Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Mike, Bufordt and Rik........
I know this was a few months ago, but I finally got the inside pictures of my camper scanned in (actually, I could only find 1 decent pic!) I didn't feel like adding more onto the old thread.





And there's my smiling face after a cup of morning coffee!


There are a few more new pics that I found as well. You can see them at http://www.puppycuts.ca/album/Camper/index.html

For those of you that hadn't seen the pics, there is a story that goes along with them. It was a slide in truck camper I built over 20 years ago for my Datsun pickup, http://www.puppycuts.ca/camper/camper.htm and has some of the construction details that I used.

Nice job on the camper and on the photo album. Good taste in photo album software!!!

So you basically built it out of sticks, stapled together, with 1/2" plywood on the inside and aluminum skin on the outside. 250#, that is light. If you set that body on a harbor freight trailer you might be up around 550#, and that is light for a teardrop. My HF teardrop complete was 840#. I really don't have the weight of the HF trailer alone.

Does anyone have the weight of the HF trailer before starting to build the teardrop on top of it?

Anyways, nice job. So when are you going to start building your teardrop?

Mike...

P.S. I can't find a picture with your bed leaf in the down position. What is the size of your bed with the leaf down?

Thanks Larry,

Nice job on the inside of the camper. Thanks for posting the pic's of it.

Bufordt

mikeschn wrote:Nice job on the camper and on the photo album. Good taste in photo album software!!!

Thanks Mike, I tried it out a while ago and then I saw what you were doing with yours so I spent a little more time figuring it out. It sure makes it easier than emailing pictures to everyone.

mikeschn wrote:So you basically built it out of sticks, stapled together, with 1/2" plywood on the inside and aluminum skin on the outside. 250#, that is light. If you set that body on a harbor freight trailer you might be up around 550#, and that is light for a teardrop. My HF teardrop complete was 840#. I really don't have the weight of the HF trailer alone.

The floor, sides and the seats were 1/2" plywood. The actual walls with the 1x2 spruce frame had 1/8" paneling on the inside only. The outside had RV aluminum stapled to the framing. I have been thinking about trying to do a Grasshopper style and I will probably contruct it similar to the camper.

Anyways, nice job. So when are you going to start building your teardrop?

Well, the plan was to start on it a month ago, but then we had a few thunderstorms go through the area that started quite a few forest fires and we (the whole town, about 3000 people) were put on 1 hour evacuation notice. Between trying to pack the essentials (photos, negatives, important papers, etc, etc,) and work I haven't had much time to do anything. I spent the last couple of weeks installing phones for the Emergency Operations Centre and the fire base camp. There are pics of fire in the album. So I have just started thinking about building again. I will get there. The evac notice came off a couple of days ago and my wife and kids are away for a month so I have the weekdays to myself.

P.S. I can't find a picture with your bed leaf in the down position. What is the size of your bed with the leaf down?

I didn't take many pics of the inside and we usually remade the bed in the morning. Quite often when we were travelling we would eat inside as we would pull over by the side of the road. The bed size area was about 48" wide by about 6'. We would pull the table leg off (single leg) and the table would fit on a couple of rails. The table was about 2'x3' and we had a 1' section to put in when we made the bed.

I wonder if you couldn’t reduce the weight a little more by using metal framing instead of spruce. The light weight u-channel that’s used in commercial construction instead of 2x4’s (Which some people can acquire off the jobsite). Cross bracing and connections can be made with pop/cherry rivets or flush head sheet metal screws. The curves could be made by ¾” ply cut and spliced into the vertical metal uprights. Maximum Styrofoam insulation in the voids of the uprights & cross braces would prevent racking of the frame but as long as you affix the interior and exterior skins to the frame with glue and fasteners you won’t have any flex. I think the key would be to use enough fasteners on the exterior skin in the uprights & cross braces. Also all the exterior fasteners will need to dipped in sealant before being driven in. If you look at the out side of an Airstream you will see that this is how they affix the skin to their frame.

Spook wrote:I wonder if you couldn’t reduce the weight a little more by using metal framing instead of spruce.

Spook

I'm not sure if metal framing would save any weight. I never put much thought into it. I'm more geared towards wood because of the tools in my shop. When it comes to metal, it's a struggle for me!

I also have access to kiln dried spruce, plus, for me, once I have everything organized it will go together quickly. Now the axle and frame are another story...........