Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi I'm new to the forum and I'm considering building the Generic Benroy. I have two young kids and don't have a ton of spare time. I'd prefer to build one because I really enjoy building. I'll have evenings in the summer and more time in the winter to work on it. I'm weighing the time/money/having fun building it vs. buying a used one. Can anyone give me a ballpark on how many hours it would take and a rough cost of materials? Thanks - Ben

I built 4X8 in beginning of this year, took about 3 months but I worked on it after work during week and almost every weekend. Had sold my other camper and had a big trip scheduled so had to move on it. Spent about 3000 total. I found accessories such as trim, hardware, AC, matresses, etc, cost about as much as materials it took to build it. We love it though. Maybe couldve done for a little less but probably not by much and definetly couldve spent alot more.

Ben...that's a difficult one to answer. How much depends on how many bells/whistles you want, what your abilities are, and how "tooled" up you might be. If you scrounge, you can cut costs on it. All that aside...I don't think you can begin to put a price on the satisfaction that you'll get from doing it yourself, aside from what you might learn and the time you may get with the rest of the family helping to build "their" camper. Kinda like that credit card ad..."priceless" Doug

Like Doug said, it really depends on what all you want in it, and how many bells and whistles you want. Do you need that $300 tv? Do you have to have a battery, or AC, or both and all the associated converters, inverters, and chargers? Do you want a sink? do you want an air conditioner? Do you want that $1200 space age foam matress?

Also, wood is a comodity, what it cost somebody a few years back, could be way off today. I guess just figure out how much wood you will need (the gen ben plans are pretty clear on what will be needed) and price that. Price your trailer, price the hardware, such as hinges, seals and latches. Price you exterior covering; AL, epoxy, paint... whatever, then add in the goodies. You will probably get by cheaper with a used camper then with a tricked out tear drop, but, you will never be able to look at it and say, "Yah, I built that.".

My build is a 4x8 generic Benroy. I'm keeping a running tab on cost and time. Hope it helps.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=37931&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Built mine weekends and after work, took about 3 months. No plans just information off this website, and the gernaric benroy plans.

I designed mine to be "cheap" (ha ha) and quick. Took 6 weeks of evenings and weekends weather permitting. $1800.00 total including an 8" memory foam mattress that cost $225.00.