Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

by **Rick Sheerin** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:34 pm

Beautiful job Dean, love the red wheels with the baby moons, gives it a nice vintage look. :thumbsup:

by **rmclarke** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:18 pm

Dean,

Super job....very classy!! :applause:

And now you get to use it!! :thumbsup:

Richard

by **Dean_A** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:33 pm

Rick Sheerin wrote:Beautiful job Dean, love the red wheels with the baby moons, gives it a nice vintage look.

Thanks! And just for the record, they are not really the hot pink that shows in the original photos. They are a nice vintage cardinal red. Here is a color-corrected photo:

by **aggie79** » Sun May 03, 2009 7:45 am

Incredible job Dean - from the design to execution! :applause:

The way my build is going, 4 1/2 years seems about right.

by **Dean_A** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:39 pm

Finally took a break from camping long enough to start some of my "upgrades". I added a sliding tray for the cooler this weekend.

by **SATEAR** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:26 pm

I am new to the forums and found this post. I have a tear similar--'47 Kitt that I am rebuilding/restoring. I am down to removing frame rust at this time.

I see that your hatch does not have a handle, do you just hold it down with the side clips? How does that work?

Did your hatch give you much trouble?

Hope mine comes out as good as yours!

Gabe

by **Dean_A** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:03 pm

SATEAR wrote:I am new to the forums and found this post. I have a tear similar--'47 Kitt that I am rebuilding/restoring. I am down to removing frame rust at this time.

I see that your hatch does not have a handle, do you just hold it down with the side clips? How does that work?

Did your hatch give you much trouble?

Hope mine comes out as good as yours!

Gabe

Thanks! My hatch just has a grab handle on the back for lifting. All the latching/locking is done by the adjustable/lockable draw latches on the sides. They do a great job and were very easy to install. They require very little in the way of precision when it comes to installing them, and they snug the hatch down tight against the seals.

My hatch didn't give me any particular trouble. I only had to build it once, thank goodness. Of course, the building only came after hours of obsessive planning. I'm sure yours will come out fine. Just take your time and think it through. :thumbsup:

by **SATEAR** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:23 pm

By the way, did you have to buy new aluminum skins? I can't find any for less than $48 a sheet. Did you have better luck on the price?

Gabe

by **SATEAR** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:45 pm

Did you find them on the web or locally?

Thanks,

by **Dean_A** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:28 pm

SATEAR wrote:By the way, did you have to buy new aluminum skins? I can't find any for less than $48 a sheet. Did you have better luck on the price?

Gabe

I had to buy new everything, as this was scratch built, not a restoration. I found the aluminum locally, but I don't think I beat your price.

by **vrodjason** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:01 pm

Very nice! I hope when I finally build mine it turns out half as nice!

by **Wig** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:01 am

I like the top shelf it looks like it holds a lot of stuff.

by **Minicamper42** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:11 pm

It took a while to get through all the pages...and like this awesome TD it was worth every minute...very professional job in deed...if I was to meet you at a camp site, I'd swear you bought that from a dealer...then again, you would never find that kind of quality at a dealer...enjoy the TD for many years :applause:

by **Dean_A** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:15 pm

Minicamper42 wrote:It took a while to get through all the pages...and like this awesome TD it was worth every minute...very professional job in deed...if I was to meet you at a camp site, I'd swear you bought that from a dealer...then again, you would never find that kind of quality at a dealer...enjoy the TD for many years

Thanks! I have to say, people are very surprised when I tell then I built it myself. They often don't believe me. I bust my buttons every time it happens!

by **SIXTOTWO** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:13 pm

Dean_A wrote:
Miriam C. wrote::applause:
Way cool. Can you tell me about the hatch supports or where I can get detailed information? I might have to change my plan.

I think you will at least be campable by July.

Miriam, I got the hatch supports through Austin Hardware. I like the low-tech nature of these props vs. the gas lifts. I did have to do some modification to these though. Shortened them up and removed one of the brackets. Easy stuff. They have more sizes and configurations now, but at the time I got mine, they only had one length and one type of bracket, so I had to make do. I ended up cutting mine down to about 18.5" Let me know if you want more info, or better pics.

--Dean

Hey Dean,

I'd like to see some more of those pictures on your hatch support. We're ready to put the same supports on our tear. Saw them first here on your thread and they looked like what we wanted. Ordered and received them within three days.
How did you figure out the right place to put them and how long the supports should be?? Is there some kind of formula for supporting the weight in the right place? We already took the one bracket off on each support.

Thanks so much!
Q

this photo helped a lot.

Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Dean_A's Build--FINISHED!!!

Dean A's Build--Updated 09/20/09

Great Job!

Re: Great Job!

Thanks for the info.

Where did the hatch latches come from?

Re: Thanks for the info.

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