Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I was thinking of the next build a few years off. Was thinking doors hinged at the top latched at the bottom. Thinking I could prop them up like a galley hatch and then drape a fabric screen area from the door as a changing area. Still a few things to figure out

I have seen pics of a few tears on this forum with gull wing doors. There is one in the Hall of Fame called "Teardroptimus Prime".
Using the open door to support a changing room? I have not seen that but it's a great idea.

It sounds like a good idea, but I wonder how it would work. You'd have to remove the curtains before you could close the door at night. In the morning, you'd have to go outside, in your skivvies, to re attach the changing room. By this time, everyone has seen your skinny legs, rendering the privacy room moot.

It's a cool idea for a tear that is completely radical in design, but you gotta ask yourself this question. If it was that great of an idea...why weren't that many made and of those that were manufactured...what happened to them? Same thing with gull wings on a car, yeah, there were some, Mercedes, Delorian.

American tear ( I think that's who made some, fiberglass egg shells) had them in the past and some custom builders have done them, very well I will add. However, having camped in a tear back to the late 70's...I'd find them incredibly impractical. Low head clearance, sealing issues, hinges, water flow, excessive construction time/cost etc....That's just me though. You're really gonna have to want that door to do it correctly. Others opinions will differ. Doug

Yep, height is the big issue, I think. There probably won't be standing headroom under the doors unless they open well above horizontal, when it will be very hard to make them not dump rain water into the gap between the door and body. Opening high also means they don't stick out as far, so there's less space made.

Even using radiused bottom corners, I expect at some stage someone will walk into the open door edge at eye height - ouch.

True gull-wing doors - that is ones where the opening extends right into the roof - don't have these problems, except for sticking out less, but they sure are tricky to build.

Dan's beautiful Roswell has upward-opening curved doors with internal hinges to look good. But that means there are hinge arms, like giant C-cramps, that stick into the body when the door is shut, just waiting to crack your head on.

What about putting the hinge at an angle, maybe about 45 degrees, the door would open up but also move forward out of the way of the opening.

Back when I was thinking about gull wings I also thought "Why not make most of the side open up". Then a person could just roll into and out of bed.

Yes, nutty idea but it would likely be the only one.

Randy

We have been a couple of camp sites that were tight enough one door would not have been able to be opened, one of the problems with gull wing door cars.