Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello all,

I am looking into a tear that could carry/store our cannondale tandem bicycle inside, I checked out the Generic benroy plans, and was wondering if anyone has built one without the gallery, IE open thru to the front, and if that is still strong? My plan, in my head at least, is a Benroy profile (seems best for getting the Tandem in) with some sort of removable galley area so the tandem can enter from the rear.

The tandem is just less than 8' long, though I can shorten it a bit by removing the front wheel, which is probably what I would need to do to secure it inside the trailer anyway.

I would also be tossing in a pair of kid’s bikes, but they do not concern me as much, since they would fit in the traditional cabin space.

Mike,

There should be no reason that you can not do what you are suggesting. The Generic Benroy should be solid enough without the galley in. You may want to consider something like a split galley and the bike goes in through the center between the two sections. Or a galley that can be swung around to the wall on the inside, leaving lots of room to put the bike in. Just a couple of ideas.

Only one rule - Pictures and lots of them!!!!

Mike,

Here is a pic showing kind of what I meant by the split galley


Of course the view is from the back of the teardrop with the hatch open.

Another idea would be to put a rack on the teardrop that would allow you to put the bike on top. (maybe on it's side to conserve the height?)

Kerry,

Thanks for the picture that idea may work, though the upper cabinets would not, I would need perhaps a hinged piece of plywood there, to let the handlebars pass through.

Getting the tandem inside is the key- so it can live there when not being used, so the trailer can be ready to go with minimal packing. All our camping gear would also live in the trailer as well.

I am probably only going 4 ft wide, I would like to go 5, but really do not want the trailer any wider than my tow vehicle (PT Cruiser), and weight is a concern as the pt is not exactly overabundant in the power department.

I will be checking my local-ish TSC for the $279 trailer mentioned elsewhere in the forum.

Michael,

Just make the upper cabinets with a notch in the lower corners that are nearest the center, or make the uppers hinged and let them swing inward and lock them against the walls when the bike is in there.

BTW The TSC trailer for $279 is strickly a 4x8 model. A special order 5x8 or other will probably be around the $400 range, from what I have heard.

hey mike,
how about a removeable galley,i wuz thinkin bout that. could be done with eye bolts and turnbuckels to hold it in

Mike,

You might want to look at DANL's site Sunset Landing as he has built his trailer with a removeable galley to carry a recumbent inside - probably shorter than a tandem, but the same problem.



Andrew

hey all,
you could just put a hinge on the galley and swing it out of the way or up or down and use it for a ramp

thanks... I did find that site... he states however he negotiates the bike thru the side. also looks like he decided to have a bulkhead. DANL care to comment? thanks

angib wrote:Mike,

You might want to look at DANL's site Sunset Landing as he has built his trailer with a removeable galley to carry a recumbent inside - probably shorter than a tandem, but the same problem.



Andrew

funny you should mention that. I was just driving behind a Chevy astro van that had a 3 door hatch setup. top 1/2 swung up as normal, bottom 1/2 was a pair of mini barn doors, which swing out to the side.

my thought was mount the bottom cabs so they swing out with those doors

something like this....

critter wrote:hey all,
you could just put a hinge on the galley and swing it out of the way or up or down and use it for a ramp

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Here is a design for a future project of mine to hold a couple of low rider bikes. No Galley in the design but I was thinking of just propping a board up somehow for a makeshift galley once the bikes are out of the tear. That grey thing is the fold up matress, that will come in handy.

Mike,

I got your private Email. I've been meaning to respond. Since you also posted the question here, I'll respond here.

I think the teardrop will be plenty strong without the galley. As others have built tears without galley or removable galleys with no problem.

The one question that comes to my mind is why? By transporting the bike inside your tear, you'll constantly be cleaning road grit and chain oil off the floor of your tear. You'll be constantly rearranging the bed to accomodate the bikes. Not to mention giving up the galley, one of the coolest reasons to own a tear in the first place. Don't forget, you sleep on the floor of the trailer. So, the the bike stays outside anyway when you sleep. I see lots of disadvantages in exchange for one small advantage.

Wouldn't it be easier to just get yourself a Yakima or Tule rack and an extended tandem tray. That way the bike and all the related dirt stays outisde your car and your tear.

Why?

my point is it would provide storage for the tandem, for the 300 days a year or so we would not be riding it.. once at a campsite, it would go in a tent. the bed would be a aero bed or something similar, so it could be packed away easily when not needed.

we would probably use the tear a lot more for day trips to the rail trails then to camp in/with.


I would still have a galley, just perhaps not as elaborate as some others.

TomS wrote:Mike,

I got your private Email. I've been meaning to respond. Since you also posted the question here, I'll respond here.

I think the teardrop will be plenty strong without the galley. As others have built tears without galley or removable galleys with no problem.

The one question that comes to my mind is why? By transporting the bike inside your tear, you'll constantly be cleaning road grit and chain oil off the floor of your tear. You'll be constantly rearranging the bed to accomodate the bikes. Not to mention giving up the galley, one of the coolest reasons to own a tear in the first place. Don't forget, you sleep on the floor of the trailer. So, the the bike stays outside anyway when you sleep. I see lots of disadvantages in exchange for one small advantage.

Wouldn't it be easier to just get yourself a Yakima or Tule rack and an extended tandem tray. That way the bike and all the related dirt stays outisde your car and your tear.

Hello Michael.

I've been away so I just caught up on this thread. Angib mentioned that I had built my trailer with a removable galley. Actually the galley does not remove. I made the side door large enough to allow the recumbents to fit through with the front wheels removed. The forks drop into bike-tites to secure the bikes during transport.

I think you'd have a heck of a time fitting a tandem in this way. Also, my trailer is 4'-8" high inside so that I can actually get right in there to secure the bikes.

I'm pretty sure a properly designed tear would be strong enough without the galley in place. I see a lot of good suggestions from other members.

One problem I think you might encounter is sliding the bike in from the back without the front wheel in place. It might require two people to get it in and secured. Prior to settling on dimensions, I did a number of trial runs and adjustments just to make sure that I could get the bikes in by myself.

On the galley subject, we use three, white plastic, two-drawer units from Target for our lower "cabinetry". This lets us easily move them to a picnic table when we want to do that and also offers a lot of flexibility. The units can be set on top of the counter thus freeing up the undercounter space so that I can swing the bulkhead panel out of the way to carry 4' by 8' material.

The floor is seamless "lay-flat" vinyl flooring and is easy to clean up when the bikes are removed.

I would recommend going 5' wide if at all possible. I don't think the width would affect your towing all that seriously. Check the manual for allowable frontal area. Keep the weight down and don't tow at extremely high speeds and you should be OK. The tow rating for your vehicle has more to do with what your brakes will stop than the pulling power of your engine. Transmission overheating can be a problem with very heavy trailers.

Also keep in mind that you will have to find space for all of your camping gear and a mattress.

We do use ours to store our campgear over the winter.

IDEA... how about a really solid galley bulkhead and have a hatch in the front as well as the usual one on the rear. Then you could just slide the bike in on its back wheel and have plenty of work space to secure the front fork. Complicated but it might work.

toypusher wrote:

Why not do something like this, where you keep the bottom cabinets just far enough apart to clear the pedals, then use two narrow cabinets towards the outside to give you room for the width of the handle bars. You could do the hinged counter top like Kerry shows and even hinge a couple of doors too close the space between the cabinets.
Just a thought here, but what if you turned the rear bars sideways and backed it in, remove the front wheel and build some sort of prop for the forks to lock into between the lower cabinets. Then the top cabinets could be bigger or the same size as the bottom.
Hope some of this made sense.