My Tiny Travel Trailer

[Tear Les]

After more times that I care to admit thinking "I've got it" and being terribly torn between a traditional teardop (or close) and Steve's Puffin I finally have a design that meets my need for having a shape somewhat reminiscent of a teardrop and fulfilling the needs and wants as Shelley (the spousal unit) and I laid out.







I decided to restrict the width to 5-feet so it fit better behind our New Beetle tow vehicle and that meant lengthening the body to get the bed in there lengthwise. I decided to do that mostly with a nice curve in the back to take the length to 10-feet. It comes in at 81" tall.

I just went for 70" of headroom (that's for me, Shelley is shorter) to keep the overall height down (my tires are bigger than Steve's on Puffin).

Our Thetford Porta-Potti 585 will be in what looks like an end table next to the streetside couch. The lid will lift up against the outside wall along with about half the front panel which is hinged to fold down so it doesn't stick out. The lower half can stay in place if the toilet is beging used by a standee (it's just the right height with the dropped floor); if it's going to be used by a sitee then the lower half of the front panel hinges down to form a footrest.

I think I will run a curtain track on the ceiling around the drop floor area to make a shower enclosure and the Fan-tastic fan is right above that so it ought to work well and that will surround the Porta-Potti as well.

I've shown a Norcold DE-0051 AC/DC refrigerator under the counter but it could be a cooler as easily. I'll probably do the sink but a cooktop is undecided. I think we'll mainly cook outside but being the (rainy) Pacific Northwest I can always change my mind and add it.

If you're curious, the thinking pattern went something like this...

We live in the Pacific Northwest where it's been known to rain on occassion. The only place to "get inside" in a teardrop is in the cabin on the bed. We have two Blue Heelers. If they're wet and muddy the first place they're going to land is in the middle of our bed. I'm not getting any younger and make a trip or two at night to the "facilities". On a cold and rainy night that's not going to be fun.

Going with a Tiny Trailer gives us a dinette to sit at when the weather is nasty and a place to get warm and watch a movie. There's an area for the dogs to land and get cleaned up before they jump on the bed; they tend to stay at the foot of the bed so they're not as likely to tromp on our pillows. And, the potti is there for nightime use and since it's at the foot of the bed it's private enough in the middle of the night.

It's really hard to give up the smaller "normal" teardrop but practicality won out over aesthetics.

So, there we have it...

[mikeschn]

I like it Les,

The only thing I would do is take 6" from the galley and give it to the bed.

I didn't see a dimension for how high your walls are... Are they 60"?

Mike...

[Tear Les]

I like it Les,

The only thing I would do is take 6" from the galley and give it to the bed.

I didn't see a dimension for how high your walls are... Are they 60"?

Mike...

Thanks Mike!

I may do that; it really depends on the refrigerator as it needs the 20.5 inches or so that's between the counter face and front of the trailer. If I went with a smaller unit or a cooler I could narrow up the front counter.

The wall height is a bit dependent on where I take the bottom edge to; if I go to the bottom of the frame (which is actually 6" inboard of the wall) the measurement is 63"; if I take the side wall to the bottom of the 2x4 underfloor supports it's 60" and then I'd either let the frame show or use some trim boards around the bottom.

I'm thinking of doing something like the following panel layout to get the full side cut out (and that would be at 63")...

[madjack]

..nice looking profile and floor plan...now start makin' sawdust before ya change it again ...................

[steve wolverton]

Well, my first thought is "it is damn cute!"

Just a couple more thoughts...I like the idea of using the dropped floor as shower pan. It's already there, so using it for a standing area, as well as a shower is a great idea. I'm kicking myself for not making mine wider, although it would have added quite a bit more weight.

The first time you wake up in the middle of the night and it's cold, and it's raining, and you're 1/2 mile from the campground restroom, you will be glad for the interior bathroom.

I'm curious as to why you don't want to drop the sides lower. It looks like you plan to cover the trailer frame, but your dropped floor will be visible. I really like the curve on the back, but the front lower curve bugs me. Have you thought about making the front curve just come stright down? You could then build a small tongue box on the front that would carry over the curves of your design.

Last thing is the square window. I think it would look cool with radius windows.

I did a quick butchering of your design. These are just suggestions, and I hope it's ok that I played around with your design. I just realized that I changed your camper into something I want - not necessarily what you want.

[Tear Les]

..nice looking profile and floor plan...now start makin' sawdust before ya change it again ...................

Right you are!

[Duane King]

Wow, I really like your trailer design. I agree with Steve that the squared off front end looks better. If you made a tall enough tongue box, maybe you could put your refrig. into part of it. Then you could make your drop floor a little bigger. Might as well create enough room for two people to maneuver past each other.

I also agree with Jack. Start building quick before we get you all confused. This is a very well thought out rig.

Oh, do like Mike said and make the bed a little longer. 6' is not long enough for regular humans. Or just ignore all the advice and build. This is a nice trailer.

[Tear Les]

Well, my first thought is "it is damn cute!"

Just a couple more thoughts...I like the idea of using the dropped floor as shower pan. It's already there, so using it for a standing area, as well as a shower is a great idea. I'm kicking myself for not making mine wider, although it would have added quite a bit more weight.

The first time you wake up in the middle of the night and it's cold, and it's raining, and you're 1/2 mile from the campground restroom, you will be glad for the interior bathroom.

I'm curious as to why you don't want to drop the sides lower. It looks like you plan to cover the trailer frame, but your dropped floor will be visible. I really like the curve on the back, but the front lower curve bugs me. Have you thought about making the front curve just come stright down? You could then build a small tongue box on the front that would carry over the curves of your design.

Last thing is the square window. I think it would look cool with radius windows.

I did a quick butchering of your design. These are just suggestions, and I hope it's ok that I played around with your design. I just realized that I changed your camper into something I want - not necessarily what you want.

Steve,

I love your comments! Thanks for taking the time to make them.

I had originally dropped the rear curve down to a lower skirt but then wrestled with the front so I went to stopping at the lower edge of the frame. The front curve was there because if it comes straight down I was worried about being too far ahead of the frame (too much overhang) and out over a much narrower part of the A-frame tongue. The front curve was to tuck it back toward the frame.

So...I reworked it with a skirt:



The front curve is there because I'm still not sure how it would work with the overhang and the narrow part of the A-frame; especially with the tongue box. It looks very good but I'd be worried about too much tongue weight and crunching it if backing into a tight space.

If I did do the box how would I now make that front come down straight if I do the lower skirt?

I agree about the windows and I thought about the radius windows but...it rains here (sometimes a lot!). The crank-out windows have a real advantage in that you can still get ventilation without (mostly) the rain coming in; and Grant's crank-outs are priced well. I can get radius windows with a jalousie (torque) center section but they'd be much more expensive.

Like this:



It's a conundrum I tell ya!

Keep pokin' at it; I need the ideas!

[Tear Les]

Wow, I really like your trailer design. I agree with Steve that the squared off front end looks better. If you made a tall enough tongue box, maybe you could put your refrig. into part of it. Then you could make your drop floor a little bigger. Might as well create enough room for two people to maneuver past each other.

I also agree with Jack. Start building quick before we get you all confused. This is a very well thought out rig.

Oh, do like Mike said and make the bed a little longer. 6' is not long enough for regular humans. Or just ignore all the advice and build. This is a nice trailer.

Duane,

Thanks for taking the time to look it over for me and share your thoughts.

I knew I was pushing it with the 72" bed (I still don't know how Steve does it!) but my wife is a lot shorter and I'm only 5'10". Even on our King size bed at home I sleep with my feet over the end so I thought in might work out ok. I'll study that a bit more for sure.

I'm still worried about the tongue weight with the box, how to mount it on the narrow part of the A-frame it would land on, and how to keep from crunching it on a really tight turn. I guess I could follow the A-frame...

I'm running into the tongue A-frame on the drop floor as it is (that's the little angle cut near the door), so if I make it much larger (going forward) it'll continue to narrow down.

I kept trying to make all this work in a more convention teardrop; once I gave in (thanks in large part to Puffin) and decided to go with a TTT it makes more sense for how we'll use the trailer.

[Tear Les]

I showed all my drawings to Shelley; the one with the lower skirt got shot down which was funny because I had already decided it lost too much of the teardrop look. She liked Steve's redo the best and so did I.

Here's my rework of that. I made the tongue box just a bit smaller, I took the rear curve to a full elipse and moved the body back 2-5/8". I'll add that to the bed and maybe make the front counter less deep. If I do that I'll move the refrigerator more toward the center and use the tongue box as Duane suggested for the depth it needs. And, if I do that, I'll add a few more inches to the bed (about 4" or so and with the 2+ I already picked up we should be good). It's a trade-off though because the further forward I go with the drop floor the narrower it becomes side-to-side due to the A-frame tongue.

Remember the drop floor is all the way under the trailer and about 9" inset from the outside wall and if painted black (undercoated) won't be seen much.

The fender still needs work! The tires stick out just under an inch from the side so the fender is almost just a spray skirt.



So...watcha y'all think?

[Duane King]

I believe you said the footwell is 9" in from the edge of the trailer. How come so far from the edge? That seems like a long way to reach your foot in before you can place it down.

This is a great trailer idea. Do like Jack said and start buildin'. We could all "idea" 'ya to death and eventually spoil a real purdy design.

[Tear Les]

I believe you said the footwell is 9" in from the edge of the trailer. How come so far from the edge? That seems like a long way to reach your foot in before you can place it down.

This is a great trailer idea. Do like Jack said and start buildin'. We could all "idea" 'ya to death and eventually spoil a real purdy design.

Hi Duane,

True enough on the idea overload but some things you just don't want to have to go back and redo!

This is why the inset...the red dashed lines are the HF1800 frame I'm building on. I have to get inside the frame side rail before I can make the drop.

[steve wolverton]

So...watcha y'all think?

I think you've designed a great looking little camper.

Make some sawdust!

[Tear Les]

I think you've designed a great looking little camper.

Make some sawdust!

I'm fixin' to do that! I bought an 18-volt cordless drill yesterday and hit the Internet last night and ordered the circular saw and jig saw to go with it. I've got a table saw so I think that puts me in pretty good shape to start.

I did some math this morning...I'm definitely going to have to use 1/4" outer skin and 1-by framing (and perhaps an 1/8" inner skin). If I try to use 3/4" as the walls the weight just goes way too high. Ah well, this way I'll get insulation and hidden wiring.

So now we have a plan! Time to get crackin'.

[steve wolverton]

So now we have a plan! Time to get crackin'.

WooHoo! Don't forget the pictures.