Hi from Long Island!

[meghan.lefferts]

Hi all!

I'm Meghan. I have always wanted to build a tear, and now with my husband buying a new 32' monster of a TT (don't get me wrong, it's nice to have all the comforts of home, but costs too much to justify shorter length trips in fuel costs) and considering a pop-up for shorter trips, I'm now jumping feet-first into this. I have done the pop-up thing, and it's not bad, but I don't want to have to set anything up to go to sleep. I just want to crawl in and cuddle up. AND be able to tow it with my 2.2l HHR, with some funky design to complement it while being towed.

I've built things before, but never on this scale. My husband is dead set against me building it, so of course now I have to, just behind his back until it's completed when I can pull up with it and watch his jaw drop:twisted:. I have a friend who is a welder and willing to help me with metal work, so I'm considering building a custom frame torsion axle trailer as my base. I think I want a 5X10 tear with wheels on the outside and fenders. I need to fit my husband, myself, and 2 kids in there, so I need some kind of a bunk set up. I've been busy looking at some of the various designs and builds of members here and I'm impressed with all of you! Just trying to figure out the profile and height I will need has had my head spinning , but I am starting to settle on some ideas and have started a notebook. I was thinking about doing a dinette inside and having that become the upper bunk, and the floor serving as the second bunk with cushions that store under the dinette while we're sitting. I'll have a sketch soon I hope.

Thanks for having this board!

Meghan

[nevadatear]

Wish i had a pic but there was this crazy slick bunk bed setup at IRG last year, i think i won most cool feature, so maybe someone does. The back bulkhead actually pivoted in the middle, going from vertical to horizontal and became a bunk. Very cool.

[meghan.lefferts]

Wish i had a pic but there was this crazy slick bunk bed setup at IRG last year, i think i won most cool feature, so maybe someone does. The back bulkhead actually pivoted in the middle, going from vertical to horizontal and became a bunk. Very cool.

I wish I could see that! Do you fiddle with sketch up?

[Junkboy999]

Hello and Welcome.

A lot of people use sketchup here. The forum moderator, Mike just set up a section for sketchup diegines.
Another person is taking the most popular designs and redoing them in sketchup format. Other people just
post random “ Hey what about this as a design “ threads where they use the program to convey their idea.
Some neat designs but most never get built.

Bunks are doable but work better in a camper that is wide enough to sleep in sideways. A top bunk in a
standard TD would be limited to a small bed for children or pets because if the inside cabinets.


Ps. I think your husband would get suspicious really fast when you start asking to borrow his power tools
to take over to your girlfriends house for an all nighter, and it is hard to smuggle a table saw out in your
purse. Ha hahaha


keep us informed either way.

[meghan.lefferts]

Hello and Welcome.

A lot of people use sketchup here. The forum moderator, Mike just set up a section for sketchup diegines.
Another person is taking the most popular designs and redoing them in sketchup format. Other people just
post random “ Hey what about this as a design “ shreads where they use the program to convey their idea.
Some neat designs but most never get built.

Bunks are doable but work better in a camper that is wide enough to sleep in sideways. A top bunk in a
standard TD would be limited to a small bed for children or pets because if the inside cabinets.


Ps. I think your husband would get suspicious really fast when you start asking to borrow his power tools
to take over to your girlfriends house for an all nighter, and it is hard to smuggle a table saw out in your
purse. Ha hahaha


keep us informed either way.

Hi Junkboy,

I'm considering a combination of ideas from tears that other members have posted and are camping with. I wish I remembered where I saw these ideas so I could give due credit, but there's what I think I'm going to attempt:

1) fold down wall between top of galley and sleeping area level with top counter to act as part of the upper bunk (about 4'X5')
2) "couch" across back galley wall where wall acts as back support and bottom is a ladder frame & cam be moved up level with counter/wall fold out to rest on dowel pegs to make bunk longer when kids grow more (about 6'X5')
3) Cushions for top bunk are "couch" cushions, 2 connected and 1 separate, cushions for floor bunk stored under seat frame, all accordion connected.
4) Floor bunk almost queen size (58ish by 80), the top one may be shorter or longer as needed.
5) cabinets only across front for clothing storage, spot for tiny tv & radio, and keys
6) drop floor that doubles as table in front of "couch" for my long-legged hubby
7) side-out stove in galley
possible 3-way fridge
9) a.c. & d.c. system w/ battery
10) spots for a/c vents for petcool when budget allows-probably on tongue

and all this has to be reasonably below 1000lbs when unloaded- my max towing capacity is 1000lbs.
I figure I can get away with it because the interior is mostly empty space and I will have a couple of things in double-use to cut down on extra weight. Considering only 1 door to cut down on weight, or 2 pre-made doors from the guy on ebay so there is no need for more windows.

I have the profile figured out in sketch up, I just have to figure our how to put the interior in there and how to post sketchup images.

I will probably borrow the tools from somewhere else, I have some of my own, but he doesn't own most of the tools I need anyway, so less sneaking is necessary

[Junkboy999]

Most people just use the “Print Screen / SysRq “ key on the keyboard. This captures the screen to Windows
clipboard. Now you can open any art, picture, or drawing program and “Paste” the clipboard in that program.
you need to crop out all the extra screen garbage and resize the picture to a manageable 640x480.

It sound like you have a good plan there, but at the waste of some galley space. It is a trade off I guess. I’m
losing front cabinets in mine trying to make it a pop-up.

GL and love to see the pictures.

[RandyG]

Sounds like a lot of stuff goin on there. I'm making a 5'x9' and have three kids. Thought about the bunk idea for all, but now I may just have one bulk for the little kid. The 2 boys can sleep in the tent. I also got rid of any idea on a dinette cause we would rather eat outside rather than being bunched up. Not trying to sway you in any way but you have many weeks worth of planning ahead of you. I hope to see some designs soon on sketch-up, I didn't have much luck with SU but didn't put in much time. Good luck!