Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Does anyone have any design thoughts about equipping a tear with an interior shower? Necessary equipment, interior design thoughts, any ideas would be helpful!

Kathy

Kathy,, dont take this to heart or as a smart azz remark,,,Dont try to put one in a teardrop,, First you have to stand up to shower, second ya have to have a water supply and a way to heat it, then you have to have a large gray water container to catch the used water and you have to figure out a way to keep everything else in the tear dry for the sake of taking a shower in the tear,,,,all of this equipment and water storage just adds weight and eats up space

by all means build the teardrop,, then grab a towel and soap and head off to the bath house,, If you are camping outside of an equiped campground coleman makes a portable shower but it would be used outside,,, with approprate privacy curtain,,,

JMHO,,

chipper

I take it you are not thinking about sponge baths...

Hmmm... lets see what I can find...

how about a tear with a hottub...



Seriously though, would a sit down bath work for you? Have you checked out the cabin car I sent you the link for?

Mike...

Mike,
That cabin car is amazing. Something like that would be perfect! Do you know the overall weight and the dimensions (specifically, the height) of that design? My garage entry is only about 6'10". Are there plans for it posted anywhere? Gee-this would definately do the trick. And, i just love the asthetic!
Kathy

Here's the info from Nick's page... 5 1/2' high... I think you can get it into your garage...

The following information was provided by Art Rempel. His fully restored Cabin Car is pictured at right.

Fleet Aircraft in Fort Erie, Ontario were looking for products to keep the factory busy after WWII and decided to try making the Cabin Car and uses some aircraft construction techniques, materials, hardware, etc. in the trailers. For some reason or other they didn't sell that well and they only made 1,500 of them in 1947 and then called it quits. The trailer is 12 feet long plus 3 feet for the tongue, 6 feet wide, 5 1/2 feet high from the ground and the cabin area itself is 4 feet high.

The back area was generally for storage, however, people often would put a propane stove back there. I have an old fashioned Coke cooler back there with the wooden water barrel and an extra factory option of a wood picnic table that fits on the bumper. My stove is not shown in the pictures, however it's a single burner old fashioned cast iron propane burner that sits on the counter. People generally did the cooking inside these as the table (counter) has a drop leaf on it along with 3 drawers to put utensils etc. in. Apparently they got complaints about this as it just got too hot inside so they came up with an additional roof vent and a screen door options (I have both). The interior counter also has a small sink in the corner (an option).

Art bought his trailer from a man who worked at Fleet Aircraft right out of high school when they just started building the Cabin Cars. There is at least one aluminum covered one but he has yet to see it in person. He was told when he got his that the factory did not produce any official aluminum trailers, however, there were rumors from time to time that one or two "creative" employees had possibly made one or two aluminum covered ones.

Here's the link to nicks page....
http://www.nicksteardrop.com/cabincar.htm

Also look at Andrew's page
http://www.angib.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/t ... tear41.htm

Mike...

P.S. I think you are on a roll!!!

I would think a shower could be created by using a garden sprayer with heated water inside. Maybe drop the floor by 6-8 inches making the area water proof and installing a drain system within the drop floor area. Have one of the "blue" grey water tanks hooked up outside to the drop floor drain.

Maybe a 5' to 5'6" trailer height with the drop floor would allow enough standing height inside. Think you may need a 10' long trailer, 6' length in the rear for sleeping, 2' length for the drop floor area and the remaining area up front for cabinets to house the cooler, small butane stove and storage. Of course, there would be no hatch nor rear galley.

Just thinking out loud.

Larry

Not to be too harsh here ... if you were willing to innovate heavily and you're not too tall, there are, um, options. I've seen some cool stuff at the popupexplorer site and at the A-Liner site too.

There's a fellow over there who's put in a shower that fits under a seat when not in use; he hangs a vinyl curtain from a Hula Hoop suspended in the ceiling during use to protect his interior against moisture and runs a stovetop water heater made by Coleman thru a dollar-store shower-hose/head arrangement; he's got a cutoff valve in the hose to conserve water and does the "Navy shower" arrangement. I doubt it would actually fit inside a tear, but it might work inside a TTT.

It crosses my mind that the quick'n'dirty easy answer is to set up a camper's solar shower enclosure at one side of your raised hatch to facilitate water heating off the stove.

Dear Kathy,

The builder of a Cabin Car with the shower and toilet at this link

http://photobucket.com/albums/v284/1948rob/Cabin%20car%20project/

just joined this forum. His name is 48rob

and he has posted a few times and really responds to questions
You can find his profile on the last page of the memberlist.

Kathy-

Hi again!

Told ya we would get some feed back!

In addition to all the mechanicals discussed earlier another concern will be MASSIVE condensation!

So it may be a good idea to have the interior (of at least the shower area) with a material that is lite, cheap and waterproof:

http://tinyurl.com/74aqm

And a big ole exhaust fan in the ceiling....

Here's another link of a portable shower system:

http://www.zodi.com/

Cheers,

Coop

Coop,

So much to know, so little brain space left!
But, I must say, my brand new infatuation--The Cabin Car!!
I think I found the next obsession. It might even motivate me enough to finally throw out all that crap in my garage and set up for a big build!

Kathy

kdenault wrote:Coop,

So much to know, so little brain space left!
But, I must say, my brand new infatuation--The Cabin Car!!
I think I found the next obsession. It might even motivate me enough to finally throw out all that crap in my garage and set up for a big build!

Kathy

Kathy-

It will be OK!

Lots of help here, everyone has their opinions (good, bad, controversial) sort it all out, then do what best suits YOUR needs!

The Cabin Car is sweet, if I do another build thats the one for me too!!!

My good friend Len Daddona is on this board as well, his handle is:

len19070

He is from down your way (actually Morton, PA) he is a great builder AND a RV Tech professionally...

He may be willing to show you some tricks if you talk nicely to him and become a TearJerker member! LOL

Oh Len if you read this Thanks and Your Welcome!

Cheers,

Coop

Kathy,

I've been doing Robert ('Feral XJ-SC' username) an enlarged Cabin Car with a shower/toilet compartment between the wheels - but it does not have standing headroom in the shower, so it will be necessary to shower sitting down.

I'm away from home at present so don't have access to these drawings (in a pdf file), but Robert should be able to send them to you, if you'd be interested (and if he reads this message!).

Andrew

Kathy--

The Coleman Hot Water On Demand has a shower attachment for a couple of bucks. Set that over a Potty TeePee outside your trailer and you can shower as long as the gas or water last, whichever goes first.
Rob

angib wrote:Kathy,

I've been doing Robert ('Feral XJ-SC' username) an enlarged Cabin Car with a shower/toilet compartment between the wheels - but it does not have standing headroom in the shower, so it will be necessary to shower sitting down.

I'm away from home at present so don't have access to these drawings (in a pdf file), but Robert should be able to send them to you, if you'd be interested (and if he reads this message!).

Andrew

Absolutely.

By big, it is 164" long by 66" high.

If you are short, and put the shower up front (where Rob48 put it) instead where I plan for it, you probably could have a stand up shower.

Alternatively, I suppose clever top hatch placement....

Gotta love them cabincars!