VORSHEER Trailers wrote:I think doors are so critical and so prone to leaking that spending the money on manufactured doors makes the most sense.
From what I've seen all the major manufacturers of teardrop style trailers buy their doors. These are shops that are dedicated to building trailers. Even with the resources of a shop they still choose to purchase manufactured doors.
Probably the biggest distributor of teardrop doors is Challenger Doors: https://www.challengerdoor.com/teardrop-trailer-doors/
I would highly recommend purchasing doors as water damage is probably the most common issue with teardrop trailers.
Louisd75 wrote:VORSHEER Trailers wrote:I think doors are so critical and so prone to leaking that spending the money on manufactured doors makes the most sense.
From what I've seen all the major manufacturers of teardrop style trailers buy their doors. These are shops that are dedicated to building trailers. Even with the resources of a shop they still choose to purchase manufactured doors.
Probably the biggest distributor of teardrop doors is Challenger Doors: https://www.challengerdoor.com/teardrop-trailer-doors/
I would highly recommend purchasing doors as water damage is probably the most common issue with teardrop trailers.
I dunno...
So Cal Teardrops makes their own doors.
Camp Inn makes their own doors.
Oregon Trailer makes their own doors (though they also do pre-made for some models)
Vistabule makes their own doors.
I'm sure there are others, those are just the first four that popped into my head.
I would argue that it's more of a convenience thing. It's definitely more time consuming to build a door vs just plopping one in. It's not really any more work making a water tight door than it is to make a watertight galley hatch.
For me personally, I'm not a fan of how the pre-made doors look. To me they often look like an afterthought.
KTM_Guy wrote:
I bet all those companies have an area and people that just build doors. With custom jigs and tooling. Out of the scope of a one off builder. When I did my build I went back of forth, build or buy. I cut the door openings for an off the shelf door so I had both options. When it came down to it I bought, I have about 30 minutes total time in my doors. Couldn't say that if I built.
One day I was driving to Flagstaff AZ and the skies were getting darker as I headed north. I made a stop at a rest area and saw a guy with a real nice home built teardrop. He was working on something on the other side of the camper from me. I went over to see if he needed anything. He was duct taping the doors to keep the rain out. He said he was on a three week trip and is was the 5th time he had to do it. After the first bad rain had two days to dry out the mattress.
My advice would be cut your door opening to a stock size. Then when it comes time for doors, look at your build, are you in your time frame to complete? Is the build harder or easier than you thought? How about the budget, did you totally blow that? Do you just want to be done and go out camping? Then you’ll know to build or buy.
Todd
With custom jigs...
I need these to be able to handle a water crossing where the water level gets up past the sill.
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