I am Frank and my wife is Dale.
I have been cruising around this site for almost a year now, mainly looking at photos and getting ideas. I decided that it is about time I signed in and let you know about our Teardrop.
We had never thought about a Teardrop until, the 30th June 2012, while we were driving to Auckland to visit the in-laws. We had received a letter that morning from the British High Commissioners Office, about an all British car rally they were planning that would tour from Auckland to Christchurch in Feb 2013. We were already entered to do The National Classic Car Rally in Christchurch in Oct 2012, so my wife suggested we should take the caravan instead of staying in motels. If we had been taking our 1967 Humber Super Snipe that may have been ok, but as the intention was to take the 1962 Ford Capri, there was no way I was going to tow the caravan to Christchurch and back twice with it. Over 5600kms, towing with a 1.5litre car. On the 2 hour drive to Auckland we were throwing ideas around, then one of us suggested we just needed a bed on wheels, what about one of those little bubble shaped things? We arrived in Auckland and Dale got on the net looking to see if there were any for sale or hire in NZ, but she found very little to choose from. When we arrived home the caravan got listed on Trade-Me, (sold in a week) then we started looking off shore, Australia or USA. This also drew a blank, as we were having a problem getting people to treat our enquiries as a serious possibility. Finally, I said stuff it lets build our own. I had been looking at various ideas on You Tube, TNTTT, etc, and had a rough plan in my head. Thursday 19th July 2012 construction started. I cut the steel for the chassis, and by Sunday night that was welded and the floor in place, and only 10 weeks to go. We were booked on the ferry to cross to the South Island at 8am Friday 12th Oct, so had to be away from home on Wednesday with a stop around Cambridge that night, and on to Wellington by Thursday night. We finally left home 4.30am Thursday, (having worked on the teardrop through to midnight Wed), finally arriving in Wellington (about 850km/530miles from home) at 9.45pm that night. All that in a 50 year old car that I have owned for 30 years and never had anything on the tow bar until we pulled out the gate that morning with the teardrop. Everything went amazingly well, the TD towed like a dream and the car did what it needed, despite the engine fumes on all the hills.
We were amazed by the amount of attention the combination attracted along the way, with people wanting to look and take photos every time we stopped.
I have now loaded photos of the build in my gallery.
Regards Sheddie.
