Woo Hoo! I've been waiting for this. Just happened to be scanning Facebook and saw that the builder posted this first picture ...
Notice that he's putting the cross-pieces in vertical to the center - this is to allow for more insulation in the roof. Nate's bunk will be just inside that front curve. That's some pretty good progress for three days of work!
I'm also happy to see the amount of open space in the A-frame of the trailer - plenty of room for a storage box or LP caddy down the road.
So I took the drawing that the builder made and brought it into Google Sketchup, and figured out how to work up a 3D model based on what he sent. I found a model of a utility trailer online and adapted it to fit with teardrop. I even imported my Compass Rose decal and slapped it on the side of it. Pretty slick, huh? Click on the picture below to see it full screen ...
This is more or less to scale. I'll also use this to convey my decal placement to the sign maker.
Well, the LED Strip Lighting arrived today, and I must say I am excited to see what these will look like installed. They come unassembled, but were very easy to put together. The package consisted of a 1 meter long aluminum channel, a four foot strip of LED lights, a plastic diffuser that snaps over the channel, snap on plastic channel ends, a power brick and a connecting cable.
The company is called EnvironmentalLights.com and they have a great website that provides all the info you need on these lights. They also currently have an A+ rating with the local (San Diego) better business bureau. I always like talking on the phone with the vendor when dealing with some new product, and both their sales and tech support folks were very friendly and helpful. I'll definitely keep them in mind if I ever need under cabinet lighting, or want to do something else cool with LEDs.
I went with the warm light LEDs to compliment the interior of the teardrop. These things are incredibly bright for how small they are, as the video below shows. I actually misstated the light equivalent - EACH fixture puts out the same amount of light as a 40 incandescent bulb, but at only 5 watts! And they are rated for 50,000 hours, or almost 6 years of non-stop use - I'll definitely get my mileage out of them.
To put them together, I cut the channel and diffuser into two, 20 inch long pieces and drilled mounting holes in the aluminum on each end. I had the company solder a set of wires to either end of the LED strip. That way I could measure and trim them from the middle with a pair of scissors (there was a little left over). You just make the cut along any of the marked points that are spaced every inch - you don't even have to terminate the ends.
I then peeled off the backing to expose the adhesive and laid each strip into the channel. Snap on the diffuser and end pieces, wire them up, and that's it!
I have the lights packaged up and will ship out to the teardrop builder on Monday. He said that the trailer frame arrived Friday, and they will get started on the build this week. He sent me a rough sketch of the trailer profile:
Here you see the passenger side with the leveling jacks at the rear, window and door placement, as well as the position of the twin bunk & framing inside the cabin. I'm going to see if I can transfer this profile into Google Sketchup and get a 3D model out of it.
This gives the basic layout. The teardrop cabin will have maximum dimensions of 12 feet long by 6 feet, 4 inches wide. There will be two beds, both laid crosswise in the cabin. A standard twin will be up front, above cabinetry that serves as a base for the bunk. In the rear, a full size futon mattress, with a custom futon frame of my own design. The frame will easily convert to a sofa with ample storage space underneath. A small, free-standing air conditioner will be in a space under the driver's side of the bunk, and opposite that a space for storing a porta-potty. Both will have short curtains that can cover the spaces as needed. In the middle section, two cabinet doors with shelving space behind them.
For starters, this teardrop will rely on AC electricity to run things. Many teardrops are set up with batteries, and some with mixed systems. But with the air conditioner onboard, and given we'll probably find ourselves mostly at campgrounds with electric hookups, AC made sense over DC. Down the road (pardon the pun), I can look at 'off-grid' options.
The lights, however, will be DC. I've found an interesting light solution in LED strip lights. I'll go in depth on those in my next blog when they arrive this weekend.
It's called a Teardrop - a unique kind of camper, yet one that has been around for longer than those large, lumbering land yachts you see on interstates and in tourist towns. If you had brought up the subject of teardrop trailers with me a year ago, I would have raised an eyebrow and asked "What's a teardrop?"
And after being shown this picture, I would probably look at its small size (like you're doing now) and say, "Cool ... so what do you put in it?" Would you believe among other things, two adults and a kitchen?
A little history ...
Teardrops tend to follow this layout - a mattress arranged lengthwise on the floor of the trailer, with a stepped divider that separates the kitchen area - accessed from a hatch in the rear - from the footwell of the cabin.
Teardrops got their start in the 1930s, first popping up in magazines like Mechanix Illustrated. Back then cars were limited on both towing power and storage, so teardrops provided for a sturdy enclosure to enjoy the great outdoors economically ... in something other than a tent. Do-It-Yourselfers with a love of getting out there soon found a connection in teardrop trailers.
Teardrops were fairly popular up to the 80s. Gas became cheaper and, not surprisingly, larger RVs started becoming more common. Having more of the comforts of home along for the ride was a big sales point.
Now, these little campers are making a comeback. Their low cost of ownership, aerodynamic shape and light weight make them easy to tow and 'fuel-efficient;' coming back to the roots of what made them popular to begin with.
Why I'm going to own one ...
This year I introduced my son to camping, and rediscovered the fun I had camping with my dad as a Boy Scout. I'm no longer a fan of camping on the ground, so I created a tent pad for my truck - just to keep us above all the critters:
The first trip was great. The weather was nice and cool, and both of us were hooked. Even though the experience was practically perfect, we were eyeing my sister's camper closely (on the left). While the tent was fun, it left something to be desired for creature comforts.
The second trip was for my son's birthday ... in the middle of summer ... in hot, humid South Carolina. Different tent camping experience completely! Thankfully, we were out with my sister's family again and the camper made for a great shelter from the heat and rain. My son and I now had a sense of what our next camping trip should be like.
So I started looking for a camper. Spent hours on the internet, reading manufacturer's pages, poking around Craigslist, and educating myself as much as I could on the subject. I knew a trailer was the way to go, but had to consider its size. I live in a community, and parking campers outside is not allowed. I didn't want to have to pay to store it somewhere, so it had to be able to fit in my garage.
That pointed me towards pop ups. The price was in the neighborhood of sensibility, but this class is a little too much like a tent. I looked at the hard sided variety (e.g., HiLo trailers), but these were too expensive, even for used ones.
I then came across the teardrop trailer. Granted you give up a some amenities (and for some, this might be giving up a little too much), but it seemed like a good fit - especially when fitting into the garage. I thought I could even build one of these myself.
I dove in deep, starting with online build journals, blog sites and forums. Over two months of almost daily research helped me come to understand the possibilities. I came to the conclusion I shouldn't take on a full build by myself. Perhaps I could find someone who could get the majority of it done while I could put in the finishing touches. I had some grand ideas for it, but eventually whittled it down to a sensible list of what I wanted:
As big as I could get it - while still getting it into my garage.
Enough room for at least a full size mattress and a separate twin bunk
Air conditioning
AC Power (with means to add battery power later)
Aluminum skinned
Room for a porta-potty
Ample storage and floorspace
I decided that given the custom design, I could do without the hatchback kitchen (called a galley).
With a teardrop you're going to end up cooking outside, so I didn't see a gain in doing it from the back of the trailer, as opposed to next to a fire or picnic table. Besides, a teardrop without the galley meant a sturdier frame and more interior space.
Finding a builder ...
There are a fair share of teardrop builders out there, and I looked at many sites and videos, but eventually found a fellow outside of Mt. Airy, NC. (Andy Griffith fans should know where that is!) He had posted some basic videos of his work on YouTube, and was offering to build custom teardrop trailers at very reasonable prices. Even though he has just a few projects under his belt, he impressed me with the quality of the builds, and included key features that I was looking for. His company is called Rustic Trail Teardrops.
While this one was too tall to fit in my garage, I thought a slightly shorter one would. The plan I had in mind would call for it to be a foot wider and longer too. A few emails and phone calls (including to the owner of the teardrop in the video) helped me decide to give Jonathan the project. I took a trip up to NC and met with him to finalize the specifics. The build is now on!
Blogging the build ...
Given the fun I had blogging my family's Great Tomato Race, I thought a blog on this effort should be enjoyable for anyone with either a passing curiosity or serious interest in teardrop trailers. Either way, please consider 'Following the Project' by submitting your email address through the link at the bottom of this site. You'll get fresh posts as I write them.
Why "Compass Rose"?
I came across a picture of a teardrop trailer that appeared to have a compass rose design on its side. Turns out it was just a watermark of the company's logo on the picture, but at first glance I saw it differently, and liked what I saw!
Using Google Sketchup I created a 3D model of a compass rose. I positioned the 'camera' in the program to give me a cool perspective view of the model, then snapped a 2D picture of it. You can see it in the banner at the top of this blog.
I plan to take that design to a sign company and have them create large, vinyl decals to put on the sides of the teardrop. This would be the same material used to create graphic designs on RVs, yet this will be truly one-of-a-kind!
