Thank you queeniejeane and Arne,
Yes we are coming into our summer here, although we did have a rather late winter and there were some quite good snowfalls in our Snowy Mountains late in the season. I doubt if I'll ever ski again, not that I ever did much to start with, this is the seecond ankle I've broken in 7 years so I think at my age any adventure training or such like sports is way in the past.
I don't as yet have a teardrop, as I said I just saw your great site and decided to sit diwn one day during the last 6 weeks, seeing I had nothing much else to do, and design my own tear drop profile. I'm a bit of a softie so I like my comforts and lots of storage space so my design is fairly large but I intend to make it as light weight as possible and practical because the small 4X4 I intend to tow it behind has a modest power output of 80 hp. Arne, your Aero-1 design has inspired me to make a few small changes to my design to make the front end a bit more aerodynamic so my Niva can tow it a bit more easily.
I have a road car and a full size 16'0"X8'0" caravan and also sat down and designed a fuel saver/luggage pod for the roof of this car when I'm towing my regular van. I then had a bright idea (I do have them occasionally) and decided to measure up the Niva 4X4 and design one for it as well. When I brought the measurements back inside and sat down with the drawings I found that I didn't need to design anything, The original design would also fit the Niva perfectly if needed.
My tear drop design is 12'7" long, 6'0" wide across the fenders which only protrude from the body 3" on each side, and 5'6" high floor to ceiling plus about 1'0" ground clearance under the floor. I'm looking at using Niva rear suspension components, 4 trailing arms, panhard rod and coils. I haven't decided whether to use a drop axle or not as yet.
,
Ross.
, Greetings from Australia,
