New guy from Vermont

[Quickstrt]

Hello and thank you all for the wealth of information that you have put together here. My name is Denis (or Denny to my friends) and I am fascinated with these little trailers. I am planning on beginning a build of my own this winter as time permits, but as a road worker in this neck of the woods during the winter, spare time is hard to come by at times. As a child, my family spent a lot of time camping, as did my wife's and I remember those as the good old days. Its been some 25 years or so since I have been and I really would like to get into it. We don't have a lot of time to get away, and we have animals at home that need to be cared for, so I can't justify buying a new camper that may only get used a couple times a summer. This is where a Teardrop fits right in. I am pretty handy so I am capable enough to build my own, and it would be quite enjoyable in itself. I can build our private little getaway for little money and maybe even get my teenage son involved.

After looking around, the shape of the Grumman 2 is very appealing to me. I'm not crazy about losing interior space to the wheel wells so the tires will be mounted outboard. I have a lead on a trailer, though it may be a little heavy, it will keep costs down. It is built with 4" channel rather than the 2" angle I have seen so frequently here, but the weight isn't as much of an issue as my budget so it will work fine. I am thinking of 5'x10' to give us enough space for everything.

Now I have a couple questions...I have been looking for a "construction guide" in a print form rather than pdf or disc, does any one know if one is available that they might recommend. I prefer to have a book to thumb through rather than reading it off a screen.

I am thinking of skinning my little trailer with the fiberglass surround from my wife's old swimming pool. It is 1/4"+ thick and 4' wide. Perfect width for the sides, though I may have to do a seam on the roof (not crazy about this as I am definitely not a fiberglass man). Once again, this is primarily to keep the budget down as low as I can. I am sure I can make it look pretty good, though it will take me longer than the average super-hero to smooth things out. Just wanted to throw this out there in case any one for sees any problems with it.

And last but not least, do we have any other Vermonters in the group. I would love to get the opportunity to check out someone else's Teardrop and get to know some new faces.

Thanks again for all the info, and hopefully I'll be posting on the start of my build soon.

[mikeschn]

Does your printer duplex?

I would print this pdf - double sided, http://www.mikenchell.com/images/GenericBenroyPlans.pdf, and then chew on it a while!

Mike...

[Quickstrt]

Thanks Mike, I've got it printing now. Looks like a lot of great information there to get me going in the right direction.

[Quickstrt]

Nobody else here from Vermont?

[mikeschn]

Thanks Mike, I've got it printing now. Looks like a lot of great information there to get me going in the right direction.

Now that you've got it printed off, do you have all those tiny details memorized? Some of those details will keep you from getting into trouble...

Mike...

[Quickstrt]

My memory is not anywhere near as good as it used to be, but having it printed means I can look it up, love it. I have read all through it and appreciate the details that are given. Will definitely prove quite useful. I would really like to find a copy of Steve Frederick's Shop Manual in print form. As far as I can find, its only available for pc and I really prefer a big fat manual to thumb through as time allows. I have seen some builds on tntt that used his hatch waterproofing ideas and I would like to incorporate that into my build. If I missed something about this, please let me in on it, Thnks.

[George Taylor]

If you check out the Tearjerkers.net site the Great North woods chapter does have a few VT members. As for the weight of the trailer there are things you can do to drop weight with out sacrificing the strength. Drilling holes in the rails can drop the weight significantly and retain the strength. As for the roof sheet aluminum in 12' sheets is not that expensive. I skinned our teardrop roof with a 5' x12' sheet (entire camper is 10x4x4) and only cost $275.

[kayakdlk]

Welcome to the forum.

I highly suggest buying Steve Fredericks builders guide. http://www.campingclassics.com/shopman05.html. It comes in PDF but I printed it out and put in a three ring binder. You can even take the pdf on thumb drive to copy center (e.g. Staples), etc and get a printed and bound copy if you desire. I read the hard copy several times and made notes on it from his builds on his web site and the other pictures of his builds. I also sometime blew up the pictures to see details I could not see in the printed copy. It is not a set of plans but a different and I found easier way to build from the inside out. I think it was well worth the purchase price. He has some great techniques and what I thought was an easier way to make the hatch lid.
Dan

[drgrumpus]

Hey "newbie". I'm from nh. Almost in vt. I hillclimb at Okemo and Ascutney and others. I am a newbie also. I started my td in September. A modified Grumman 2 shape on 5 x 8 1/2 bed. The overhang in front/rear gives 10ft overall length with 5ft height. I have deck on, walls up, and headliner installed. Tackling wiring this weekend.

My only advice is to plan, plan, and then plan some more. Then measure thrice before cutting. There is an optimum sequence to construction, and with things glued together, it is hard to backup if a step was neglected.

C'mon over and look at my project and I can give you some tips.

Mike

[nevadatear]

Totally agree with buying steve fredricks book. We also printed it out into a binder. It was invaluable.

[Vedette]

Welcome to the Forum!
As a builder of both cars and Teardrops I can would like to give you one piece of advice and I sincerely hope you take seriously.
Trying to build cheap by using what you may have laying around , rather than buying what you need will end up costing you twice as much!
It is like renovating a house.......it is way harder than building new.
Build your TD as you want it to be, at whatever it costs you, and you will be way happier with the end result.
And you will find that it cost you less!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi