How did you discover teardrop campers?

[High Desert]

I saw one at a campground, liked the idea of not needing an 8 mpg tow vehicle. An interweb search led me to Gage's site. That lead me here. Simple, right?

[danlott]

It seems like I have always know about them. When I was a kid I use to read the old Popular Mechanix that my school had, that is probably where I first seen one.

Dan

[doug hodder]

I saw my first one probably in 1959 when camping. That's what we did for vacation back then, load the '57 Ford station wagon and go for the weekend in an old funky umbrella tent. I always liked them...got my first one in the late 70's an old Kit. Sold it mid 80's when I got an old Monkey Wards tent trailer. Found this site and built my first one in '05. Doug

[T&CLongmire]

Penterest picture the wife fell in love with.

Tim

[bc toys]

Went to a Las Vegas dutch oven cookout and saw the group all had them. Here i was in my 27 ft TT told wife I want to build one like Joannes. She tried to lay in it and said no way its like sleeping in a coffin. So I got on here and found the cargo section, then we got our first cargo. Enjoyed it took it out all the time got rid of 27 ft TT. Then one day after a camping trip I said think I'll sell the cargo and get a bigger one. Sold it to a lady on here from Kansas [hope she is enjoying it] Got a bigger on and now building it the way I want it to be.
Just want to thank all you for letting me be apart of your group met many of you and hope to meet many more.

[DMcCam]

I Was home alone watching TV one Sunday and caught the end of an RV program showing a gathering...I thought, 'holy crap! that's perfect!' My wife and I were looking for something just like a teardrop to replace our tent camping gear. When she got home I showed her a bunch of videos on YouTube I'd found, she said, "I really like this idea!" We started surfing the web, found TNTTT and joined immediately. Right off the bat, Debbie and Randy from Lovelock Nevada posted a warm welcome in my New members thread and invited us to see their woody Monstro. At first we thought about purchasing a manufactured teardrop but after visiting with them and seeing their fantastic woody teardrop, we decided to build our own. We're now in crunch time to finish our trailer for IRG at the end of the month! We can't wait to meet all the great people we've got to know here on the board.

Cheers,

Dave

[GuitarPhotog]

When I was a kid (early 50s) my uncle had one. I don't have many memories of it except for sleeping in it once during a rainstorm when my tent flooded .

When I was ready to give up tent camping a few years ago, I looked at all the options for solo camping and decided a teardrop was the best solution for me and started looking.

I looked on Craigslist every day for 18 months (and went to see about 1/2 dozen) before I found the right teardrop for me.

<Chas>

[bobhenry]

Re-quote

by bobhenry » Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:38 am

January 07

Cold and miserable outside and a co-worker was surfing the net and found a teardrop trailer ad for ONLY $15,000. He called me into his office and showed me my 1st teardrop trailer. I was caught up and started surfing everycorner of the net and found t&ttt , immediatly joined and started building Eggbert a very low cost 3x5 motorcycle cargo. That build was quick and I was still stoked so I started Chubby a 5x10 for the wife and I. Now a barn trailer and the dog has a teardrop dog house.

Here is a requote from a year earlier ( story sounds similar )

by bobhenry » Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:39 am

There I was at work minding my own business, quietly surfing the net in a moment of down time in my job. A co-worker was building a little explorer box trailer for his camping excersions and found a teardrop. Calling me into his office to show me I was instantly "on a mission" I surfed for any and all info on teardrops. I went thru 100's of sites and one common reference kept coming up,"Teardrops and tiny travel trailers". This site was quoted in many , many articles so I went looking and joined the forum. I have built 2 tears and neither is completely finished ( but are they ever really finished ). The wife and I have been to 5 gatherings and have loved every minute of them. After years of hard work and forgoing vacations we decided this is our time and this is how we want to spend it !!

Thanks to all who's efforts have made this forum what is is today !!

[nevadatear]

I don't remembered the exact order of things, but I remember it all started about 12 years ago after my divorce. I started tent camping again, but my back didn't like it. I didn't want to sleep on the floor any more. On on birding trip I saw a tab, but it seemed too big. I searched the Internet and found several articles, one about 10 years old about teardrops. I knew that was exactly what I wanted. I started keeping articles and scanning websites. Put them away for someday. After getting together with randy., the steel craftsman, I started brainwashing him. He wasn't sure we had the time to build as he works 6 days a week. We checked out a T@B in Reno and knew it was too big and outside galley was a requirement. Looked at little guy and that pretty much convinced randy we would build rathervthanbuy. I keep searching and found this site and keep downloading and book marking and showing to randy. By this time, around 2008, we knew we were going to build, but not ready to commit, didn't know how to get started.

Then i found Steve Fredrick's how to manual he had just published. It bought it and gave it to Randy for some holidAy. That did it. He was motivated. Randy devoured it and within a couple of weeks I had a cardboard mock up in my front room, a couple of weeks later randy built the frame and we started making sawdust. Somewhere along the line we saw rv crazy, but we were already hooked by then. About half way through our build we Went to our first gathering and met doug hodder, john and cathy, joanne of camp cook and Were even more motivated to get it done Without this site or the internet, we may never have built. It was a great way to start our new life together. And thanks Dave for the kind words!

[mvperini]

my parents had one in 1950 when i was just a baby bouncing on my daddys knee, after my brother and sister were born the folks went to tent camping. move forward to 2007 bought a PT cruiser and the search was on for a small trailer found a 47 kenskill teardrop and 5 vintage trailers later the search still continues for the next perfect trailer



Mike and Zellie

[shootr]

Somebody posted a build blog link on Instructables a couple months ago, when through it page by page. By the end I was hooked, googling everything I could find, found this joint, and been dreaming and planning ever since.

[aggie79]

Cosmic Convergence:

As the kids were leaving home, my wife and I were looking for things to do with our newly found free time. I thought I'd revive an old hobby that I hadn't done in a couple of decades - woodworking. About the same time we started tent camping again after many years of not camping at all. It was fun but neither of us liked sleeping on the ground. In researching tools for woodworking, I came across this site. And as they say the rest is history. My first major woodworking project was our teardrop.

[2bits]

I LOVE nature and HATED tents. I had only been camping once in my entire life and it was in a tent and while I loved the camping, I hated the hassle and expense of all the gear. By the time you got home you were ready for a vacation. I wanted to camp Thomas-style, and I was poor. The same idea that probably spawned teardrops. The mainstream campers that I had ever seen were too big, made cheap and way out of range for me anyway. The restored classics that I had ever seen were still too big and still out of financial range. Being the build-it kind of guy I am I decided to just build my own. I looked up cabover campers on the internet since they were just the right size and found some plans to build one, when a buddy from my car club turned me on to teardrop trailers. I did a search, and found that it fit with my rockabilly style, were totally functional in the exact way that I wanted. I knew i didn't need some big lumbering RV, I just needed to sleep in the air conditioning and/or heat. Not to mention it would look great behind my truck!

[Roly Nelson]

While attending a custom car show in a nearby town, there was on old beat up woody TD parked on a side street, with a young fellow assigned to keep an eye on it. I asked if there were any plans for this kind of trailer, and he said he didn't know. I wanted to see the interior and asked if I could open the door and check it out. "I guess so", was his reply. After a look-see, and a walk around, I made a couple of other inquirees, to which he failed to respond. So, I figured that these little trailer folks wern't very friendly or helpful, or else he was angry for being forced to stay there, while his Dad was showing his car.

I promptly got on line and found the TD forum started before this one caught on. I asked where I could see one, that was perhaps in better shape. Dave Locke, (a custom builder and user) responded and told me where his TD was going to be on display the following weekend. I drove down there, got an absolute professional guided tour of his beautiful tear, so friendly and helpful. From that time on, I was hooked, got the HF trailer frame, did the old cardboard profile trick, complete with fender and wheel, and dispite some spousal resistance, got-er-done in about 5 months. Gage and another Teardropper even brought their rigs to my place, to give me some pointers about my build. Hows that for helpful? I never looked back, sold the motorhome, took the sweet wife camping and the rest is history. Even the dog is excited about the up-coming trip to the IRG, later this month, can that be?
Roly, the li'l ol' woody TD man in So Calif.

[Vedette]

As a Street Rodder for the past 45 years I have seen many.
But my first real encounter with a home build one, was when a friend built one back int he late 70's or early 80's to tow behind his 34 Ford Vicky.
I have been hooked ever since, but have never owned one??? We were tenters!
But now we are looking forward to the completion of "Miss Piggy"......13 more days to D (departure) day??????