Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

After watching Fornesto's and Steve F's ideas and projects come along, I wanted to put my own twist on a combination of both of theirs. They both had design cues that I really liked, so thanks to both. I just started playing with Sketchup a few days ago, so it's somewhat crude. It's probably slightly overbuilt, but I want something that can take a beating on the trail. I was really looking at the Adventure Trailers with a RTT when I came across this site and you guys got my wheels turning.

This is something I will build in a year or two, so I have plenty of time to fine tune it. Tires are 33's to match the truck. The bed will be three separate pieces so that it can be somewhat of a lounge chair and then lay out to be a long double bed. The cabin is 4.5'Wx4'hx10' total length. Two Scepter style cans on the front along with a regular trailer tongue toolbox for storage and wind deflection.

Water tank, battery and propane tank under the counter in the back. I know the propane tank should not be on it's side, so that's one of those fine tuning items. I'm going to use the PVC pipe tanks too rather than one big tank. I actually have a new Tacoma this will be pulled by, but there's not one drawn yet, so I put a mini in the drawing instead.








The frame is 2"x2" steel with 2"x3" for the tongue. When the time comes, I'll probably do the tongue as a V instead of a single beam.

That's pretty cool... I like it.

Maybe you should come up with an optimized Winter Warrior design for me!!!

Mike...

I like it too, the only thing I see that would be a hassle is climbing over a wet or muddy wheel arch/tyre(Aussie spelling here) to get in the door Also curious on the height of the door as well as if the whole thing is 4' tall then the door looks like it might be quite small.

Cheers
Steve

The door is 30"hx32"w. Smaller than what I would like, and could easily be changed when the time to build comes. It's more or less just thrown in there to have a door for the time being.For climbing in, there is the angled slider piece from the fender to the back you could step on. Maybe hang a cable step off of it since it's probably 30" or so off the ground.

How about moving the door in front of the tires and the widow over the tires?

I think it would look cool with the spare tire mounted on the top with a strong roof rack.

Whaoh! Now that is tough- and cool-lookin'! ...

I'm with Steve & Dan, though, and think you should move the door forward and down ... you could even put an angled rear corner on it to match the fender, and I'd go so far as to follow the roofline with the door top, too. Maybe think about puting it on the other side ...

You might want to re-think that tailgate, though. Having to reach over that to get to either the cookstove or the sink is not going to be much fun. It might be possible to arrange it so that it hangs straight down, and that would solve that problem ... ...

I'm going to want to watch this one take shape! Good Luck with it, and as always ...

CHEERS!

Grant

You might want to re-think that tailgate, though. Having to reach over that to get to either the cookstove or the sink is not going to be much fun. It might be possible to arrange it so that it hangs straight down, and that would solve that problem ... ...

Make the tailgate a part of the hatch that lifts up. You could always make the tailgate section fold out and up over the part that currently lifts then it would be out of the way entirely.

I really like the mixed round and square body profile

The more of these style trailers I see, the more it gets me pondering a hardsided trailer. Although I'd do some form of softside poptop for standing room.

I agree with the door comments, I'd move it forward of the fender. On the galley you might start with standard kitchen dimensions to guide you, 36" tall counter tops and 24" deep counters.

If the GVW is over 1000 lbs (assuming off-pavement travel), I would bump the frame rails up to 3x2. Also with the matched tires/rims and dual spares in the truck, you could most likely drop the spare on the trailer.

This design kind of inspird me, so I messed around with it a bit, just for Ss&Gs ... how about something like this:



I'm a big fan of light & ventalation, so I penciled in a 12x18 crank-out window in the door and a 15x24 in the sidewall (and maybe consider a 15x40 in the off-door side). And, I'm with Kerry with regards to making the tailgate part of the hatch.

Something else to consider, maybe, would be puting the spare on the roof as already suggested, but put a dropped footwell where you have the spare, now (but more toward the rear, closer to the axle), about half the depth as the tire is wide. You could even put a 45º on angle the front of the footwell to make it look and act as a skid-plate ...

CHEERS!

Grant

grant whipp wrote:This design kind of inspird me, so I messed around with it a bit, just for Ss&Gs ... how about something like this:



I'm a big fan of light & ventalation, so I penciled in a 12x18 crank-out window in the door and a 15x24 in the sidewall (and maybe consider a 15x40 in the off-door side). And, I'm with Kerry with regards to making the tailgate part of the hatch.

Something else to consider, maybe, would be puting the spare on the roof as already suggested, but put a dropped footwell where you have the spare, now (but more toward the rear, closer to the axle), about half the depth as the tire is wide. You could even put a 45º on angle the front of the footwell to make it look and act as a skid-plate ...

CHEERS!

Grant

Too funny, I logged on to post new pics and what do I find? Great minds think alike. Just one of us is on the wrong side! The door is roughly 32"wx42"h now. Added a cable step too. Basically two pieces of cable with a plate at the bottom for the step. Nice and sturdy, but will give way if it hits something.



Reworked the tailgate. Not sure how to make it part of the hatch without it getting in the way (I'm 6'4").


Dropped the counter slightly, but can't afford to much space underneath. It's still pretty high, might have to carry a step stool for the wife (she's 5'0"). Flipped the propane tank upright, added another battery and redid the water tank. Triangulated the frame, added a spare propane tank and rock guard to the front too.



I thought about putting the spare up top possibly with a rack, but part of the whole design is to keep wind resistance to a minimum to help with mpg as I see this being used for long travels. I would really like to keep the spare on the trailer in case it gets pulled by another truck sometime.I like the foot well idea though.

Much better design now. I was going to ask how you were going to transition from the fender to the floor on your knees. All that space for walking is wasted unless you are short-------really short.



You might also ditch the suicide doors though. Putting the hinge on the other side will work as well.

Couple suggestions - have the lower rear hatch side hinged - swings out with more 'cabinet' space

Rather than the spare under the trailer (imagine getting that out on a trail when you need it) what about mounting above the fenders? 1 spare either side, would look nice and balanced - side benefit, save the trailer itself from taking an unintended beating against a bank / etc.

If you're reasonably sure on the axle placement - then you could extend the width in front / behind so the tires weren't fully outside the body.

Any chance you're willing to share that model? I've got a 4runner on 33's that it would look perfect behind

Well ...
... I just had to take it a bit further (you do know that you've got to go where inspiration leads you, right?), and see what came of it:



I made the tailgate part of the hatch lid, but that long sloping roofline forward just kept screaming "lift me!", so I did ... with the dropped footwell, even I can stand up in there, and it wouldn't take too much to hide a porta-pot up front, either.

I hear what you are saying about keeping the spare tire on the trailer, and I see two possibilities:
1) mount it to a rack above the fender on the off-door side
2) keep it slung under the trailer, but move it back behind the footwell and real close to the axle centerline (it would help, here, if you eliminated the straight & sprung axle with a torsion-type with 22º down trailing arm angle ... I think you could approximate the same lift, and with a torsion-type, you won't have all that monkey-motion of straight-axle, springs, and shackles)

Oh, yeah ... on that inside propane tank ... here in the States (where are you, BTW? You didn't put it with your info ...) there are many slide-in truck campers that have lay-down bottles in outside-access-only compartments built into the side of the units. Unless that's not allowed where you are, I don't see any reason that couldn't be kept from the original concept ...

"Grist for the mill" they say ... looking forward to what else you come up with for this design, and of course, the eventual real thing!

As always, then ...

CHEERS!

Grant

OK, in this drawing, if you make the part of the hatch that now is angled downward (in the above drawing) hingled, then it could be flipped up over the rest of the hatch when open. Hope that makes sense.

I have fallen in love with the trailer. Any way you could post the sketchup file? Great design!!!