New guy from Finger Lakes, NY

[amp1ron]

Hi all. I've been reading the forums and scouring the web for teardrop information since Spring 2011. I'm very impressed by the great looking trailers you've all built and I'm thankful that you've shared your end results, thinking, and build journals.

I've decided to build a small trailer this year but I've not yet settled on a style. I'm leaning toward's angib's redesign of the teardrop for 2 for a harbor freight 4x8 folding trailer, but I may go with a Benroy or Mini-Hopper. I definitely want something with an 80" mattress and a galley in back. Whatever I build will go on a 5x8 Northern Tool trailer as I recently bought one on sale.

I didn't have a good place to build or store a completed trailer, so I picked up a Rhino Shelter 12' wide by 20' long by 8' high temporary garage and set it up during my Christmas vacation. I've got the trailer frame assembled in the garage (temporarily sitting on 4 jackstands) and it feels like there will be enough room for me to do the build in there.

I've not yet hung the springs and axle as I haven't picked a design and don't have the details I need to do the axle location math.

I'll start a build journal when I've got a basic style selected and I'm ready to start construction.

[Gaelen]

Where in the Finger Lakes, amp1ron? There's some great camping in this area...and some gatherings pretty close by (check the Northeast section in the Gatherings forum.)

Welcome in!

[amp1ron]

Hi Gaelen. Thanks for the welcome.

I live in Geneva, NY which is about halfway between Rochester and Syracuse. I usually tent camp in the Adirondacks but last year tried out Allegany State Park which is on the other side of the state from the Adirondacks.

As a kid our family all camped in various spots in California, mostly up north. Also did some camping in the Nevada desert as my father and grandfather were rockhounds. We also did tent camping during the move/drive from California to NY and then a couple of times after that when doing summer vacations where we drove from NY to California and then did the return trip.

If the teardrop trailer works out, I'd like to do some multi-day, several campground-/road-trips to visit my sister in Florida. I'd really like to check out the forests on the East coast and I think this would be a great way to do that.

One of the reasons I want to try teardrop camping is so that I can take off more often with less preparation time to get everything together and packed. Another big reason is so that I can try some camping farther away from home where I can pull in to camp just before nightfall and not have to do any real setup until the next morning. Other reasons are that I'm 49 and getting tired of breaking down and packing up a tent campsite in the rain and I'm not as comfortable in a tent as I used to be -- I broke both of my heels (and broke an arm and fractured 6 vertebrae) in 2009 from a ladder fall and now have pretty inflexible ankles that complain when I'm squatting down to get in and out of a tent. The last reason is that I'm really captivated by the whole idea of a car-towable trailer with bedroom and kitchen that won't be insanely expensive in terms of gas $ to tow.

-- Ron