Just introducing myself. I'm Craig from Melbourne and until recently have been one of the many lurkers but finally had to post and was ordered by Cliff to post an introduction. So here you go Cliff.
My partner, Anna, and I are campers. Love getting out of town. We live in the Hills area of Melbourne and for those who haven't ventured to this neck of the woods, it's about 40 minutes east of Melbourne and we're surrounded by trees, hills and wildlife, (mainly birds. Cockatoos, owls, funny multi-coloured panted birds (can't think of their names right now but LOTS of colours) and even a resident peacock from the national park up the road). Despite that we still love heading bush proper.
Anna has the Taj Mahal of tents we've used up til now. Multi-rooms, heavy as buggery and takes a bit to set up. Somehow a while back I stumbled on teardrop campers and whilst I won't say I was enamoured from the start with them, they have very quickly grown on me. We currently are storing an old Coleman PopTop camper on the proviso that we can use it when we want to for a mate's Dad. We've used it once and it was comfy but I think a teardrop would suit us even better. Anna isn't convinced but like a lot of good women, she has suffered through the growing interest on my behalf that's quickly become an obsession, including constant "Hon!! Come and have a look at this teardrop" .. generally someone's here
So, even though she's not convinced, she's letting me plan and build a teardrop. God love her!!
In the relationship I'm the one obsessed with alternate technologies and energies. Briefly, I am attempting to put all my learnings into this trailer. I want it powered for "boondocking" as those in America seem to call it purely via solar and wind power. I'm playing with small solar panels, wind turbines and even Pelton wheels when camping by fast flowing rivers/creeks as we do up in Howqua by the Howqua River, (one of our fave spots). 1400 watts per day is a lot to make up but I'm enjoying the challenge. The reason it's so high is mainly because of the audio. Our regular camping buddies are all into jazz, blues and there's quite a few musicians amongst the crowd so if the guitars aren't going, there's always music going softly in the background and a lot of batteries being chewed through, so I'd like to save everyone money on batteries and accomodate our slightly unsober dance festivals
Anna and I are also Mini nuts. Not the new Bini (BMW Mini), although it is nice, but the old school mini. She's had two of them in her lifetime and I've had eight. Granted, only four of them were roadworthy and registered, but I still count unfinished projects and parts cars
Anna's a Financial Controller with a commodities company dealing with grains and lupens and me, I've gone back to right an old wrong. At 39 I've gone back to do a carpentry apprenticeship building homes. Something I have always regretted not doing in my youth. I've always loved working with wood but want to be in the trade so swapped the office for the job site and am loving it. So, having all the tools already and the experience using them won't hurt. The downside to being an apprentice is the low wage and therefore not a lot of build funds but as a lot of you keep saying teardrop time is measured differently.
Anyway, I found this website a while ago and the writings of aggie79, DMcCam, Sharon Heisley, bbarry, Aunti M and last but by no means least, 2bits. Seeing all your fantastic work has certainly been an inspiration. I'd list more of the people who are regular posters here but I'd be all night but needless to say, if you've written here and shown pics of your trailers, I am talking about you.
So a very big thankyou to everyone who has contributed to this forum for the many, many, many happy hours of reading you have provided me, and that of course goes out to the mods as well. Thanks peoples. And with any luck, God and the Murphys willing, you'll soon be seeing my build journal and I hope I can make you all proud.
Cheers
Craig
Welcome to the Aussie newbies, Craig & Anna. You certainly don't have to give up tent camping, but we're sure after a few quick bug-outs in the TD you'll see why many people have converted. Glad to see you on the board.....and hello there to you, Paul C. TDN Check out our website.
, but persistence won out in the end and now she is a happy little camper.
Yeah!! Right!! Then why are we always spending more time fixing stuff ups on them. Quicker and cheaper to stick frame in my opinion but the mass builders love them). Are things a bit slow for the builders over there? Steve? Cliff?