Another newbie, in Houston, TX

[jae]

Hey guys, Jae here (Jason if you want to get lengthy).

Found your forum while doing an image search for teardrop trailers. I do a bit of motorcycle touring (close to 20k miles in trips alone over the past few years) and traditionally have done it all sleeping on the ground. A couple of summers ago I built and towed a small cargo trailer (Harbor Freight trailer, Sears car topper cargo box), and after seeing some small home-built tear drop campers I decided I want to build my own.

I'm in my usual place of having about 20 projects going on at once, but I'm doing my best to consolidate and sell off some of them so I can focus on building a camper trailer and getting my new sidecar rig back up to being roadworthy. My initial idea was to ditch the "car" and use the frame to support a very small tear drop enclosure just wide enough for me and the wife, but that would mean I couldn't tote my boys around in the hack on the weekends. So I'll stick with a trailer for now. As I'm looking at towing behind (or maybe even on, someday) a motorcycle, I'm extremely interested in a super-lite build, and I'm sure there are some experts (or experienced novices, at least) around here on using materials lighter than steel and 3/4" plywood, so I'll be reading around and seeing what you guys have come up with so far.

My thought at the moment is to build something the width of my full-size air mattress (platform over-fender, to keep it as narrow as possible), with storage under the deck to keep weight low and easily re-distributed. I've been looking at lots of pictures and still need to get into a solid modeling program (like SolidWorks, it's the best way for me to get ideas "onto paper") and see if I can work out some dimensional details to my satisfaction before I start worrying too much about materials, but I'd love to be able to stay around or under 300 lb empty. It's a huge stretch of a weight goal, I know, but I'm thinking that with a bit of creativity, maybe it's not TOO far out of the realm of possibility.

Anyway, I look forward to reading around some more getting to know you guys and your projects!

[SLUG36]

Hey there fellow SE Texan, I live in the Beaumont/Pt Arthur area, but work in La Porte.

[Mary C]

Welcome Jason, to the forum. My son lives in Sealy,he works south of Houston. I hope you will check out the foamie site and also there is a few cycle builds going on and a few completed. you will want to check them out too. I know you want light weight and foam is lighter than plywood. again welcome!!

Mary C.

[Vedette]

You might want to find an Egg?
Check out Christina's blog this past week....there is a video and story on them.
Google "Tiny Yellow Trailer"
I recommend adding it to your "Favorites" as she updates it every Tuesday, with a new photo every Friday.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi
And Welcome to the Forum

[jae]

Thanks guys.

Mary, a foamie is definitely on my list. I've spent the last few days reading around, and I'm starting to think that a wood frame, 1" foam shell backed by thin plywood (interior) and painted canvas may be the way I want to go. I've seen a couple of builds specifically for towing behind bikes that used all plywood, so I'm sure anything that loses weight will be an improvement.

My current debate is between starting with the 8" or 12" wheel harbor freight trailer kit. I used the 8" for my previous cargo trailer to pull behind this same bike, but I don't think it ever got over 300 lbs. total. I'm not sure if there will really be much advantage to going with the 12" wheel setup, and I already know that whichever kit I use will likely be narrowed. I plan to run the wheels in-board and drop a storage bin inside the frame structure both in front of and behind the axle. I think I've got a ton of details to work out before I actually start designing though.

[ST1100]

Hi Jae,

welcome to the forum and have fun, reading the building blogs!

You have found my trailer blog and If you read it from the beginning you can see, how I managed the lightweight challenge.
Pure aluminum is easy to work with and drilling and riveting needs not much experience.
Only axle and tongue of my trailer are made of steel and heavy.
The skin could be more light, if you use 1mm aluminum for your build instead of 0.6mm stainless steel, what I prefer, because I want to polish the can only once in my life.

We love to see pictures of your ideas and the building progress.

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=54344

Tom

[jae]

my initial idea is to do something along the lines of the goldbrand, using a wood frame with aluminum angle for reinforcement, then topping it with (primarily) foam walls, then painted canvas. I'm not nearly as worried about looks as I am about fuel economy (weight and profile for wind resistance).

alternatively, I've started sketching a fold-out reverse tear, but I'm not sure that the benefit of size is worth the complexity, especially when the possibility of leaks are considered.

I'll start a build thread pretty soon, once I can start sorting through my ideas a bit more.

For whatever it's worth, my tow vehicle is an '87 Yamaha Venture. I pulled a cargo trailer (smallest Harbor Freight trailer with a hard shell car topper) about 4500 miles a couple of summers ago, and I think that one topped out around 250 lbs loaded. Not too bad at all, but it's made me realize that another concern is being able to fit into a parking spot while on the road.