I am a small scale Forrester, which doesn't pay the bills, so my day job is with our State Government. In the course of owning and operating our family tree farm, we have a number of vehicles, most of them 4 wheel drives of various makes and configurations suitable for logging and maintenance.
In the past, I was a enthusiastic drag racer and motorcyclist, but for about the last three plus years, I have been seriously getting into Jeeping, mostly from the standpoint of trail running and rock crawling. Lately, my interest has been moving more towards overland off road exploration.
Tent camping has never been a passion of mine, although I have accumulated a nice collection of tents and camp-ware over the years and my motorcycle days taught me the value of being prepared, packing light, staying dry and keeping it simple. Not wanting to sleep on the ground anymore, set up after dark in stormy weather, packing up camp and having to dry everything out at home before putting it away again got me thinking about a small trailer that I could pull behind one of my Jeeps or Power Wagon to a trail-head or even use off-road.
After eliminating pop-ups (all the disadvantages of a tent, except it's on wheels), I started searching for a tiny trailer. Easy towing and ease of use were more important considerations than comfort features other than staying dry. One day, when perusing the local Craigslist, an 8 year old home-built teardrop showed up that was practically in my backyard. The previous owner was also the builder and was leaving that week on a two year assignment where he couldn't bring the trailer. Not wanting to pay for storage, he was offering to get rid of it for $200. I rushed over to meet him and two Ben Franklins later, it was mine.
After a little cleanup, it looked like this:
I want to make some improvement, but still keep it simple, so I started out by fitting a more attractive outer skin of diamond plate, aluminum siding and smooth exterior sheeting sourced from a local RV manufacturer's closeout sale. This should make the teardrop more watertight as well as improve appearance and resale as I plan to custom build my own after experiencing a season of camping.
The countertop will have to be replaced with one that can support more weight:
Window, Door and Sun Roof removed for re-skinning.
As it sits today -- almost ready for first shake-down overnighter to Browns Camp in the Tillamook State Forest later this month:
The rear hatch cover and side still need to be sealed before it's usable. Tasks remaining when time permits will be to:
1. Refresh the interior paneling and cabinet faces
2. Install a heavier axle with 5x4.5" hubs for larger offroad tires
3. Extend and enlarge the coupler to make backing easier.
4. Upgrade wiring to 7 pin from flat 4 to charge battery.
-mel jr.
