Vintage Vespa Teardrop build complete - videos / photos

[tburick]

First, I'd like to thank the members here who gave me some great advice as I was going through this build.

The total finished weight of the teardrop is a mere ~170lbs and it tows behind the vintage Vespa fairly well. The limitation is actually the trailer...when I thought for sure it would be the bike. The 150cc 2-stoke motor pulls strong and the manual transmission definitely helps while towing. Even the bike's dual-drum brakes do a good job stopping the trailer. The limitation is the solid axle on the trailer. When I hit a sizeable bump or pothole it will sometimes bounce the trailer wheel(s) a couple inches off the road. I found that adding some cargo over the axle helps...as well as trying to avoid road imperfections.

I had the trailer out over the Thanksgiving weekend for some camping. Video below. There's closed caption commentary if you click the "CC" button in the YouTube viewing window. There's also a link in the description box if you are interested in seeing the "tour/reveal" video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzGYiUVkqqM

Cabin_Car.jpeg (351.04 KiB) Viewed 702 times

[pchast]

Have you calculated the pressure 'required' for the full
trailer weight including occupants?
I was able to reduce the tire pressure in my tear's
tires enough to reduce rebound on the road and still provide
enough for control and support.

[tburick]

Well...the problem is the tires are foam filled / non-pneumatic. What I'll probably do at some point soon is find pneumatic replacements. I'll post back after the solution

BTW - anybody know why were hating on Spam????
It's my favorite camping food in the entire universe

[Tom&Shelly]

Well...the problem is the tires are foam filled / non-pneumatic. What I'll probably do at some point soon is find pneumatic replacements. I'll post back after the solution

BTW - anybody know why were hating on Spam????
It's my favorite camping food in the entire universe

Mine too! Read somewhere that it causes dementia, but I don't remember where.

Of course, this smiley thing is for the other type a lot of which seems to be fellows from China trying to sell us stuff like industrial aluminum.

Oh, also, I read somewhere Spam can cause dementia. (But I don't care!)

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Seriously, though, great trailer, and I really like your video! Bet you'll have lots of fun with it!

Tom

[cluttonfred]

Great-looking trailer and nice video, thanks for sharing. A couple of questions:

—What trailer did you use as the foundation for the build?

—How did you keep the weight so light? Did you follow a particular set of plans?

—The trailer lights did not appear to be connected in the video. Any trouble connecting those to the Vespa?

Cheers,

Matthew

[Cosmo]

Great video. Thank You

=Cosmo

[tburick]

Cluttonfred,

My friend and I built the trailer frame from from scratch. It's made of aluminum and with the tires and axle weights only 26 pounds.

I did not follow any plans. I designed the trailer. There's a lot of aluminum, foam, canvas, glue, ash wood, and other super lightweight materials used in the construction process.

The trailer lights are not currently connected. A 1962 Vespa does not have a battery as part of it's electrical system. The electrical system largely relies on OHMS to operate...it's incredibly crude...even for a 1960's vehicle. I barely understand it...it's a process to even figure out headlight and tail light bulbs without causing other bulbs to pop when it's time for bulb replacement. I might just turn the trailer tail lights into constant ultrabright flashers with an onboard trailer battery and call it good.

COSMO - thank you for the compliment! It's appreciated.

Tom

[Capebuild]

what a great video.... and really cool trailer!
How long does it take to cook the hen the way you set it up? Thanks.
John

[tburick]

Capebuild,

Thanks for the compliments.

I cooked the Cornish Game Hen for 2 hours on very low heat. I turned the stove burner down to almost the point of it self-extinguishing.

Keep in mind that hen was stuffed with homemade stuffing but even at that, 2 hours was overkill. If I had to do it again, I'd probably cook it for 1.5 hours.

Nothing saying you couldn't do it for the full two hours though. The bird was juicy and the meat just fell off the bone.

Wrap firmly in 3 layers of parchment.

Enjoy!

Tom

[Capebuild]

I showed my wife the video (which she also loved).. but we both were interested in the cooking of the bird. I thought using the stones to elevate the meat was very ingenious. You must be a fan of Julia Child with the generous butter application

I raise my own meat birds so always interested to see how others cook their's .... especially during travel/camping escapades.

John

[tburick]

I'm glad you guys liked the video. I don't know how apparent it is, but I have full text commentary if you hit the close captioning "CC" button. Did you happen to catch that or did you watch without any text commentary?

EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH BUTTER