Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am planning on a non-tradidtional teardrop. Its on the front of a 14K lb. capacity gooseneck trailer so I have a lot of leeway in design and weight.

I think I have finaly settled on this:



The deck is 83" wide so the bearth will be across the width of the trailer. The area on either side of the hatch will house electrical, storage and a small work surface.

The area over the tonge will house some storage and cooling. but is mostly to help a bit with the aerodynamics. I want to keep the height down to keep drag lower too.

The upright piano in the back will be a hit for evening entertainment but ya really shouldn't stack the refrigerator on the keyboard might ruin it .

Looks like a great design John. Now don't forget to share the Gotta keep that bubble oil level.

What else will the trailer be used for? Will the galley be blocked with other stuff? Weight shouldnt be an issue on this one.

Looking good.

If you fit conventional roof spars across the width of the front roof (the bit that tapers), it will be a nightmare to work out the angle of the ends of the spars in the curved bit of roof.

You might want to think of cutting some curved roof spars from plywood that would run front-to-back, sitting their back end on a roof spar running crossways at the joint to the parallel-sided section. These spars will also be about half the length of ones running crossways so will be stronger.

Andrew

Before Pics taken in Colorado this year. The shell will end just about where the tent is in the pics. And the piece over the tonge will just be high enough to allow an AC to be mounted out of the weather. I think I will try to put in a side door instead of entering through the Galley.







The Jeep is the whole reason I like camping out. Its a blast to tool around in all day long. Just would be really nice to have a cool place to sleep at night during the summer.

I am hoping to Get started on the conversion after I get back from Katemcy Rocks this weekend.

This is actually going to be a square tubular steel structure with a metal skin. I will use curved tubes running down from the front of the trailer to the angle where it meets the body and then weld cross spars across the width for support of the roof.

angib wrote:Looking good.

If you fit conventional roof spars across the width of the front roof (the bit that tapers), it will be a nightmare to work out the angle of the ends of the spars in the curved bit of roof.

You might want to think of cutting some curved roof spars from plywood that would run front-to-back, sitting their back end on a roof spar running crossways at the joint to the parallel-sided section. These spars will also be about half the length of ones running crossways so will be stronger.

Andrew

John, I'm sure that even if you cut out a section of the siderail for easier entry that it would not hurt anything structurally.

toypusher wrote:John, I'm sure that even if you cut out a section of the siderail for easier entry that it would not hurt anything structurally.

If I tie the side rail into the cabin frame it should be strong enough. In a pipe-rail gooseneck that is actually a structural member.

If you moved the hinge on the galley door forward, the bottom of your galley door would open almost straight up. Your clearance issue with the jeep would be minimal. Your cabin ceiling could be the same, just the door's outer skin and structure would be different.
Since you would be weatherproofing the galley door anyway, I doubt it would be an issue to adapt to the change.

I threw together a little arc diagram. To be candid, the difference in the arcs is not as dramatic as I had hoped it would be. The letters denote the pivot locations and the corresponding arc. The measurements are 5 units of straight from the corner to letter A and 10 units in between the rest of the letters. A surprising thing for me was to see the bottom of the galley door would intersect at the same location, regardless of the arc. I should also add that the vertical measurement of the "door" is 20 units and the radius of the corner is 10 units