Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hey all

Welcome to my design and planning stage for Max Headroom, A Pop-Up Benroy.
I have hinted to what I wanted in a few thread but this thread will be my the official design and planning
stage thread. Please feel free to poke and prod the hornets nest if you got an ideal.

What I'm looking for in this design.

*A bigger sleeping area than my little wood 4x8.

*The ability to use the teardrop as a TD without having to Pop the top.

*More storage space

*To be able to sit up on a bench and watch tv or recline a bit and read.

*The ability to stand up and change closes, and stretch would be nice.

*A Water tank instead of wasting galley space with water jugs.

*The space for a small shower and toilet just in case I'm not at an established camping area.

This is the third generation of drawing and cad files. I will keep redefining the shape and size and function
as I go along. The size as It is pictured here is 4'10"W x 9'9"L and 5'6"H. I'm limited to 79" in between my
house and the neighbor fence. I have more room on the other side of my house but will have to drive in the
front yard and around a tree in the back yard so I rather keep it under 79"W fender to fender.

Here is Max Headroom with a cut away top up and top down position.

Here is the frame design and half of the tongue box. Frame is 2x2 steal. The 3 cross members might be 1x2 steel.
The wheels are 14 inch and as narrow as I can get them. Same as the fender narrow as I can find. There is
a 3" drop axle under the frame.





Because the camper is going to be a Pop-Up, I will use a torsion box for the floor in the sleeping area.
The torsion box will make up the strenght I'm losing by having the camper in two parts and not a true 6 sided BOX.

This picture show the outer shell. It is in two parts. The forward section will raise up 2 foot
and have a folding back window section. The back section will have the rain gutter, a fixed roof part ( not shown ),
hinge for hatch, and the lower hatch.

Top down back window folded up.


Next picture shows the Pop-Up section in the up position and the back window unfolded.

This picture shows a 1/2 inch spacer( green ). This spacer will allow a 1/2 gap in between the outer moving
shell and the inner fixed wall. This gap is where cables will run and the spacer should allow wires to be placed in it.



Here is the inner wall installed. This inner wall will hold up the back cabinets and gallery walls.

Here is the bench and table. Back window is in place with rain gutter under it. Here you can see the fixed
part of the roof. This holds the sides together and is needed for a place for the hatch hinge to be installed.
The galley is taking shape here as well.



And again with the galley hatches closed up.



The bed for now will be a inflable Full air mattress. It will roll up and store under the bench. The bench itself
will fold flat to the forward wall and turn into a headboard.

This is a cool design what are you going to be using for a lifting mechanism

Very cool.

Thanks guys and gals

For the lift system I wanted to try a air cylinder. I made a few small PVC air cylinders but found they would
leak too much and if they failed while I was inside locking the top in the up position it would not be good.

So for now I'm just going to put in a cable system. I first ideal was to use Four, 4:1 pulley system. One in each corner.
After thinking about it, the four pulley systems would be connected to the same place under the floor anyways.
The KISS ( Keep It Simple Stupid ) thinking would be better if I just take the 4 cable under the floor and adding a
reduction pulley system there.

To guide the top of the camper as it is going up, I going to use Aluminum T-Track and hard wood strip that will slide in the T-Slot

Pulley system


Cable attachment to outer shell


Cable lift

I remember working on a design like that. Ouch. Good luck building it!

Mike...

That looks neat Mike.


My very first drawing had a rounded front more like a classic teardrop. I had it split along the middle of
the sides front to back. I also have the hatch hinge at the same place the cab split was, like in your picture.
But I just ran into so many problems in my head, so I kept changing the shape. I think the Benroy shape will
work out. If Sumner can make one pretty close to what I wanted, I should be able to make one. It might take
a year or two.

Sumner’s TD link ( most people have seen this )
Teardrop Home Page - Purple Sage Trading Post
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... epage.html

So in your design, pictured above was the sleeping area just in that box under the cover right ?

Junkboy999 wrote:
So in your design, pictured above was the sleeping area just in that box under the cover right ?

Correct. It also didn't make much sense to continue with the design, as I didn't really want to stand on the bed!

Mike...

Well I've been looking at AC setups in others campers, and batteries placements. I like how
Mark and Cindi's Little Swiss Teardrop
had a lower galley center mounted AC and how it was vented into the cab. I made room for
storage and other stuff in between my sleeping area and my galley. I'll have room for a potable
water tank ( outside shower ideal ), batteries, AC unit, electronics, and storage. It might be a bit of an
eye sore but outside access hatches will be needed. If I don’t have access I will have to crawl under the
galley every time I need to fix or adjust anything. The batteries side will be sealed from the other storage
areas. I’ll be making a mock up of the gallery this winter in my shop for a test.

Looks like an intriguing design. Should present some construction challenges, but that's all fun too.

Have you considered moving items that don't really need to be inside the trailer to the outside, specifically on the tongue. The battery and A/C are obvious candidates...and a gas bottle if you are including one. That frees up space inside for more storage or simply more space. With such a narrow trailer, you might appreciate the extra elbow room.

Lifting mechanisms are always fun to contemplate...engineers or just plain tinkerers love to find creative solutions to the problem. Simpler tends to be better as you know. I opted to install a DC linear actuator with a pushbutton. It might work for your top too, but maybe more than one would be required, which could add another wrinkle.

Enjoy the journey.