We are A.S.S Studio (Anson morris and Saya Shimada), a couple of architecture graduate students from the University of Oregon with a passion for design, construction, and documentation. Over the last term we went through the design and construction of our first teardrop trailer! We based our design on the Wyoming Woody profile and modified it to fit our own physical and design needs. The build was successfully completed with a seemingly infinite amount of time on TnTTT, the invaluable wisdom of our mentors at Oregon Trail'r, and one intense week of construction. We are still finishing up the shelving and smaller details but have already taken it on a 1701 mile journey down Highway 1 and back.
As we are graduate students obsessed with design and documentation, we have decided to put the build, lessons learned during the process, and a history and stories of teardrop culture into a book that we will be self publishing over the summer. The book will include a detailed step-by-step of our design and construction process, materials, tools, cost, and methods for use by future builders.
In addition to the build process, we feel it is important to include the community and culture of the tiny trailer community into the book. This is where you, the TnTTT community come into it! We would love to hear your stories of the builds, the adventures your trailers have brought you on, and how tiny trailers have affected you and your life. Met the love of your life on the road? Skipped the book shelf and built a home on wheels instead? Took your trailer on a life changing pilgrimage? We would love to hear about it! We would like to put sections of your stories in the book as well as feature them on our teardrop blog (which we are in the process of constructing).
Try to keep the stories around 500 words and don't forget the pictures! Feel free to email your stories to me at [email protected]. We feel that teardrops are as much about nomadic adventures as they are about the community and craftsmen that build and travel in them.
As we put together the manual side of the book, we would love input from a few seasoned builders on the methods we are suggesting. Not only would this give the reader another point of view on the build, it helps to suggest that the teardrop is open for personalization and customization.This would involve looking over sections of the manual and adding any suggestions for alternate materials, methods, or designs that differ from our own personal build that would be noted as a contributors suggestion. Let us know if you are interested!
I am adding a couple of images from our build and trip, and we will eventually be adding some of our time lapses and videos.
Thanks again TnTTT for all of the information on the forum, it is an irreplaceable resource and fantastic community!
