Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Gents,
I've pretty much decided on the Modernaire profile for my build, but after digging thru Andrew's site and others, I'm struggling with the best way to find an accurate way to plot the radii of all the curves, especially the rear, which appears to be a compound/decreasing radius. Any help?

Thanks as always,

Little Bear Teardrops draws templates that work great. Here is the information about them.

Keith

... has full-size templates for the Modernaire/Modernistic/Cub-types, Ken-Skill, Benroy, and KIT Kamper teardrops, as well as its own 8' and 10' designs. Simply put 8'-10' of 4' wide heavy duty paper-stock into an appropriately sized mailing tube along with return postage and a note as to which profile you desire, then mail it to Li'l Bear. I will trace that pattern onto the paper and mail it back to you. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery, ...only $5.00 charge! Or, send $35.00 (cash, check, or M/O only, includes US postage) and he'll provide paper & postage. Each profile has cabinet, door, and window locations indicated, as well as galley lid hinge-point and axle centerline location. A simple chassis drawing (of the way I build the frames) that any competent welder can follow for fabrication is available on request at no additional fee. "Morphing" of designs available at nominal charges. These patterns/profiles are produced as ordered and must be worked into the production schedule as time and available floorspace allow. While I'll endeavor to fill the order as soon as possible, please allow up to 4-6 weeks for delivery. Li'l Bear Tag-Alongs, 12442 Maria Dr., Redding, CA 96003-9569 ph 530-275-6728

E-mail: [email protected]

There are ways of drawing an ellipse, which is kind of like a circle only as you noted the radius changes as there are two foci. There are formulas for calculating it (so that you could draw it on a grid). There are patterns and a lot of people use a semi stiff piece of wood to draw the curve; OR, there is also a little block with a horizontal and vertical track (like on a table saw) that you can make an ellipse drawing gizmo. Or you can use the string and two nail technique. There are lots of ways of getting from here to there. A little reading and thinking could set you straight, or as has been mentioned you could order some outlines.

Keep in mind it doesn't have to perfectly match, and once you cut the first one you can use that one as a template to match the second wall to the first. (In fact there are quite a few that start with the hatch, and then match the curve of the wall to match the hatch (since the hatch is a little trickier to do).

The way i did mine was to lay a big peice of card board on the ground and layed a garden hose on top of it in the shape i wanted . I adjusted it here and there,stood back from it and also got the wife to help with her veiw of it and marked ,cut and transferd to the 10 foot sheet of ply wood to cut

look at my pictures ,i don't think it turned out bad at all

Norm

What I did for my current build ( a shortened cub)was to download form the design library, then in turbo cad shortened it to acceptable(meaning not my originally intended dimensions, but close enough)dimensions, then set the zero, zero coordinates at one corner of the profile, then put it on a grid and clicked on the grid lines at certain intervals and wrote down the numbers, plotted these on a big piece of cardboard and connected the dots using a cheap flexible piece of trim. Cut out the cardboard and used it as a template.
Don't ask me how I did the turbo cad stuff I was just messing around until it did what I wanted.

Best $30 I ever spent. Thanks Grant!(Little Bear teardrops):

Looks like I'll be sending Grant a check in the immediate future. I'm young enough to think I can reinvent the wheel, but old enough to let somebody else do it for me...

what a great forum!

Yeah, there is soooo much more that you could be spending your time on. The Floor, Door, Hatch, cabinet and axle locations are a bonus too!

Here's what I did on mine, I cut the outside profile and then just marked it on the wood, but I didn't want to cut out the doors completely because his plan has the original door layout and the optional larger door. So I just cut out the corners for the larger door I chose to use, then I pulled up the paper and connected the straight lines! I just put the window where I wanted it.