Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I was talking with Steve Frederick about The benches in his little Diner and had some concern about the way it raised the floor up 5". This would make it impractical to do in a 48" high tear, but we came up with an idea that would work. If you hinge the benches to fold into the "well", and place the table top on top, you can then keep your floor height for sleeping, and when you want to use the table just flip the benches up. By putting sliders on the top (when recessed) of the benches you can use them for storage for clothes that won't get too messed up when the benches are flipped.




Thanks to Steve fo the artwork, my drawings were terrible!!

Micro...neat idea but why would it be any more practical inna 4' high tear...you still would have the same headroom when sitting and the gain in headroom when sleeping would be immaterial...the extra headroom is(if) needed when you are sitting up, not laying down...of course that would make a difference in the amt of room in the "legwell" when sleeping
madjack

madjack wrote:Micro...neat idea but why would it be any more practical inna 4' high tear...you still would have the same headroom when sitting and the gain in headroom when sleeping would be immaterial...the extra headroom is(if) needed when you are sitting up, not laying down
madjack

I guess, but your'e not gonna have the table up all the time, when you just wanna sit on the bed and talk, or change your clothes, or whatever, that extra 5" can make a big difference.

I'll have to keep that in mind for #2, that is a pretty good setup.

Don't ovethink this table-in-a-teardrop thing too much, as it is dead simple, and you don't need a 48" height to give you adaquate headroom. Check out my picture in the Hall of Fame ... the ceiling on that one was 46" at the highest point and my head (and hat!) are no where near the highest point. If you make your footwell a net depth of about 6" or so, you'll get enough depth to make sitting comfortable. The footwell needs to be at least 24" front-to-back (unless your legs are way shorter than mine!), and if you put 3/8" plywood backing with a stiff-back on each one of two of the cushions, your table won't have to bridge the entire gap and can nest down into the footwell (besides, a narrower table is much easier to maneuver around).

If you want to figure how much headroom you NEED, sit against a wall (at a comfortable back angle) with a cushion under you the approx. thickness of the ones you plan to use in your trailer ... measure up the wall to the top of your head and then add an inch or two.

The trailer in my avatar has a footwell & seating pkg. ... it is 42" floor-to-ceiling at the highest point, and the "couch" is across the front of the trailer. At 6'4", I can sit comfortably on that couch (though my head touches the headliner), and the buyer isn't nearly as tall as I am.

Now, if you think you'll need enough headroom to sort of crouch to change your clothes, that changes everything, and 48" won't be nearly enough ... unless you're at the opposite end of the altitude spectrum that I am ... ;-} ;-} ...!

Food for thought, anyway, eh what? Good Luck with the build, Micro! In the meantime ...

CHEERS!

Grant

We have a table in our 48" tear. We just use a footwell and the cushions are high enough for the seat. There's plenty of headroom with this setup.



Bruce