Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

here's my first go at an offroad teardrop design. done on google sketchup, pretty complex design. tons of detail. i don't have a clue how many components i have in it, but google earth says it's too complex for them right now. you can check it out easily if you use sketchup yourself. probably over designed for my first.

it's based on the projected width of my jeep in the near (hopefully) future, with 35 x 12.5 x 15 tires on 2.5" b.s. rims. tires are a work of art themselves!! the galley is very basic, as we do not want to cook in it, we use portable stoves and coolers and such. and much prefer cooking over a fire than any other way.

good news!!!! the wife wants it!!!

might just have to build it, lol.

anyways, here's a link to the sketchup model i posted. hope it works

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6304b206c138a3029e628c8d8d168497



unsure of how to get it into picture format. gotta work on that part, never bothered before.

if anyone knows that part, share it with me please, and hey, you can even post it up in here too,lol.

let me know what ya'll think.

darryl

Hi Darryl and welcome to the forum I've placed a small pic of your proposed build for you. If you go to the "help with Photos" link at the top of the page you will learn how to save this type of drawing.

That sketch looks like it will be horribly over engineered, just like my first build.

Have a good read in our offroad section and you should pick up a few tricks regarding strength and weight.



Cheers
Paul

I like it.

It reminds me of the one from Adventure trailers.
http://www.adventuretrailers.com/teardrop.html

Hey Darryl, welcome to the forum, When your ready to start give me a call if I can help I will.

hey all, thanks for the welcome!! you better watch out hugh, i might take you up on that offer,lol.

i have dangerously figured out how to get pix from sketchup, so i'll put a couple in now, and more as i section some out.

here's the drivers wall off view.
[img][img]http://i36.tinypic.com/281a7nd.jpg[/img][/img]

and a view of the tear removed from the trailer.
[img][img]http://i34.tinypic.com/imth0o.jpg[/img][/img]

and a shot of my interpretation of a lock n roll hitch.
[img][img]http://i34.tinypic.com/29qh5c7.jpg[/img][/img]

and the last for tonight, the drivers wall sectioned to show the "sandwich"
[img][img]http://i37.tinypic.com/2lt3msp.jpg[/img][/img]

woohoo!! looks like i figgered it out!!!

tear it apart folks, give me your idears and thoughts!!! weight would be the biggest issue with the current design and material choices methinks.

darryl

*EDIT* Darryl, your pics were way too big causing anyone viewing to havvta scroll back and forth just to read the text, much less view the pic...we would ask you to use a smaller sized pic(640x480) to avoid this situation...I used www.tinypic.com to resize your pic on the fly...this a really handy web based program and we(the admins) highly recommend and encourage the use of this program to resize pics which are located off site and hot linked to a post here.........thanks, madjack

Those pics are pretty huge, do you think you could bring them down to our acceptable size.

Cheers
Paul

640x480 okie dokie!! didn't even know what size they were. show up on my screen fine,lol. sorry bout that.

unforgiven wrote:640x480 okie dokie!! didn't even know what size they were. show up on my screen fine,lol. sorry bout that.

Thanks very much for doing that. Appreciate it

Cheers
Paul

I can see a few issues. The axle appears too be located too far back, that (steel?) tongue box and huge spare tyre are going to make for a heavy duty tongue weight. The tyre also restricts access to the tongue box. You might also struggle to get the tyre onto the carrier, being up so high. The chassis looks like it could lose 30% of it's steel and still do the job.

You said Jeep, not a Wrangler I hope!

Love the hitch design

What are your proposed dimensions and will you be insulating the trailer? The mention of axle placement does pose a few problems. Since you hope to go to 35" tires on the LJ maybe lose the spare on the trailer and just run the same wheels on the trailer as on your Jeep. As you know I am just finishing up my TTT and I also have the wheels inside the body. I did this mostly because Princess Auto had a screaming sale on a 2000 lb axle with a wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface of 48". Turns out to get the proper ground clearance for some of our trails it made the trailer way to skinny of a track and too tippy. So back to PA when spring comes and buy a 3500 lb axle with a much wider track. So consider moving the wheels out a bit. If your worried about the axle do something along the lines of mine and angle the rear up to keep a good departure angle. By hingeing the angled part to drop down you could still retain an outside galley.

hey guys, thanks for the ideas!! everytime i look at my plan, i find something i don't like. maybe it's the axle position not sitting right with my eyes.

not too sure about the tongue box, whether or not i will have one. it was an afterthought that i'm not sure i like. most gear will ride in the jeep for trail runs, while the tear would be at a basecamp with camping and cooking gear.

as for a struggle getting the tire up there, that's as common as getting one up on the jeep's carrier, or as some have a basket on the top, even worse. but a very valid point anyways. so, if i pull off the box and tire, it should be fine with the axle being at 60% then. right??? looks better in my opinion that way anyhow, like i said they were both afterthoughts.

the tires would be the same as my lj hugh, as my tire size grows, so will the trailer. so one spare was the original idea. ouch, instead of 5 tires that makes 7, lol.

if you look at the last pic up there hugh, you can see the insulboard(pink) in the "wall sandwich". the dimesions. floor of tear is 6' x 8'. wall is 4' x 8'. walls are too thick, but i was thinking of less twist on the trail. at 1 1/4" thick for the whole sandwich. that same dimension applies to every surface, ie; floor, walls, roof, and hatch.

that being.............l1/4"l l'3/4"l l1/4"l the 3/4 being my "framewall" of 3/4 ply with insulboard in the cutouts. what concerns me, and anyone i've bounced the idea off of already, is weight of all that ply. (yeah the ply is heavy, nvm the overbuilt trailer,lol) the trailer was a first cut design, been already cutting it back in my head during those boring times at work doing repetitive stuff.

ok, as i type, more stuff hits the brain. what about the forces of off camber situations on the trailer? wouldn't beef be better than building "just enough" to do the job? or ami wrong in my train of thought there?

time for a re-do methinks!!!

so, oldtamiyaphile, are you on rcjeeps as well? just curious, as it seems to be the most sought after rc for crawling.

very dangerous now i know how to get pix, lol. here's a shot with no box or spare, what do ya'll think of the balance now? it's what was originally designed. need to shorten up the tongue again, but there's the idea i had at first.



darryl

just for giggles, this is what i designed last winter when i first got sketchup.



i've since learned more about the program, but not too shabby i think. it was again to be an offroad trailer, but more for use as a gear hauler / galley, complete with water tank, water heater, onboard shower. lots more goodies, i guess. but still sleeping in a tent.

who knows, it may well still be the first trailer i build.

darryl

After much research here the common opinion seems to be us first timers often overbuild. Another thing to consider is the box shape of the trailer adds an amazing amount of strength to the whole trailer once it,s all done. I made my frame out of 2x2 thick wall tubing, it does not flex at all. The trailer walls are 2x2 framed with good 1/4 plywood outside and rough 3/8 inside. Being all glued and having at least 1000 screws holding everything together it is strong. I took it into Rennie twice at a very slow speed and nothing came loose or bent or anything. Heck It even tipped over on the rocks and the only damage was some scratched paint and 2 dents in the wood sides. Have you given any thought to what you will use for an axle? Also it's just me but having 4 foot walls seems a bit small. I went with an interior height of 5' 2" inside and I think it paid off. The whole trailer seems small outside but sitting inside it's fairly roomy. A friend came over today and wanted to see it so we sat inside in the garage while I had 3 or 4 beers and it was pretty comfortable. Keep drawing and thinking.

unforgiven,

I see that you just joined. Congrats and welcome!

I agree with some of the others. I think that design would be overkill. Per your sketches, the trailer looks like eye candy for a monster truck rally.

If you want appropriate functionality, look no further than what the Aussies have built and use in the Outback. 235-75R-16, 4x4 pickup truck tires will get the trailer just about anywhere and will also lower the trailer's center of gravity for off-roading compared to the jumbo tires in your initial sketches.

Best wishes,

Prem

hey prem, thanks for the input.

it actually has me thinking. the plan was to get the same ground clearance as the jeep. the only way to actually achieve more ground clearance is with larger tire size. butttt, with your post, i got to thinkin on that. now with the jeep, you have the bottom of the diff as your lowest point. but with the trailer, it's only a straight axle, so using the same size tires you actually achieve about 4 inches ?? more clearance.

so, i think i might go down to 31's on the trailer, the issue then is that i would then need to carry a spare for each, which is what i was actually trying to avoid. but that would get the all important lower c.g. that we all want offroad. that is the main reason i am trying to stay within a 4 foot ceiling for the tear itself. it is after all only meant for sleeping quarters and an exterior galley. now, that said, last night i had the wife measure me, sitting on our planned seats(milk crate with custom cushion, we use them alot, they're great) and i topped out at 52" sitting straight up. so i might consider 4 1/2 feet, but i doubt it. i would more likely alter our seats.

so, now in my re-design, i have the spare tire to think about again adding tongue weight.

i've already started a re-do with a smaller tube size for the frame. 2x2 100 wall is in the next plan. if anyone has a better suggestion on tube thickness, let it be known, as that is very easy to change even after a fully finished drawing. hugh, what wall thickess of tube did you use for your trailer? you know the terrain i am talking about, and have taken your trailer there already, so i value the opinion greatly.

however, if you want eye candy, don't look at mine, i think it is VERY PLAIN when compared to the many, many beautiful trailers that sooo many of the very skilled craftsmen have built on this very website.

i am trying to figure out a possible coil suspension for the next design. would need limiting straps of course, so i don't pop a coil out. but it would allow the trailer to move along the trails more naturally, rather than bouncing along like a rolling brick. thinking that would give less chance of a rollover for the trailer.

wow, this design stuff can very easily create book-like posts when discussing different ideas.

thanks again everyone for all comments, opinions and ideas. keep em comin!!

darryl