Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi all,

I am planning what I want, and would really like a queen size mattress in my teardrop. Now, the width of said mattress is 60 inches, or, exactly 5 feet. If I get a trailer that has a 5 foot wide bed, and build insulated walls, the walls would have to extend "outside" that floor space. How is it still possible that the width of the bed plus the walls, plus fenders over the tires can still work? Those of you that have a queen mattress, can you please tell me how it works, or direct me to a floor plan that shows how it works? I'm not visualizing it.

Thanks in advance,
Tim B.

I wouldn't mind a definite answer to this as well, but I've heard it said that most queen sized mattress measure out to about 58".

Are you familiar with "Doctor Who"? Teardrop Time is controlled by Time Lords, and some have Tardis replicated in teardrop form for disguising them from Daleks. Interior space is therefore not limited.

Yep something has to give, alternative custom mattress a bit narrower i.e. Mattress by Mail.

I'm doing it the hard way. My outside wall dimension is 64 inches. Inside is less 2x 1-1/2 thk foam, less 2x 5mm (3/16 inch) ply, so 60-5/8 inch. Hope that's enough room for tucking in the bedding. Also will lose a little more around the door sealing flange.

The hard way is that all of my ply (floor and ceiling) will have to run across wise and I will have plenty of dropped material to build my cabinets out of.

Although my build has a somewhat off road theme, it will not have the same track width as my Jeep. The hub to hub dimension of my Dexter axle is 77-1/2 inch with a nominal track width spec of 76-1/2 inch (although that is highly dependent on wheel offset). The measured tire side wall to hub face of my wheel and tire combo is 4-1/2 inch, so I should have about 2-1/4 inch tire side wall clearance to my walls. The side wall spec on the tires is wide at 10-1/2 inches, so I expect to be 89-1/2 inches outside tire side walls. Fenders to be determined, but probably under 91 inches overall width, so about 13-1/2 inch wide fenders. Still under the 102 inch maximum allowed.

Not exactly ideal for narrow trails, but I want the room inside.

Or buy a foam mattress from Walmart and cut it to fit with an electric carving knife.

^^ This

Ditto on the foam mattress if you go in that direction. And so easy to cut with an electric knife!!!
Barb

^^^^Where's the "like" button?

I will soon be a year into my build because of this problem. My camper is 6 feet wide but the wheel wells come up into the bed. I haven't decided yet if I will be building a platform to raise the matress,which will reduce the area by the toes or using a smaller matress.

Kharn wrote:Or buy a foam mattress from Walmart and cut it to fit with an electric carving knife.

There you go

I bought a foam mattress from IKEA and cut 3" off the sides to compensate for the thickness of my walls. You really don't miss the 3" and queen fitted sheets will still work.

A futon mattress will stuff into 5 ft.That with a combination of a closed cell foam under should make a comfy place to sleep and be close enough for standard bedding to work.

A futon mattress will stuff into 5 ft.That with a combination of a closed cell foam under should make a comfy place to sleep and be close enough for standard bedding to work.

If you are comfortable on a foam mattress then I would definitely recommend this method. I built mine 62.5 inches wide around a queen size mattress, but here is an idea... I messed up my measurements and planted my AC unit too low and HAD to have a shorter mattress. I then switched to a full size mattress which is only a couple inches smaller all the way around but would then fit inside a 5 wide!

Full Mattress 54" wide x 75" long
Full XL Mattress 54" wide x 80" long
Queen Mattress 60" wide x 80" long

Maybe that will be an option if you want to stay with inner spring, I had plenty of room in mine with a full size.

If you wanted to stay with queen inner spring, You will probably save by getting 4x8 material instead of more expensive 5x8 material since it won't fit anyway, and then turn the 4x8 sheet on it's side and cut off the excess. That is what I did. I shoulda just build for a full size and built it 5' wide.

A foam mattress is a must, I get enough grief when taking mine out and putting it back in. Forget about a regular spring one. Got a queen from Wal-Mart, my trailer's outside dimension is 62 1/8in. I used 5x5 baltic birch I cut them on 2 sides to insure the sides were parallel, didn't realize till later that it was actually 60 1/8 x 60 1/8. I figure I could probably drop an inch and squish the mattress down a little.