Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Len, would you be willing to entertain some questions about the Pacman? Assuming yes, what was it, about 4 by 7 feet? Custom frame? Filon roof?

It's one of the coolest trailer designs I've seen here. Actually one of the coolest designs of anything I've seen anywhere. French doors! Amazing... It just has incredible appeal. Do you miss it? Where is it now?

Cheers,
Curtis Olson
Hamilton, VA

Hamilton! Went to look at a house there yesterday. What a quaint town...beautiful. We just may run into you and your TD (pacman2, perhaps?) at the Beautiful South some evening in a couple of months.

Not at all Curtis

Ask away. I sold it to a Gal in NC. Actually I used aluminum for the roof and body.









It was real easy to make the sides, I cheated a bit to make the raised wood panels.

I cut our 4 sides out of 1/2" plywood and cut out the centers on 2, glued them to the other 2 and the sides were done.

Also the porthole was important because it had no corners, Anything else other than a round window would have been crooked (and leaked) when up.

I'll look for more photos.

Happy Trails

Len

Alleged User wrote:Hamilton! Went to look at a house there yesterday. What a quaint town...beautiful. We just may run into you and your TD (pacman2, perhaps?) at the Beautiful South some evening in a couple of months.

It's a great place to live and to raise a family. Some of the neighbors have become my best friends. We own that crazy purple house on the main street, no doubt you saw it on you way through.

Curtis

len19070 wrote:Actually I used aluminum for the roof and body.

Aluminum on the body?

Now I notice that in the second and later photos (in your message above) there appears to be a some kind of additional structure slung under the body in front of the axle - storage box?

Do you remember the dimensions of this beast?

Again, it's just a really artistic execution of a clamshell. Nifty. No doubt you got lots of comments on it when you took it out. It looks like it would be good for one-person weekend camping.

Cheers,
Curtis

So, I imported a picture of the side profile into Sketchup, and tried to take some measurements (set a baseline of 15" at the wheel diameter, and scaled from that). If I'm close at all, it's a pretty compact rig. Looks about 7.5' stem to stern, The frame appears to be 4 x 6. The doors I can't measure well, but are roughly 3' tall. Inside height when open is somewhere near 5'. Closed, the body is about 4' from highest point to lowest (which is at what appears to be a storage box in front of the axle).

The lid looks torsionally stiff, the bottom somewhat less so. However, the bottom walls are relatively short, and look to be attached to the floor in a way that would limit flexing.

Opening the critter on-site might take some flexing of the owner - I'm guessing you have to hold the lid open while you reach in to grab the door frame and fold it up. I see gas struts inside, which should be of assistance.

The roof rack is really cool, like from a vintage VW, custom made, no doubt. The awning looks to be supported by flagpoles from the hardware store. The wheels make it look like it's going fast even while sitting still, and are a major part of it's cool factor - Cragars? I'm wondering how the hinge on the front stays dry when towing through a monsoon at 90 miles an hour...

How am I doing?

I love this trailer. I want to buy it dinner, maybe a movie and a few drinks, and see where things go...

Cheers,
Curtis

Nice Len;

Do you have some more detailed pics under construction, I'm also intrested in your door design / construction.

Cheers Dave

BC Dave wrote:Nice Len;

Do you have some more detailed pics under construction, I'm also intrested in your door design / construction.

Cheers Dave

Dave,

I'll look for some more photos.

I'm switching computers now and my photo albums are all over the place at present.

Happy Trails

Len