrop trailers... Jordan
I have a bud that built one that is a pop-up. The top slides down the outside of the bottom (you can stand in it). He put a small fridge in it and a portapotty. Only limited by your imagination. If interested IM me and i'll get you his e-mail address. Any way good luck Tim
lived in Missoula for years. woke up in Glacier on sept 4 1995 to two feet of fresh snow. It was 70 degres the day before. learned to be more prepared. man I was young, dumb, and I had some fun
Forwarded your info to Marty. He's a cool cat. Please let me know if he gets it to you, and I will let you know his response to me!! Tim
Only just seen this thread so hope this helps, I built a teardrop 5 years ago and we camp in it at every Rodrun in the U.K., Its great and very practical. Here's a couple of pics and there is a buildup here http://www.uk-hotrods.co.uk/v2/tech/teardrop_trailer/how_to_build_tear_drop_trailers.php More pics here http://rides.webshots.com/album/557865367bEPjbZ
I pulled one just like this around in the early 80s with a 34 Ford P/U. It's a little wider than most with the wheels under the body. We put a net up to hold our young son on the shelf where he slept. The rear hatch had a place at the leading edge to attach an awning extending the covered area. I lined it with 6" of foam and sleeping was very comfortable. Getting your pants on in the morning was a PITA tough. I put mid 30s Plymouth artillery wheels on it. I now wish I never let it go.
Tears are great little deals. Couple considerations have been mentioned but remember your trailer will provide you with a dry place to sleep, and conduct other horizontally enabled activities. All your other living will be outside of the trailer. So a sun, rain, and bug shelter will need to be included in your plans. the one that attaches tot he trailer does well to extend your living space, makes getting dressed and undressed much easier. While the little kitchens are nice, you will need to make some consideration for bear proof food storage (especially if you will be camping in the National Parks.) You may want to consider toting a HD extension cord and some type of fluid filled heater as the weather in your destination can change on a whim. So much for creature comforts. Towing condiderations, include trailer weight and the weight of all the stuff stored in it. Tongue weight (which for some reason seems unreasonably high on most tears I have come across) shouldn't be more than 15 % of the weight of the trailer and its load. Too much tongue wheight marginalizes the front brakes of the tow vehicle. If you get much over 1500 lbs, behind a light tow vehicle, I would suggest you thing about some sort of serge brake for the trailer. We took a trip last fall from NY state to Yellowstone, we towed an 18 foot camper with a Jeep cherokee. Was a great trip and your's sounds like a good one. We had no real Itenerary, just went and did what we pleased. Used Rapid city SD as a base of operations for about 4 days, nice RV place about 20 miles from Rushmore, about 3 miles south of RC on the left side of the highway. As long as you are in that area put on a day or two for Custer State Park in SD. More wildlife sightings there than the national parks. There is a short driving loop through the badlands that is worth the trip also, though that is a bit east of RC.
so just to help get this out my mind! what something like this cost to build? you basic one...nothing to fancy! and how many can sleep in it?
Cost for me was £600 ($1200) but i did everything myself and robbed an old caravan of its axles, fridge, sink, water tank etc etc.
****srock, folks probably look at your hot rod, stop and talk abou it do they not? Having lived near two major tourist attractions - Sequoia National Park and now Grand Canyon West, the Grand Canyon and in particular Route 66 - The Mother Road - a lot of folks stop to talk about the roadster. Especially interesting are the foreign tourists. In particular, Japanese. They're very polite and almost can't bring themselves to touch the car let alone sit in it for pic's when invited. A hot rod is an American icon and a Teardrop is a prime example of the "Can-Do" at***ude of many American's. Relax and enjoy the experience. You only get to be famous for minutes at a time, but pic's of your car will end up in homes alll over the world. That said, I'm liking the Teardrop idea. I've built and helped build several utility type trailers as well as one tandem axle flatbed race car trailer. I'm liking the idea of building one and would probably incorporate tandem axles with 13" wheels into the design and stretch the body a minor amount. With a load rating of just over 1000# per tire, it would have an excellent safety margin for carrying load. Not sure what the load rating is on the 12" trailer tires, but doubling up on tire capacity which also lessens the load on wheel bearings since the little tires spin along pretty good at highway speeds, a lesser loaded wheel bearing/tire combo sure wouldn't hurt. I do see a lot of small wheel/tire trailers with flat tires out here in the dez. Burned out wheel bearings are fairly common as well. Most of it probably the owners fault due to poor maintenance and lack of proper tire pressure. A lot of the trailers look to be overloaded as well. People forget that one flat tire uses up their Ace in the Hole spare - if they have one - and don't replace it first chance they get. When I moved out here, one of my box trailer tires hit a piece of metal just short of Barstow and blew. I didn't realize it had blown since it let go as I was pulling off the highway onto a wide graveled area. With 20 miles to go to Barstow in 105 degree weather and another 200 after that, I wasn't going to get out there and have another flat and not have a spare. We got a new tire mounted and balanced in less than a half hour, stuck it in the trailer's spare tire rack and were on our way. Price was the same as it was back home when I bought the matching spare. There wasn't much of an excess in load carrying capability with the tires that came with my 7000# gross race car trailer. The load rating on those tires is just a couple hundred pounds capacity over the trailer's gross of 7000#. And . . . I'm in the middle of going up to the next load rating - for the 10,000# gross trailers, but so far have only found two tires and am hunting for more. Trailer tires are not commonly stocked at most places. One reason I like the tandem axle bit is, several years back a friend of mine had a 16' Hobie Cat and it came with a light duty trailer and fairly small tires and wheels. He never burned out a bearing cuz he was pretty good about taking care of things, but he had a couple of flat tires in his every couple of months run to the river near Lake Havasu during the warmer months. A 2nd axle installed and moving the original axle pretty much ended all his problems. I know it depends on weight and the tandems seem to handle better as well, but I have to admit the Jacobs 6' X 10' single axle trailer I had for a long time handled well loaded or not. And . . . if nothing else, the 2nd axle would generate a lot of interest at the campground. We've all seen single axle Teardrops, but I've never seen a tandem axle one.... May I suggest as well that you install a set of boat trailer bearing caps on whatever hub you have. I installed a set on both my utility trailer and the tandem axle flatbed car trailer. The box trailer came with a set installed. Granted, they get you away from the wheel bearing packing bit,but what's nice about them is squirting in a bit of grease and not having to wonder if the bearing is almost or completely dry at the start of a trip.
For those who don't care to build a trailer, take a look at the Airstream Trailer site. http://www.airstream.com/ In particular the smallest one, named Basecamp. 15" wheels with 3250# gross trailer rating and electric brakes with a low profile would probably tow ok behind most mid-2000# hot rods. Not much bigger than a Teardrop, but it has a lot of nice features. No Port-Potty though. A definite necessity for most of the girls and if not a necessity, it's appreciated. I built one into the front left corner of my 20' interior length box car trailer and the girls like having their own 'place.' Not to mention the lines for the big green boxes at the recent Kingman Air & Auto Show were getting stupid-long in the afternoon. Another small trailer to look at on the Airstream site is the Design Within Reach - or DWR - trailer. It's got it all, potty room, shower, cook area, bed, dinette and more. At 3050# it would pull just fine behind most full-size hot rods . . . fat fendes etc. Granted, a little off the subject, but not too far. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fwiw, I posted a question on towing trailers with light cars and there was some good information and recommendations posted. Just search under C9 within the last month or so.
i think i need me one of these....i would keep mine simple though, no galley or anything, just a plain teardrop camper with a door on the back and windows on the sides...probably just put a couple layers of fibergl*** over the whole thing, sand it smooth, and paint it to match whichever vehicle i decide to pull it with....the 'gl*** would seal the wood from the elements to boot
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