Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm still in the design phase, working out what all I want, and how I'm going to accomplish it. Call it the dreaming phase.

I want a tear that I can tow behind my motorcycle. The problem is, I'm such a big guy, anything that can fit in the wind profile is a coffin.

I'm toying with the idea of building some slide outs on both sides, essentially doubling the interior space by pushing each of the nested sides out by half.

I work in a window factory, and we have all sorts of weatherstripping, so I'm not worried about sealing it as much as I am building some sort of sliding superstructure to hold it firm.

It's going to be a foamie, some polyisocyanurate foam board with some light fiberglass and polyester resin (gotta be cheap, light, and strong).

The two sides I'm envisioning being teardrop shaped cups that slide in and out of the center section. There will be about ten inches of travel, and ten inches of cantilever. There will be a very light box frame unless I need something beefier.

My reasoning is that I'd like a queen size bed inside, but want to keep it narrow.

I know I can build it structurally sound in the closed position, but I can't envision a simple, cheap, strong method of extension that wont bind or come out of alignment.

Any ideas?

BBM

Not a cheap solution but these would work. I am using them on a cabinet job right now. They come in several lengths. Plus they have a positive metal slide lock. The yellow tab on the end needs to be depressed to release the slide. You could build it narrow and make a slide out on each side. Maybe a folding adjustable out rigger type leg to keep it from rocking back and forth when set up. Good luck, this is the fun part, figuring it all out.

http://www.drawerslides.com/c/accuride-9308

I wonder if I could salvage some of those from one of those gigantic lateral file cabinets. I know a few salvage guys that might have one...

Do you think if I put a pair on the bottom, they'd hold the top square? Or would I need some sort of track on the top?

The outriggers could be as simple as motorcycle kickstands, or those old fold up chaise lounge chairs...

I'm gonna go tear apart my file cabinet and try standing on it... Like a five year old in a bookstore...

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... ser_id=472

Coca Cola teardrops did a slide out that worked wonderfully.



I am sure they would be happy to share info with you.

The thing you need is a positive stop. If the file cabinet slide has it , it will save you a bunch of money. But without a stop it will be hard to keep open. These slides are rugged. They use them in fire truck drawers for heavy stuff. I would think just a guide at the top should be enough in a home made track for the top.

I'd like to find out more about doing a slide out

I've been thinking about using those drawer slides on the top as well as the bottom of a slideout. I have a router table cabinet in which some of the drawers are open sided, and mounted with the slides on top. These pullouts seem to be even more stable than the drawers with the slides on the sides.

The roof of a tear wouldn't hold the weight of a slideout, so the drawer slides on top would only be used as those "guides" you guys mentioned.

Those heavy duty slides have very little "play", or slack, and I think they'd work great.

One thing to remember is that usually the tear box acts like structure, and is very stiff. When you disconnect all, or most of one side you lose the 'box' (shoe box, with lid off); so, the frame then has to react most (virtually all) of the load. It's a bit of a consideration since it adds weight, which thing I think you would be trying to avoid with something being towed by as motorcycle.


You might be better off designing it as a foldout rather than a slide out, even though the slideout 'sounds' cool.

Jim (B52) built a motorcycle camper that does resemble a coffin, but expands with soft sides. He's not a small guy. It works for him.

CD

Thanks for the thoughts.

I already tent at the primary location, and I hate it. I borrowed a pop up one week, and it was better, but the stiff winds and the flappiness are obnoxious.

I really wanted a solid box to sleep in.

I used to do a lot of mild structural engineering, and I'm confident I can make the shape rigid enough.

And in closed form I plan on having a few hardpoint latches on each side so that it holds together, like putting the lid on a five gallon bukkit before you stand on it.

I'm more curious / concerned about the hardware involved. I may have to go poke around an RV center to see what sort of mechanisms they use.

As far as weight, most of it's going to be polyfoam and fiberglass. My preliminary weight estimates are under three hundred pounds with the double hull on the sliders. As long as the hardware for them is less than two hundred, I ought to be allright.

I may go with those drawer slides, but part of me just thinks I should use some one inch tubular steel run through a hole with a flange on the end, and have it held up by stands, rather than having the core support it.

OK,
All is not lost -- I forgot the name of these, but a little poking around on Flea-bay and I spotted one. It's a fold-out, but with rigid sides. So, it would be smaller for towing, but wouldn't flap in the breeze. You could make your panels from fiberglass covered foam so it would be light-weight. You could also use some wood strips at the edge (same thickness as the foam) to attach the hinges etc.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/04-Chale ... 53e5f819b7

Which got me to their home page

http://www.chaletrv.com/

I've kicked around some sketches for a slide-out too.

The stumbling block is how to do the weather seals with the slides. The slideout has to seal in both the open and closed (travel) positions. Conceptually, I had flanges on both ends of the slideout with seals on the flanges, but I couldn't figure out a way to seal around the slides if they were part of the slideout (like a cabinet drawer).

The slides on CocaColaTeardrop's trailer are "underslung" in that the slides are on the bottom side of the frame rails. They are connected to the slideout "tube" at the front. This really is the only way that I can see how to make the double seal work.

you might also think about sliding up rather than sliding out. Think telescoping up with the top bigger than the bottom so that if it rains the water doesn't get in -- 3, or 4 boxes could get you some decent height when extended.

Why do you have to have heavy, complicated, over engineered slides for your slideouts. Everything will be light so even w/o ball bearing slides the extensions should be easy to slide in and out. I'd think about relying on good outboard supports, when the slide outs are extended, to keep things in postion. Additonally you could use some brackets or cables similar to those used on pickup tailgates to keep them level and/or to beef up the outboard support of your slideouts. Unless you are set up on sand or something akin to Jello, the ground should be firm enough to keep everything level as you sleep. As you are planning to "button it up" with latches when closed, sophisticated supports won't be required then either.

KISS and I think it will be easier to build, use, and maintain.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

And Gus comes in with the win.

I have some drawings of how the weatherstrip goes on our windows at work, and it's really simple. I'll try and attach a drawing later.

The drawing I'm formulating now for the slides are just a simple tube through a hole in the frame, with a flange on the inside of the frame rail so the tube can't be pulled out.

Add on a nice stand or jack or something, and we've got 'er made.

The weatherstrip I'm using is round in profile view with a little gluing tab off one side. The theory is to route out a slot for that flange and bury it in some sticky. That's how it's installed on the windows.

It's pretty compliant and follows some tight curves in some specialty applications, and also handles right angle corners.