Can someone tell me why there is no interest in a 5' high

[Gunguy05]

I'm trying real hard NOT to like the 5' high design for $$ and ease of build purposes, but I simply cannot. I'm 6'1" and I keep coming back to that extra head room while maneuveing around inside. Just seems to work for me.

Also, we are going to have bunks on the front end, like the raindrop, and I think that added room in between will make them a little better for the kids as they grow.

I can find 5' wide aluminum online, but 3/4 ply in 5 ft wide is really hard to come by in this area. I called 3 places locally (south GA) on friday to ask if they could even get it and they all acted like I was asking them to turn the sky purple. They had no clue.. guess I could check a cabinet shop, they might have a source locally.

So, this is what I don't like about a 5ft high.. but I am going to keep looking because I think it will pay off in the end with the extra room.

Just my 2 cents

[Todah Tear]

Every Teardrop that I have built has been 5 ft tall.

Todah

[Junkboy999]

Mike
There is a Guy (company ) in Wichita that builds a 5 high, Looks nice but the 12” tires have to go. It is made so you can set up in it at a table. But being short in length the galley loses a lot of room.

2014 MODEL VINTAGE LOOK TEARDROP TRAILER
http://wichita.craigslist.org/rvd/4225492279.html


Mike
You just need to dust off those old plans for the pop up and get to work


My Max Headroom is design is the way to go. From the ground to the top it is 5’ 7” with the top down, same height as my mini Dodge Mini Van. Still usable as a camper without raising the top. In side it is 4’ floor to ceiling with top lowered and fits a Full sized bed.

With the top raised, it is 2 foot taller. 7’ 7” from ground to top with a full 6 foot floor to ceiling interior space. It is only a 5’ wide because of the lack of space in between my house and my neighbor fence.

(Max headroom design link is in my signature if any one has not seen it yet.)



Sharon
That 1949 Zimmer trailer Looks a lot like the Ill fated Odyssey Sport Trailer, Odyssey Trailer Co. This link
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44982&hilit=Odyssey+Trailer+Co

Love to see someone from TnTTT tackle an Odyssey or the Zimmer.


PS Mike I think it is just people have to interest in surveys.

[LDK]

Rather than drift off topic in the poll thread, I thought I'd ask here.

Can someone tell me why there is no interest in a 5' high TTT, like the Midget, Tidget & Widget?





Mike...

I wouldn't mind trying my hand at building a widget someday. 5' high with a dropped floor and my 4' 10" wife could actually stand up in it.
It would be a slouchie to me but I'm not hard to please.

[len19070]

I guess some of the resistance is due to the fact that plywood is traditionally sized at 4X8' (not that it doesn't come in different sized)

I know that as a Carpenter/Builder I think in terms of 4' all the time. So do a lot of suppliers. And building anything over 4' high/wide can almost double the cost as well as cause some "what material can I use now" problems.

I think all these problems can be over come.

But, Its like buying Eggs in a 9pack. You can do it, but its not a traditional way of doing it.

Answers to a lot of these problems can be found in a lot of unconventional places to.

I had a fixture job in a Dry Cleaners factory that required several sheets of 1/2" flake-board 56"X 56". A lot of waste if done conventionally. But my Supplier (US Plywood) sold 5X5 sheets of 1/2" Flake-board for "Ping Pong" tables painted green with the white lines for about the same price as a 4X8 sheet of 1/2". They worked out perfectly.

But! I would never have come up with the connection between 5' material and Ping Pong table tops unless I was faced with the problem.

Happy Trails

Len

[Esteban]

Russian (baltic) birch is more often available in 5' x 5' sheets. I recently discovered a hardwood supplier with a warehouse in my home town, San Luis Obispo, Calif. that stocks it at reasonable prices that are very competitive with 4' x 8' plywood from local lumber yards and big box stores, aurahardwoods.com has locations in California and Oregon.


It will help me complete my teardrop, with less waste, which has walls about 53" high on the outside.

[jgrote]

Although I personally see no need for 5" high, I have noticed in a lot of the responses that getting into the garage seems to be a big issue. Has anyone thought of installing airbags on the suspension so it could be lowered? I have a buddy with a flat trailer with a homemade axle and air shocks for suspension. He can deflate the shocks and lay the frame on the ground.

[working on it]

Although I personally see no need for 5" high, I have noticed in a lot of the responses that getting into the garage seems to be a big issue. Has anyone thought of installing airbags on the suspension so it could be lowered? I have a buddy with a flat trailer with a homemade axle and air shocks for suspension. He can deflate the shocks and lay the frame on the ground.

I also see no need for a 5' high, at the present time, if I was to use it for single person camping, occasionally. That's what mine was built for. But, I also see a need for a taller, roomier trailer (of my manufacturing, not my wife's 20 footer), if a)we were to both camp in it together, b)either of us were to use it where we couldn't set up the "peripherals" - (canopy, porta-potty with cover tent, external cooking and cooler stands) due to time, weather, or space constraints, or c)becoming too physically inflexible to enter/exit/move around in the little 4x8 cabin. My next trailer (hopefully not too long till I can!) will be built to meet these three "new" refinements. I built the present trailer to the max height that I could fit into my garage/shop: made on a spring-suspension frame, 12 foot long, which is 24" to the floor (after installing 14" wheels/tires), and after adding the superstructure >> the thickness of the floor(3/4")+wall height(48")+roof(3/4")= 24+3/4+48+3/4 = 73.5" total height, it will barely fit into my garage bay, partially due to the angle of the slope into it. Build #2 will have to be stored outside, so 5' high (or maybe more) will be the order of the day. Even if I had used a different suspension on #1, it still wouldn't have squeezed under the door very easily, so I don't regret going that direction then. But, on the next one, a longer-taller-wider design, any of the 5'+tall designs would fit the bill. For TnTTT purposes, a teardrop shape is a must, but again, I will probably go outside the box on my #2 build. And, as to the 4x8 sheet of plywood versus the 5' size needed for construction problem: if one needs to join two pieces together, when using an outer skin and probably inner skin or framework, why not use these:

Simpson Strong-Tie plywood sheet connectors

188c-2011.gif (40.22 KiB) Viewed 1387 times

as long as the overall structure is supported properly, and sealed from water/wind intrusion, the mechanically-fastened-together pieces would make assembly possible even for the woodworking novices like me (no biscuits,splices,dovetails,glue-ups, etc. needed).

[HMK]

I'm interested! Where can the plans be found?

[mikeschn]

The plans for the Widget are out there. Let me know if you can't find them..

Mike...

[doris s.]

I want to build a teardrop that is 6ft high at the tallest point. I want to be able to change clothes inside and have a porti potti. I'm trying to find a trailer suitable for the build. So what is with all the commercial trailers with the darn rails on the sides. Ugh! I guess I will have to have it built.

Doris

[bobhenry]

BOY WE DRAGGED THIS ONE OUT OF THE VAULT DIDN'T WE.....

I didn't know any better and wanted mine a bit taller than the 4' material would allow so I stood my 4x8 sheet up making sure the vertical seams fell in the door opening and on the galley wall interior framing it was not a problem.



page 184 of my album shows the progression

[bobhenry]

I thought it turned out well for a first effort and not knowing what I was doing.......

[RPH]

The old yacht designer Nathaniel Herrshoff once said that there are only two options for Head Room (in a yacht) desirable: sitting or standing headroom, anything in between is a waste of space and material. He was correct.
We built (and used) the Widget trailer shown in this thread. It had a drop floor in the galley area so It had both sitting (for me 6’-3”) and standing (for my 5’-2” wife, the cook). For the most part it worked well.
I also built a seagoing sailing yacht that had enough headroom for me in most of the below decks area, however its main beam (about 5’ of headroom) required me to duck in order to go forward. I was forever hitting my head on this beam. It would have been better if it was lower, maybe 4’ from the sole.
Ron