Who had the gull-wing doors? They were PIMP!

Posted:
Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:43 pm
by KDOG
Awhile back someone posted their build pictures and they had gull-wing doors on their teardrop, which I thought was freakin' AWESOME. I plan to copy that idea. I'll search and see if I can find it. But its' such a good idea, its worth bring up again.

Posted:
Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:51 pm
by KDOG

Posted:
Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:12 am
by Sawyer
Thanks for the compliment! I will warn you though, now that I have a few camping trips under my belt, I feel that the costs of this type of door outweigh the benefits...
Benifits: Looks pretty cool and unique. They provide shelter from the elements when nature calls at 3am on a rainy night. You can easily add canvas (or similar) sides to create a built in side tent.
Costs: More difficult and costly to engineer. My TD is super tall, and the doors still are barely high enough to clear my head when I stand underneath (I'm 6'1). It's somewhat hard to close the doors once you're in the TD (there are ways around this of course, but it can be a P.I.T.A.). I went through 3 different sizes of hydraulic cylinders before I found what works well. Fairly limited for door-shape choices.
That said, I'm not sorry I made my TD with gullwing doors. However, my next build will have traditionally hung doors...
Good luck with whatever you do, and let me know if you decide to go for it and want any advice!

Posted:
Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:35 am
by greg755
I think those doors are really cool.
One of the reasons you build a teardrop is for the cool or unique factor.
Half of the fun of owning one is having people talking to you about it.
There is only so much you can do with a TD but it seems that everyone finds a way to personalize theirs, not only to suite their needs but to "wow" other people.
So I say build it brother, because in the end only you have to live in it...