Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello Everyone!
I am new to the website and in being so have found the perfect place to show everyone my idea for a new teardrop trailer. First off I am a retired industrial designer now building and designing everything from toys and furniture to human powered vehicles. My teardrop trailer design has been in my head for at least 20 years or so and now I have the time to get back to it between other projects that I design and build. Hopefully I can start this project in the near future. I wanted to share some computer images of the trailer with you to give you a better idea of what is in my head. The trailer would be a fiberglass/foam composite the same that is used in experimental aircraft construction. The dimensions of the trailer would also be 5 x 10 feet and stand almost 6 feet tall. Also planned for the construction would be all LED lighting inside and out along with a fresh water holding tank for the galley. Let me know that you think and if you have any ideas that could or should be included in the design. For a little more history on my design and a couple more images check out the August 2016 posting from my blog. Thetinkersworkshop.blogspot.com. The name "Radius" was chosen for the rounded shape of the trailer. It just seem to fit the images you see here.

Great renderings!

A very cute shape trailer, I like it, thanks for sharing such great renderings. Are you using Solidworks for modeling?
How do you plan to make those curved foam shapes?
Normally with "one of" build it would involve quite a bit of shaping, sanding, fiberglassing , filling and sanding?

Hello OP827,
Thanks for the kind words about my composite teardrop design. I created the design using Autodesk's Fusion 360 software. This software by the way can be downloaded directly from Autodesk for free. It's a full version and you can use it as long as you like. I have used three or four major design softwares...ProE, Solidworks, Inventor, etc. All taking years to learn and MAJOR cash to own. So Fusion 360 being just as good or better than the high ticket software plus free and much more user friendly always works for me.

The construction of a my composite teardrop would be built similar to my human powered velomobile that you see below.






The construction starts with a composite fiberglass/foam framework that is then covered with Styrofoam strip similar to stripping a cedar strip canoe. Then the inside of the structure is fiberglassed to give it more strength and rigidity. The outside of the teardrop would be sanded smooth next so that it could also be fiberglassed. After that is completed very much like body work for a car. Lots and lots of sanding and filling and more sanding is done to get it ready for paint. No doubt about it this would be a major project to work on and complete. The velomobile that I designed and built took me 600 hours to construct over a years time. But the shape and look is near perfection and if I can make this complicated piece of fun than my teardrop would be even simpler to construct as the shape is not nearly as complex as the velomobile. Not saying it would be easy or fast to build but it could be done.

Here are a few more pictures of other projects that I have designed and built that will give you a good idea of what can be made using composite construction.




The trailer I designed for my motorcycle is again all composite construction again taking a lot of time to design as well as build but worth the effort. Very streamlined, strong and lightweight.

The kayak again I designed and built was a very special project in the fact that it was designed so that it could be taken apart or put back together in under two minutes in three sections so that it could easily be stored and transported. Worked great on the top of my Mini Cooper.

So I hope that answers your questions. If you'd like to find out more about these and a lot of other projects that I design and build please check out my blog.

Thetinkersworkshop.blogspot.com.

I have been running the blog now for over five years and have reached over 5.5 million viewers in 95 countries. So hopefully you will find something of interest as well. I will get the teardrop off the ground one of these days and when I do I'll keep a running log about it's construction as well on the blog. Thanks again for the questions.

Dave

Wow, I mean WOW, Dave, that is very impressive. I was long time interested in building an electric plus man-powered vehicle, just like what you have done.

Thank you so much for information and sharing your experience here. I suspected that the foam strip technique would be the one to use in this case, I also considered that in my current trailer build.

I have only started to use foam and fiberglass in my trailers' lifting roof and foldable lightweight build and I'll be the checking Autocad Fusion free software to see if I can learn it, do you know links to good video tutorials you could recommend?

I found some very good videos on Sketchup that gave me a huge kickstart on it.
In my hobby work, I previously tried Solidworks (it must be a great SW, but was hard to learn before I could be productive and trial expired) then started modeling in Sketchup which I can use pretty good, but I liked simple Autocad too (although did not use it much) for its ability to just enter shapes in a LISP string form too, which sometimes allows to just build a model from a a quick idea or a hand sketch quite quickly.

If you are using the standard TD sleeping arrangement. Your door needs to be moved back. So you can sit, spin and swing your legs in.

Hello OP827,
Autodesk has tutorials online to get you started with Fusion 360. There are also a lot of tutorials on YouTube for Fusion that will answer all kinds of questions that you may have in using the software. Worse comes to worse just let me know and I am sure that I can help you out with anything you may come across.

Dave

Hello KennethW,
I did some checking on my computer model and your correct. The door should be moved back at least a foot. At it's current position if you sit down in the trailer and then spin, bring you legs in and then try to lay down you'd bang your head on the front wall before your head hit the pillow. Or at least it would be very close to be sure. Thanks. I'll make some adjustments to my computer design.

Davecc wrote:Hello OP827,
Autodesk has tutorials online to get you started with Fusion 360. There are also a lot of tutorials on YouTube for Fusion that will answer all kinds of questions that you may have in using the software. Worse comes to worse just let me know and I am sure that I can help you out with anything you may come across.

Dave

Thanks Dave . The front window may need a cover from a road debris and damage, my 0.02. Do you plan some propane bottle and a 12V battery, in the back?

Oleg

OP827 wrote:

Davecc wrote:Hello OP827,
Autodesk has tutorials online to get you started with Fusion 360. There are also a lot of tutorials on YouTube for Fusion that will answer all kinds of questions that you may have in using the software. Worse comes to worse just let me know and I am sure that I can help you out with anything you may come across.

Dave

Thanks Dave . The front window may need a cover from a road debris and damage, my 0.02. Do you plan some propane bottle and a 12V battery, in the back?

Oleg

My first attempt at the trailer design had a cover that went over the front window. I simply have not had the time to put this feature in the computer model you see here. I have to work out the propane and battery setup yet along with a lot of other details that are needed for the design. My original design was lost due to a major computer failure so I needed to start over from scratch. So a lot has to be done before even thinking about starting the build.

Great design!.

I'm going to take a look at your blog to see if you show more about your construction methods.

aggie79 wrote:Great design!.

I'm going to take a look at your blog to see if you show more about your construction methods.

Hi there! Thanks for the nice comment about my teardrop design. To really get a good idea of what the construction is all about go back to my blog and start looking at the posting from July 2013 on the construction of my velomobile. This will give you a very good idea of the construction process. From that first posting then start moving forward in time on the blog to see the entire build process for the velomobile to it's completion a year later. Believe me it will explain a lot about how the teardrop would be constructed and all the work that went into the velo. As I've said here this would be a huge project and not easy by any means. But I think the end result would be nothing less than stunning. Thanks for the comment. Dave

Thanks Dave for the tip to use Fusion 360. I downloaded it to my notebook and signed up for the free 30 day preview. I'm a CAD noob. I've wanted to try using CAD software to work out some design details for a 5'4" W x 10' L Benroy inspired teardrop. Hope this works OK without overwhelming me. Let the Rodeo begin!

Wow! Your renderings are so realistic, I thought you'd already built it!

Do you see any weight issues with this novel build method?

When I was a kid me and my dad built a small motor boat by laying up fibreglass onto glass as a 'mold' to create fibreglass sheets. We then fixed it to a wooden frame, just like you would build a ply boat. But it was all the extra seam sealing, filling with bondo etc that added lots of weight. It was never a speedboat that's for sure! But at least it floated and didn't leak! Happy memories from nearly 50 years ago

Hi Mallymal!
Glad you like my teardrop design. I have been working with fiberglass projects for the past six or seven years now. The teardrop design that I came up with has been in my head for many more years and after working with fiberglass I think this would be another great project to build. The weight would not really be an issue as this type of construction is exactly the way experimental composite aircraft are designed and built. In that application keeping the weight down is a must so I see no reason why this will not work for a teardrop trailer as well. Very strong construction and easy to form into complex shapes. As with all the projects that I build in fiberglass a lot of planning and designing needs to go into them before you even start. I suspect that my teardrop design would take me 1 1/2 to 2 years to complete. I can't even imagine the number of hours that would go into the project being the size that I have planned for it. But I do know that it would be an outstanding trailer once it was completed by all of the emails and comments I have received from people like you about it that think the way I do about it. Thanks for the comment!