Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello Everybody

I just registered today. I've been reading your forum for the last couple of weeks and I want to thank all of you for posting such great info and for posting such excellent pictures of your work. You all have my admiration.

You now have me wanting a teardrop. BUT..for now I have a harbor freight trailer with a car top carrier that I pull behind my Goldwing Trike. It carries all my camping gear. I need a larger trailer for a tear drop and a place to store it since my garage is full and my boat storage is full.

Being a woodworker, I've wanted to take the car top carrier off the trailer and build a fancy wooden box...Here is the style I will probably end up with:

http://www.classictrailersalesinc.com/a ... /index.htm

I know this isn't a teardrop but you folks are professionals with this type of woodworking and hopefully can answer a few questions for me.

The trailer is 40" wide and 48" long...box length and width. I was thinking of making the sides out of 1/2" plywood and the top out of 3/4" plywood for adding strentgh in case I needed to strap something on top of it. It would have a door on top. It would strictly be for hauling around my camping gear.

Then for the fancy part I was thinking of gluing very thin pieces of wood such as teak, oak, walnut, etc over the outside of the plywood. Of course it would have to be trimmed out. I was also thinking of making a wood railing all around the top of the box. Then sealing everything where it would be waterproof. If you've ever seen a wood stip canoe or kayak..then thats sort of the look I'm thinking of.

Does this sound reasonalble to you folks? Will the 1/2" plywood with thin strips glued to it work? Will this hold up to highway speeds?

Even though weight is always important when pulling a trailer I know folks that pull their camper trailers loaded close to 500Lb with their goldwings.

Thanks for any help or advice you can give me \.

David

David,

First of all, Welcome to the board!!

I like the look of that trailer. Are you going to use anykind of framing on the inside. If so, you could easily use 1/2" for the sides and the top, I would think. Just use some 3/4" x 2 or 3 and frame it out and then use some poplar for spars to support the top. Actually, if you do that, I think that 1/4" would work fine. Especially since you are then going to cover it in strips too.

Looking forward to some pictures!

...yep, everything Kerry said...I would use epoxy to apply the veneer and seal it...a couple(r3r4) of coats of a spar urethane or auto clearcoat to protect it from UV rays and you will be set to go...with a REALLY nice looking trailer...............
madjack