Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Sample Image:


Higher quality PDF:
www.brianburton.org/v4.pdf

This is the design I've been working on. I took bits and pieces of things I liked about other trailers and put it into my design. Remeniscient of the camp-inn, but just with a more efficient galley design (imo), more storage, and an insulated cabin. The man in the drawing is 6'-1" tall (my height) and I drew the trailer around him in a laying and sitting up position.

According to Andrew's spreadsheet, it'd have about a 150lbs tougue weight and weigh somewhere around 1200lbs fully loaded.

The stove and ice chest are on sliding shelves. I'm debating about the usefulness of a sink and faucet, so that's still up in the air.

If you have any design suggestions, let me know.

It looks really good, but the wheels are really small.

Hey Brian,

That looks pretty good. What size wheels do you have on there? And how much room do you have from the top of the mattress to the underside of the cabinet? Got a CAD file you can share?

Mike...

Whoa, I'm glad you guys said that. I have 15" tires on my car, so I was thinking that the tires are 15" in diameter. Apparently not. I thought they looked small too.

Sure mike, I have no problem sending the file to you. Let me make those tire changes first.

Sounds good Brian,

I love parasolid and acis files, but seeing as how you are in 2D I guess I should ask for a dxf file!

Mike...

Ok, updated files in the first post. Now my trailer doesn't look so out of scale.

Yeah, it's a 2D drawing done in AutoCAD. I always do a 2D drawing first and then extrude it into a 3D solid to work on the details.

Oh, by the way, the footwell is 14.75" from mattress to bottom of cabinet. I came to the conclusion that it would be sufficient when I made a cardboard mockup above my bed. My legs or feet didn't rub at all.

I couldn't find a dxf file... just a pdf.

Mike...

Got it thanks...

I see you are at about 104" long. Since you are already longer that a sheet of plywood, I added about another 10" for you.

I also gave you 18" of clearance between the mattress and the underside of the cabinet.

And last but not least, I got the cabinet out of your face. Your design looked good but it was very tight.

This rendition gives you a little more breathing room!

Mike...



and here's your dxf file back, with my mods...

http://www.mikenchell.com/images/v4a.dxf

Brian,

Mike is an experienced trailer-builder, so he is able to use elliptical tires (see Mike's dxf) - but if this is your first trailer, it is recommended that you use the regular circular kind shown in your dxf....

An example of how to calculate the approximate size of wheels and tires is as follows.
Tire marking 205/75R15
Width of tire 205mm = 8.1"
Aspect ratio of tire (height/width) 75%
Height of tire (only) 75% x 8.1" = 6.1"
Diameter of wheel (only) 15"
Overall diameter of tire (wheel + 2 tires) 15+6.1+6.1 = 27.2"

Alternatively Goodyear have a good trailer tire chart here: Goodyear Marathon

Andrew

angib wrote:Brian,

Mike is an experienced trailer-builder, so he is able to use elliptical tires (see Mike's dxf) - but if this is your first trailer, it is recommended that you use the regular circular kind shown in your dxf....

Andrew

I thought the wheels looked elliptical because the trailer was going down the road really really fast!!!

Maybe it was my glasses?

Okay, so I just stretched it without blanking the wheels. You caught me!!!

Mike...

Thanks for the design help, mike. Any reason you shrank the height? Since it's still over 4' I'd rather have the extra headroom and keep it tall. My head is lumpy enough as it is.

Good info to know, thanks Andrew. Since I had to go outside to see what size tires were on my car, I just took a tape measure with me.

I just made it 48" cause I thought you might be using standard lumber. Of course, you could start with a 5x10 sheet of plywood like I did, and then anything goes...

Mike...

BrianB wrote:Since I had to go outside to see what size tires were on my car, I just took a tape measure with me.

People always go for the easy way out...
Andrew

Mike,

Hey, Brian said he is doing a insulated unit. This would mean that he is not tied to a 4x8 sheet of plywood. He can seperate the interior cabin paneling and the galley panelling to get his overall length. The nice thing about this is you can use a different material in the galley to give it a different look.

The outside aluminum will come in a 4x10 sheet. With the 1' foot of the sheet needed to do the front storage box (ala our camp-inns) he has 108" to play with for the side skins. So, he has design room to play with.

Brian layed out the interior pretty close to ours too. He actually had more foot well room than we do.

Brian,

You can deepen the footwell a bit to gain more upper galley area if you want. You won't find it a problem. About 16" is pretty safe.

Hmm, you must have looked a Camp-Inn in person. You nailed alot of it pretty close. If not, maybe you should check one out sometime.

Cary