Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

hey Guys,

I sort of fell off the teardrop radar for a few months while other projects and life in general took my focus off building my teardrop/cycle hauler. You guys will be happy to hear that I have been back working on my teardrop for the last week. When I previously ceased my build, I had run into some issues with the way my trailer was built. I orignally had the welder install metal mesh from front to back of the 12 ft trailer. The mesh caused the floor not to sit level and I decided to cut off the back 7ft of metal mesh where the teardrop could sit level on the trailer rails.

I broke out the die grinder and 4 1/2" Grinder and cut off the back 7 feet of metal mesh leaving the front 5ft mesh for my cycle to ride on. After looking at making some changes, I built a 2x4 subfloor for the floor assembly to lay on. Remember, my trailer was built with angle iron and the walls have to hang over the sides. Anywho, here is some pics of my last 7 days back on the build after taking a few months off.


I started all over again on the floor. It's built with 3/4" Sandel Ply and is 85 3/4" x 76. The above pic was taken earlier as the Asphalt Emulsion was drying. I insulated the floor with 3/4" foam insulation. I sprayed 3M Super 90 on the floor and then laid in the insulation and fastened down with 1 1/4" Screws and Fender Washers.


here's a shot of the trailer with the back 7 feet of metal mesh removed and repainted in flat black. I painted the 2x4 subfloor assembly black to match the trailer. The floor assembly will go on top of the 2x4 frame.


A little farther back view to show the true length of the trailer. I have begun to run my tail light wires.


A closer shot of my 2x4 subfloor frame.


A rear view of the trailer. It's been a battle uphill to get to this point but things are finally starting to move along now.


To finish off the day today, I went ahead and lowered the floor assembly onto the subfloor. The tar was still a bit tacky after 24 hours of drying but I figured it will helped hold this thing together. First thing in the morning, I will drill out 8 holes through the floor for the 8" carriage bolts to bolt the floor, subfloor, to the metal rails of the trailer.

Let me just say, I have total respect for you guys that have forged on and built such nice teardrops lately. Even though I have not actively been posting much the last few months, I still visit here daily for inspiration.
After basically starting over 3 times, I am holding onto the hope that I can finish it this time. Stay tuned for more pics..... and lots of questons!!!!

Looking good there Sandman...

You know... you can really give a guy a complex by selling him a trailer and then disappearing!

How ya' doin', Hal?????? Technically, I wasn't really gone...I was coming here daily but just not posting since I had nothing to show.

I was doing a search for your posts a little while ago to see if you had gotten started yet. Looks like you are also a slow-poke..lol. How's the little red trailer doing??? I hope you are still happy with it. I have days where I wished I had just stuck to the simple original plan and just built the Benroy on the Red Trailer. Finally gaining a little ground. I have the walls cut out and the doors cut. I may even get one of the walls glued and screwed to the floor tomorrow.

I can't tell you how many times I wanted to cut my first one up and burn the damn thing. It can be very frustrating. There will be times you question your sanity for doing this, but it pays off in the end.

It's very rewarding when sitting at the campsite and you take pride in the fact that you own something unique. Keep crankin'.

I had always planned on waiting until after vacation to get started. I had everything designed in CAD and was ready to go. Then I sat and thought about it too much while I was on vacation. Now I'm finishing up my new design. Hopefully I'll be ready to cut wood by the end of the month.

Hiya Sandman,

me too............back on the wagon. What you've done looks fantastic !! I see the bike area on your TD is permanent. I started off that way then went semi-permanent and now i've gone with a totally bolt on bike holder. When i am not hauling the bike i'll have a bolt on tongue box which will fill in the area. Some pictures of where i'm upto.....the bike holder actually sits the other way but you'll get the idea.

Niall.

Niall-I always watch your album for updates. You have made quite a few mods to your original trailer design. I love the way you set it up now. Very cool and thoughtful design for hauling around your Yamaha.


Anyway, I managed to wait until the heat of the day had passed before getting back to work on my Teardrop. It is brutally hot and humid in West Tennessee this time of year. Just to share a few thoughts about building teardrops; no matter how much you sand, cut, and shape, You will NEVER get two walls exactly the same. I have shaped until I am blue in the face and just decided I HAD to be happy with the two newly routed out walls. OCD makes projects like this very nerve wracking and you have to beat back the demons and just walk away and give it a rest.

A few days ago, I was rethinking the door size and placement. The last few walls I had cut, had the doors too high off the floor and many here told me I would regret. I knew they were right so I sat down with pencil and paper and played on the graph paper until I could find a happy medium as far as placement and size of the door. I ended up going with a larger door of 26"x32". I decided to cut it where the bottom of the door was 4" off the floor to allow for the thickness of the fold up mattress I bought to go into the trailer. Since 3" of the bottom of the teardrop hang over the sides of the trailer, the door was cut 7" from the bottom of the wall and 8" from the very front of the teardrop. I figured the farther forward I placed it, the better clearence I will have with the fenders. Instead of making my own doors, I am going to cheat and take the easy way out. After all the problems, restarts, I decided to take it easy on myself and buy two of those Horse Trailer Feed Doors which are already premade. Most I have seen on the internet are 26"x32" thus the size selecton of my door cut-outs.

Another thing I figured is to heed MadJacks' advice about not making sandwiched constuction walls with insulation. Winters are not that brutal here in Tennessee so I opted to go for a much simpler design of 3/4" walls covered with carpet from front to back just like they do on Little Guy model teardrops which is what I am modelling mine after. I am NOT breaking any new ground when it comes to originality. My ability to think outside the box sucks so I am going for function over form. The sandwich construction is just another problem waiting to happen so I will just stay simple with the walls...cover them in carpet and be done with them!!!!

Anyway, I spent much of today doing the final shaping on the walls and door cut outs. Here's some pics of the progress below:


Here's the walls clamped together on the saw horses. I shaped them for about 3 hours with my belt sander and palm sander.


Here's the front of the profile showing the fresh door cut-outs.


The rear of the teardrop, the hatch area. It was still roughly shaped at this point but now it's all smooth and even to the best of my abilities.


At the end of the day, I simply push the lightweight trailer back into it's stall in the garage and then tomorrow, I will pull it back out to make room for wood working. The next step will be to temporarily mount one of the walls to see how it will work...this to me is the scary part. When the Liquid Nails gets applied to the side of the floor, there is NO turning back. Yes, I have been at this stage 3 times before and ended up cutting up the walls and floor only to start over again, again, and again. My wife has lost all hope and patience and thinks that this floor and walls will end up sitting at the curb on garbage day just like the other 3 failed attempts.

Hiya Sandman,

Yup lots of changes - for both of us. I have no doubt that you'll be out camping someplace in your TD a long long time before i ever get to spend a night in mine as months seem to pass without anything really getting done. Im going with the insulated/framed walls cuz i ( hopefully) want to end up with a timber exterior.......dosn't sit well in my poor ole brain as i'm no expert with timber work, but i'll keep going and see what eventuates. over the next two weeks i hope to have my floor finished which i suppose is only step 2 in a 2 million step project ! ahahahaha. I chose the Steve Frederick plans to roughly guide me through the process....i also have the cuffel creek plans.....if you havent seen Steve's CD its well worth the purchase price.

I'll keep my album updated.....as my snails pace continues.

Keep up the great work, i wish i was 1/2 as quick.

Niall.

Well, I went and did it!!!!!!!!!! Yep, after 3 more hours of tediously sanding the profiles, I finally got them somewhat close. As soon as you flip them over on the other sides, I kept seeing unevenness all over the place. You can NEVER get two walls identical no matter how hard you try. The last thing I noticed after flipping the walls over bookmatching them up, the door cutouts look bigger on one piece....I just said to hell with it...I'll worry about that later. I don't know how you other guys built these things without loosing your ever-loving mind.

Anyway, I beat back the demons once again and decided to go ahead and mount the driver's side wall permanently. I drilled the holes 6" apart and went back with the countersink bit and carved out the screw holes. After all that, I took a deep breath, smoked a cig, stood back and thought long and hard before cutting open the fresh tube of Liquid Nails Extreme Duty Construction Adhesive. I put out the smoke, cut the tip off, loaded the tube into my caulking gun and held my breath as I laid a big bead on the side of the floor. I got to the end of the floor, walked back to the front and laid down another bead on the lower part of the floor side. After getting it all over my hands, I quickly wiped them off, grabbed the wall and laid it into place. I quickly drove in the front and rear screws to hold the wall in place and then went down the side driving in the 2 1/2" Exterior Screws. Each screw that went in caused more and more adhesive to ooze out of the unfilled screw holes. The squeeze out got bigger and bigger as I worked my way to the rear. With Liquid Nails you don't have a lot of time to dilly dally before it begins to set up. I got the last of the exterior screws in place and then grabbed the right angle jigs I had made a few months back. I quickly screw one end of the jig into the floor at the front and the back and then clamped the upper part of the jig to the walls.

By the time I had finished this, the adhesive that had oozed out had begun to set up so I believe I did it in time. Anyway, the first wall is now drying in place. There is NO turning back now. Here's some pics of this morning's work:

Driver's side wall glued and screwed in place with right angle jigs holding them square to the floor.


Front view of the wall with the jigs in place. Lord I hope it dries square to the floor!


Just a pic from another angle. Does it look like a teardrop yet?


A nice rear shot of the now permanent wall.

Now, some shocking news, I am working from NO PLANS. I have no clue as to how to do the rear hatch, placement of shelves or anything. I am just kind of making it up as I go. The main part of the idea for this Little Guy Sport Clone came from Steve Wolverton's Cowper Plans but sadly they are not complete so I am now on my own.

For you experts out there, if anybody has any insider knowledge of measurements for the Little Guy Sport Model, I would be forever in your debt. I know a rep from Little Guy used to be a member here but he doesn't post here anymore. So, here's a couple of things I need help on....
1. Should I place the roof spars on 12" centers?
2. I think the roof vent needs 14 1/4" length and width?
3. What if my two door cut-outs are slightly out of adjustment to one another....Can I compensate somehow???

sandman wrote:1. Should I place the roof spars on 12" centers?
I think that should be fine (except around the vent)

2. I think the roof vent needs 14 1/4" length and width?
That is the correct measurement. Be sure to double up spars around the vent. The fans have a mounting flange with screw holes that extend beyond the width of a normal spar. You need some wood there to screw into.

3. What if my two door cut-outs are slightly out of adjustment to one another....Can I compensate somehow???
If it's just slightly off, don't worry about it. You can only see one door at a time and nobody will notice it.

I hope that helps.

bledsoe3 wrote:If it's just slightly off, don't worry about it. You can only see one door at a time and nobody will notice it.

I forged ahead and figured Bledsoe3 had a good point. Anything made my man's hands will NEVER be perfect. I spent the hot day today out in the workshop prepping the passenger side wall for mounting. I followed the same procedure as I did on the first wall and managed to get it glued and screwed into place without any problems. After I got the wall glue in place, it started to thunder outside so I figured I was at a good stopping point for the day.

Next, I will begin installing the roof spars and frame for the Fantastic Fan. Here's some pics as of today's progress.


A shot of the rear passenger wall right after it was screwed and glued into place. The right angle jigs sure do make life easier.


A front shot of both walls in place. I never thought I would get to this point but I am slowly making on "Teardrop Time".

Looking good!

Thanks Elmo. I wished I was at your stage and totally done with it. The build has been nerve racking but it is enjoyable to finally see the teardrop taking shape. I have taken several of the past weekend off trail riding just to work on the trailer. I am suffering withdrawls from not riding my trusty KTM 450 EXC.

Elmo, did you say you bought one of those Parallax Power Panels like I did?? I have no clue how to begin to install it. The instructions don't tell me anything except have it installed by a professional. Any tips or pics of how you did it would be a great help. I decided to install my power panel in the galley area for easy access. That's about all I know about it right now.

sandman wrote:Thanks Elmo. I wished I was at your stage and totally done with it. The build has been nerve racking but it is enjoyable to finally see the teardrop taking shape. I have taken several of the past weekend off trail riding just to work on the trailer. I am suffering withdrawls from not riding my trusty KTM 450 EXC.

Elmo, did you say you bought one of those Parallax Power Panels like I did?? I have no clue how to begin to install it. The instructions don't tell me anything except have it installed by a professional. Any tips or pics of how you did it would be a great help. I decided to install my power panel in the galley area for easy access. That's about all I know about it right now.

Yes I did use the same unit you got...I had a professional install it. My buddy came over and did it. I came across the same thing you did about the instructions and asked him to come over and explain it to me and just hooked it all up...he probally figured that would be easier than explaining it to the big dummy. He made it look easy and it works great.

I will try to take a coupe of pictures for you soon. It is not here at the moment. City got on me for having to many trailers in my yard, so it is off visiting my storage area for awhile. And because of the location of the box I don't know about picture quality, but I will do my best.

I will be out next weekend riding with some buddies. I have more miles on the XR this year than I do the Harley. Maybe closing the deal on the KTM 950 this week.