Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hey Guys,
Howdy from Michigan and if you please, a quick question.

I would like to construct a "special" tear drop style trailer and I am seeking advise from those that have gone before.

My wife and I ride Long wheel base recumbent bicycles and have need for a trailer to haul these bicycles to distant ride/camp locations.
We also like to camp and.... you guessed it... I would like to somehow blend the two needs and build a hauling/ camping tear.

I have been scouring the Internet this past few days looking over my options and I have found several profiles that I think would lend themselves to our preferred aesthetic and also the carrying needs of these two bicycles.
For those unfamiliar with Long wheel Base recumbent bicycles check out:
http://www.easyracers.com/02-about.htm
for a glimpse into what they are all about.



We like the look of the " Cub" or "Grumman 2" profiles . We like the shorter Superleggera and Ultra light but unless I get real creative I don't think I can make an 8' length work for us..

I have consider letting part of the bike spill into a tongue box.
My idea being to build what appears to be a separate tongue box that is in fact open on it's back side to the main trailer cavity. Could work and may be one option to avoid going longer than an 8'

Could be fun to watch the reactions to pulling an 8'+ bike from an 8' mini trailer.

Once we arrive at the camping area I would offload the bikes and set up the now empty trailer as a sleeping unit with an inflatable mattress and have a pleasant place to rest after a long day of riding.

At night we will stow the bikes in an attached screen room.

I found one "cargo only" teardrop on a manufactures site.

Looked rather straight forward and a relatively simple build (I am a cabinet maker/woodworker) .

My consideration and finally my question..... should I consider any special construction because I will not be able to count on the added structural integrity afforded us from the Galley structure?

I had planned to use 13 ply Baltic Birch as my "core" , from which I intend to remove approximately 80 percent and infill with 3/4" rigid foam. I will face inside and out with 1/4 " Baltic Birch or equivalent to form stress skin panels.

Likely will skin outside plywood in Aluminum or if motivated may do Western Red Cedar strip build with glass, epoxy. ( West system) in place of the outer 1/4" plywood skin.

I do plan for windowed doors each side and roof vent and insulated stress skin /foam roof.

Basically a garden variety tear drop, sans any permanent galley cabinetry.
I may get creative and do a fold up counter top for lite cooking.


I welcome any and all advice, sage like wisdom and words of encouragement .


Cheers and thanks in advance for any and all replies.

Thanks also for the folks behind the scenes that keeps this forum resource available for us to use.
I have read many posts and must say what a great group you all seem to be, very much appreciated!!

Darrel

Hey Darrel,

Welcome to the forum. We had a bicycle section, but it wasn't getting much business, so I hid it for a while.

But since you're interested, I dusted it off, and put it back online. There never was a whole lot of activity in that area, but something is better than nothing, right?

Maybe you can add some good information to it.

You can find it here...
http://tnttt.com/viewfo ... 9a3f1417c5
or under Tiny Travel Trailer designs...

Mike....

Mike,

I clicked the link, seems there is still a little dust on that one. Here is the message I got "The forum you selected does not exist"8)

mikeschn wrote:Hey Darrel,

Welcome to the forum. We had a bicycle section, but it wasn't getting much business, so I hid it for a while.

But since you're interested, I dusted it off, and put it back online. There never was a whole lot of activity in that area, but something is better than nothing, right?

Maybe you can add some good information to it.

You can find it here...
http://tnttt.com/viewfo ... 9a3f1417c5
or under Tiny Travel Trailer designs...

Mike....

Oh yeah.... Hi Darrell welcome, nice 'bent ya got there.

There was a build just like what you are describing. Hopefully the owner will respond to you as I'm afraid I don't know who it was.
His solution was to have a hinged section in the middle of his galley that would fold open to store the bikes, and then close up when the bikes were removed to provide a normal galley counter and separate the sleeping area.
I believe he also was riding LWB recumbents; me, I've got a SWB and a trike, so you're not the only one of us here

-Greg

Okay, I changed the permissions... try it again...

Mike...

P.S. Darrel, Think "carbon fiber"...

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the warm welcome.
I will certainly check out the archived bicycle section.

We had Rans Rockets prior to the LWB and these fit nicely in the mini van.

Using a trailer will be new to use .

Ideally we can find a good fuel economy tow vehicle and be all set up yet this summer.

Cheers,
Darrel

mikeschn wrote:Okay, I changed the permissions... try it again...

Mike...

P.S. Darrel, Think "carbon fiber"...

Hey Mike ,
Thanks.. seems to work fine!

Think Carbon fiber Bike? or are you suggesting CF skinning on the tear?

Both sound yummy but outside my current knowledge base and equipment.
I can do hand lay up glass/ epoxy over wood as in Kayak building but CF IIRC needs vacumm bagging?

This forum is extensive and will keep me busy for some time to come.
Thanks for doing what you all do.

Cheers,
Darrel

PS that Bike is a stock photo from Easy Racer and not actually mine. Although very similar mine is a slightly longer and lower custom build.

Welcome Darrel,
There are Td's made to carry motorcycles inside so your need is not unusual.

Maybe someone has a picture of the motorcycle and can share. As for the front tool box---does the front wheel not come off easily?

This is Catrinka's cargo conversion. Notice the front

Hey Miriam,
Thanks for the welcome!

Yes the wheels do have quick releases and come off easily.... unfortunately the fairing's are less easy to remove and ideally it would be great to just be able to pull up and offload them more or less ready to ride.


For some reason we are drawn to the look of these little TD trailers and would be willing to make some concessions to make this work..

I think we are close with an 8' and maybe a wheel removal or a 9' with little to no bike mods. 10' would be a piece of cake but not really the look we are wanting..

Cheers and thanks,
Darrel

Here is a commercial version of basically what I had in mind:

http://www.golittleguy.com/cms/component/option,com_zoom/Itemid,77/catid,27/

Longer perhaps and with an additional door and windows for camping.


These do not seem to need any additional structure to maintain integrity, however I have no clue how this particular version is constructed .

How sound are your builds prior to installing your galleys?

How much structural contribution do you depend on from the addition of the cabinetry in your Galleys?

Cheers,
Darrel

hmm one idea would to make the galley where 1/2 the width would be removable, upper part on a hinge and the lower locked into place with sliding bolt locks when it comes to loading the bike unlock the lower and slide it out, swing the upper up and secure to the open hatch and wheel the bikes in..

the picture in my head of this would take about 5 minutes to load in there. inside the shell you could put some swing up arms to secure the bikes to it and let them rest on the wheels.


just an idea

Darrel!

Think about a 9' version of the Modernistic/Cub with the rear profile squared off below where the galley countertop would be (I've got a pattern and could shorten & do that simple morph for you at no extra charge - www.LilBear.teardrops.net ) ... move the "galley lid hinge" forward a foot or two (how tall are your bikes at the top of the windshields?) ... and don't worry about the integrity without the galley or bulkheads, you can compensate with some simple corner bracing on either end of the galley lid hinge beam and some similar bracing at (what would be) the floor/wall juncture where the under-counter bulkhead would be. As some have already suggested, a couple of hinged bulkheads with fold-down countertops could serve as a simple food prep / galley area.

Sounds like a cool idea! Will be interesting to see what you end up building ... ...!

As always, then ...

CHEERS!

Grant

DanL did something very similar, though with a quared-off profile:



Dan doesn't seem to have finished his web site, but it would be worth a look. He hasn't posted since July last year, so he may not see this discussion

http://sunsetlanding.com/teardrop/teardrop_intro.html

Andrew

grant whipp wrote:Darrel!

Think about a 9' version of the Modernistic/Cub with the rear profile squared off below where the galley countertop would be (I've got a pattern and could shorten & do that simple morph for you at no extra charge - www.LilBear.teardrops.net ) ... move the "galley lid hinge" forward a foot or two (how tall are your bikes at the top of the windshields?) ... and don't worry about the integrity without the galley or bulkheads, you can compensate with some simple corner bracing on either end of the galley lid hinge beam and some similar bracing at (what would be) the floor/wall juncture where the under-counter bulkhead would be. As some have already suggested, a couple of hinged bulkheads with fold-down countertops could serve as a simple food prep / galley area.

Sounds like a cool idea! Will be interesting to see what you end up building ... ...!

As always, then ...

CHEERS!

Grant

Hey Guys,
Thank you all very much for your warm welcomes and great suggestions!

Grant,
Thanks for chiming in here, I took a look at the Modernistic/Cub and this is the profile that speaks to us .
I like this shape and would not wish to alter it although we may need to slightly rescale and or possible stretch it a wee bit.

I don't have the specifics on the bikes as they are still at the frame builders getting fitted.

The front wheel is a 20" and the rear 700c.

The fairing is attached to the front forks and also the handlebars and there for are adjustable . In the riding position I would guess them to be about 41". sloped back... maybe 35" ?

We have several options... we can load rear wheel first and try to reduce the height of the front end by removing the wheel and leaning the fairing way back without removing.
Option 2 would be to load them in front wheel first and remove lthe seat to clear the rear hatch cover.

Option 3 sees us making a fake tongue box and letting half the small front wheel slip in there reducing our overall length by about 10" or

Option 4 some measure of all of the above....

and don't worry about the integrity without the galley or bulkheads, you can compensate with some simple corner bracing on either end of the galley lid hinge beam and some similar bracing at (what would be) the floor/wall juncture where the under-counter bulkhead would be.

This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I can have some fun with this and add in a small barrel vault profile to the ceiling wall junction to add strength and visual interest.
Using strip built I can fashion most any fair curve. Sort of like a large fillet or cove molding effect... Cool!

I had planned to relocate the hatch hinge more forward to give us more load in height.
I also thought of making a "Tail gait" section that folded down like on a pickup truck. having a two part hatch I thought would cut down on the flown weight and could also serve as a load in ramp if the inside was made to a sloped profile.

Having any galley section would be nice but not having any would not be a deal breaker on this particular build.

We generally ride for most of the day and would only do lite cooking for breakfast or hot water for tea or coffee.
In theory we could do all our cooking on a small fold up table in the screen room....

I can readily see myself making a second , camping specific build..
I saw a Trolley top that spoke to me.

Here is a "Trolley" I built several years ago to vend ice cream, pop and candy from. We worked it for several summers.



Thought all of you trailer fans would enjoy seeing this.

Being pulled by a Belgian Draft horse.

This is going to be fun.....

Thanks again everyone!!

Cheers,
Darrel