Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Anybody here ever try a vinyl top? I'm thinking of a teardrop top covered with screen that would be wide open at night for ventilation, watching the sky and such and would close with a vinyl top that snapped in place with a slight side overhang. the top would unsnap, roll back to a point just short of the galley hinge. Any thoughts?

Camping Embers wrote:Anybody here ever try a vinyl top? I'm thinking of a teardrop top covered with screen that would be wide open at night for ventilation, watching the sky and such and would close with a vinyl top that snapped in place with a slight side overhang. the top would unsnap, roll back to a point just short of the galley hinge. Any thoughts?

Is this for camping indoors or out doors I wouldn't do too well while driving in the rain. Danny

Absolutely it would seal well in the rain. My 64 Apache Eagle has a vinyl road cover over it when collapsed and water never penetrates during travel. Same principle. if you are referring to the fact that the roof would be wide open while camping, yes thats the whole point. If it rained you would need to unroll the "roof" and snap it down again.

It sounds like a cool idea but my main concern would be keeping the tear rigid. Taking away the ply roof skin would take away a lot of stiffness. Maybe a good size moonroof would be better?

You might have a valid point. There would still be overhead cross spars just like a ply roof was there, but it would be screen. Not having actually built one before the question I don't know the answer to is how much rigidity does the roof skin (ply) add to the structure and is it essential? I do plan on using solid 3/4 inch ply for the walls.

I appreciate all thoughts and opinions.

C-embers...this one showed up in the for sale threads a while ago...is this what you are thinking about? Screened and roll back tonneau type top. Doug

http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=17915

What about a raised frame. Maybe something like framing the hole with 1x4s or 1x6s so there is about 2"-4"s of height above the roof. This would give you something to wrap the cover over and snap to. If you did a channel that the front of the cover slid into, like at the windshield of a Jeep Wrangler, that would keep the driving rain out. Either that or firmly/perminatly mount the front to keep it rain proof. I know of a local place that sells the same convertable top material that companys use for jeep tops, waterproof and strong. I would think that with the proper bracing the TD would be rigid. How big are you thinking? 3'x3'? 3'x5'? You may need some kind of removeable bow to keep it raised for water runoff. I wish I had thought of this, maybe on the next one. What about bugs? Maybe a removeable dropin framed screen.

Camping Embers wrote: Not having actually built one before the question I don't know the answer to is how much rigidity does the roof skin (ply) add ...

CE, it's a bunch. To me, I think the roof ties the whole build into a tight package. I also think you CAN make a screen roof but the extra trouble to make your build a solid unit is not worth it.

That's one thing I miss about a tent. Seeing the stars and listening to the critters hootin' and hollerin' in the woods. When I wake up to a big storm that suddenly blows through, I say to myself, "Man, I'm glad I wasn't in a tent!!"

Jeff

Just be sure to use plenty of bows under the vinyl. This will keep the top from fluttering during transit and will shed water during rain. If you use too few, then you get nice little reservoirs forming between the bows when it rains.

Taking away the roof skin does mean that you'll be reducing the torsional strength of the body a lot - the front will be able to twist relative to the back.

On most teardrops the body is a lot stiffer than the frame underneath. If you take away the top skin, that won't be true, so you'll need to make sure the frame is strong enough and I'd say using tubular material, such as square tube, would be good - 'open' sections, like angle or channel, have almost no torsional stiffness.

Andrew

Ya, that tear on eBay is kinda like I had in mind, but carried to the extreme. The front of the tear would be solid with the vinyl starting well into the front curve and overlapping the front solid curved roof a good 15-20 inches. The snaps would go back to the galley hinge and overlap about 15 inches of solid roof in front of the galley hinge. When unsnapped this would leave several feet of roof screen open. Good idea on shaping the bows to assist runoff. I also plan on a full length metal angle brace on the 3/4 inch walls to help rigidity. I may change my mind, but it still looks doable. Thanks for all the great suggestions & thoughts

The easy way to replace the strength of the roof skin, to prevent racking, would be to add a pair of diagonal braces, in an 'X' pattern. Front and back ends would be where the roof skin stops and each would run from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner.

I would screw them into the bottom of each roof beam and in that case having them follow the front-to-back curve of the roof wouldn't be a problem.

I'm thinking of something like 3/4"x1/8" steel flat bar, or maybe 1"x1/4" aluminum (that might be getting harder to bend smoothly). Buying stainless steel strip would be expensive, but polished up it would look quite good exposed.

Andrew

Down South we've got the morning dew, and sleeping underneath a screen,
ya get a little soggy.

Ya got no dew in Saganaw?

I was in Saginaw Sunday morning, and there was lots of dew on the cars! On the grass too. I didn't see any teardrops up there, but if there were, there would have been dew on them too!!!

So what's the problem? Don't you take a shower when you camp? Seems like you could kill two birds with one stone here.