Howdy

[Johno]

Hello, I am John Scott and I live outside of Hempstead, TX. I retired a little under 2 years ago and my wife and I were supposed to be doing the “full timing” traveling thing in our 5th wheel RV. Well, we sold the house, but so far, we only made it from League City (just south of Houston) to here, about 87 miles. A lot of family problems came up and we really needed to stay close by so for the time being, we are here until further notice.

Our RV experience is as follows: I grew up tent camping and then my father built a popup style camper for the pickup truck. He took the family on a 4 week trip in 1965 from Houston to Atlanta, GA., up to New York for the 1965 World’s Fair, on to Niagara Falls in Canada, through Wisconsin and Michigan, then south and finally back home. This trip really messed me up for life, I have been hooked on the RV thing ever since.

Shortly after we got married, we tried taking a trip to her sister’s cabin in Arkansas, but at the last minute, they had a heavy rain and damaged the cabin, so we had to come up with an alternate plan within 48 hours. I called my dad and asked him if we could borrow his trailer (remember the little camper from the 1965 trip, well it is now installed on a trailer frame) and that was our first camping experience together. Much to my wife’s surprise, she discovered that she actually enjoyed the week trip and I was able to convince her to let me buy a slide in cabover camper for our truck. Well, we took that camper from Southern Florida to Vancouver Island and a whole lot of points in between. In 1989, after a 6 week, 7,000 mile trip, we decided two things. First, we both enjoyed camping and wanted to continue doing this and two, we were tired of crawling up to get into bed.

So since that time, we have had a 20’ 5th wheel trailer, a 10’ popup, a 17’ Casita, and our current rig (which is also our current home) a 31’ 5th wheel.

My interest in the Teardrop started a while back. One thing that caught me a little off guard AFTER we sold the house and moved into the trailer was except for some furniture and other items in long term storage, we now had all of our belongings in a trailer and we were traveling down the highway with the possibility of only being one traffic wreck away from destroying it all. And since we are more or less here until further notice, I have been thinking about a second trailer, something for quick local outings. Also, I have been thinking about a couple of other things.

The first is Alaska. I have wanted to go there for some time, but for some reason, my wife is really not interested in going. Finally, she just flat out told me if I wanted to go, then go, but without her. It seems that this will be the only way I will get to see the 49th state. So this means that I will need a secondary RV to get there in. I cannot see any reason to take a big rig just for myself, so how about a small one that can be towed behind a high MPG economy car?

The second is the future. I am looking toward the day when we will all be camping in much smaller RVs. I am thinking about a trailer that could be towed behind an electric car. It would need to be both, aerodynamically clean as well as light. Actually, it may not get quite that bad. We took a caravan RV vacation in Germany in 2001 and frankly, I was VERY much impressed with the whole trip. We went with some friends who arranged the entire trip. Basically, they were in a unit about 23’ in length and weighed around 2,100 lbs and it was towed by a 100hp, 5 speed standard Opal and the setup that we had was a 17’, 1,700 lb trailer and was towed with a 75hp, 5 speed standard Opal. Uli and I did some calculations in our heads and we both came up with an estimate of 23.5 MPG while towing (I confirmed these numbers when we got home)! So if this can be done in Europe, then why cannot we do at least the same over here???

So anyway, thanks for Mike and every one who has put together a fantastic site for these little trailers that very well may be the trailer of the future.

– John -

[del]

Basically, they were in a unit about 23’ in length and weighed around 2,100 lbs and it was towed by a 100hp, 5 speed standard Opal and the setup that we had was a 17’, 1,700 lb trailer and was towed with a 75hp, 5 speed standard Opal. Uli and I did some calculations in our heads and we both came up with an estimate of 23.5 MPG while towing (I confirmed these numbers when we got home)! So if this can be done in Europe, then why cannot we do at least the same over here???


– John -

Wow I was happy when my subaru got 20 mpg pulling my tear over the rockies.

Welcome and Auntie M will want pics when you do build.

del

[Miriam C.]

to the playground John. Well if you can live in a 30'er your can camp in a TD and be quite comfy. We would love to trip off the Alaska but that is a lot of years away.

So now you have only to dig out the camera and start building. The camera is of course the most necessary tool to keep the bubble oil level.

[jhjspecks]

welcome from another League City person. Just so you know there is an RV park in League City right off 45 @ 518 now.

[Johno]

Living in an RV can be fun, but also a little cramped at times. When I turn around, I check to see if I am going to run into my wife who might be right behind me. Our square footage inside is 284 with the slides out.

Yes, that park has been there a few years. When our house did not sell for a while, our agent suggested that if we were out of the house, we might get a buyer who needed a quick move in (which is in fact just what happened). So we moved the trailer to Safari mobile home & RV park down Calder road behind the new baseball field. We stayed there from late March until the end of August last year when we made the move to where we are currently located.

Right now, I am keeping busy learning all about how to build a teardrop and which style and building method to employ in the build. At this point, it looks like it will be a 5x10 with a minimum of features and extras. From past experiences, we have had gotten the most “bang for the buck” with smaller and cheaper RVs (cabover camper and popup trailer). While our current unit is an upper class 5th wheel, we bought this as more of a home then a RV. I am looking forward to something where we spend our time traveling, seeing places and doing things, and not setting up and maintaining a rig. – John -

[Wolf]

Welcome John,

My wife and I lived in a 26" Boles Aero for 6 years, wish we had had all that space you have! We also used to live in Conroe before moving to NM.
Wolf