Newbie Planning Civil War Teardrop

[Vernacular]

Hi Campers! My name is Vern and I wanna build a TD to use as a cargo trailer and Messwagon for my Civil War reenactment unit. I managed to create a gallery and post the above foto, but if someone could tell me how to make it my avatar I sure would be grateful!
I admit to being a digital dinosaur.

I joined this Forum a while back when I first found it, but it took me a while to clear my plate and make time for this, so I thought I should re-introduce myself:
I live in beautiful and historic Conway, South Carolina (the Palmetto State, see photo). I work as a cook in a fine-dining restaurant in Myrtle Beach and enjoy motorcycles, fishing and woodworking. I'm single and co-own the old family manse with my brother. I have a roomy garage/workshop with lots of lighting and outlets. I rely on a couple different kerosene heaters out there but I probably won't be building till it warms up a little.

My Civil War unit goes camping about once a month, and what I want to be able to do is load up the cooler(s) with ice and stow groceries in the teardrop, then stow my firearms, uniforms, and personal items in the truck, hook up and go. I'll keep all my heavy stuff like cots, wooden tent poles and dutch ovens in the TD all the time, and stow canvas tentage and bedrolls the week of the event, to avoid mildew.

My general plan so far calls for a generic Benroy profile on a 4x8 HF frame. Simple birch ply floor and walls, with two large doors and an aluminum skin, since it will live outside behind my garage. Simple 12V electrics, with maybe a trickle charger I can plug into the outdoor outlet by the garage back door. I've just started looking at galley plans but I'll either build in two propane burners or space for my trusty dual-fuel Coleman 2-burner. I know a lot of folks don't think you really need a sink but I have a thing about hand-washing when I cook. I'm going to put in the mixing-bowl type, with a simple jerry-can greywater tank in a cabinet underneath. I haven't decided If I want to go with gravity feed or a water pump. I may even build a mini water heater, or at least an insulated tank I can easily fill from a teapot. I know I can accomplish all this with a couple plastic tubs on a picnic table, but I have an ulterior motive:
Build One is to be a learning experience. I may build a nice larger personal tear next, or a motorcycle-towed mini tear, or who knows? :
One of the things I've been kicking around is a mini built on a 4x4 frame, with a super galley and just storage instead of bunkspace, to use as a festival food-vending cart. Most spaces at the weekend festivals I'm thinking about catering are 10x10, unless you want to double your costs and rent 2 spaces. Food trucks often have to pay for three or more. Anyway, it would be great to have a way to easily show the health inspector at the Rutabaga Festival in scenic, progressive Podunk, who doesn't know me from Adam, that I have a built-in hot-water hand sink and don't plan to poison his townspeople. Put your best foot forward, I always say. So I may try out ideas for this setup on Build One.

I still need to figure where to put the axle, since I'll be carrying a BIG load of heavy wooden boxes and other camping gear in what is usually
the sleeping area. I have several old air matresses that I don't use since I moved up to a cot and self-inflating air mat in my big new A-tent; if I need to use one in the cargo tear I can just build in a 12V outlet or two to plug my inflator pump into.

Other than that, I plan to paint the driver's side wall grey with lettering for the 1st South Carolina Volunteers infantry regiment, and probably their full-color Palmetto flag from the early War period. The passenger side will be blue with the red-shamrock corps badge and most likely the golden-harp-on-an-emerald-field banner of the Irish Brigade, and the designation of the 88th New York volunteer infantry regiment. I plan a large tongue-box that will hold my sooty cast-iron grill and rotisserie set up, along with the batttery and any propane cylinder. Maybe I'll have room to build in trays for axes, mallets, tent stakes, lantern hooks, and the like.

I just finished a little staycation due to a repair shutdown at work, and have plans for building some Civil War boxes and benches soon. But I have a drafting table set up in my office out in the shop that I plan to bring into the nice warm house. I'll spend the rest of the winter planning and designing, and do the build in the summer, when I make more money. My goal is to be ready at the beginning of reenacting season next fall.

Anyone with comments or suggestions please chime in! I'm gonna go have a beer and turn in.

[alaska teardrop]

Welcome to the ranks, Vern.

I can envision a teardrop fitted out to look like a mess wagon on a buckboard.

From your picture, you must be a regiment officer. Which made me curious to know if the First South Carolina Volunteer Regiment actually had officers from South Carolina?

You can add your avatar by going to User Control Panel (above) + Profile + Edit Avatar.

Fred

[bobhenry]

You could make a very modern tiny trailer for every day use. With squared off ends and a slightly domed roof and rear entrance it could be converted to an civil war ambulance wagon. The simple addition of a couple wagon wheels and a wooden tongue as props for show, the addition of a dark skirt to hide the modern wheels and giving the appearance of setting much higher. By adding a canvas tarp fitted and draped right to hide the fact it is a modern trailer you could pull this look off very well..



Adding wooden crate type boxes on a French cleat, they could be hung outside after arrival for and aft or on each side to disguise the drop down table and wash center and a cooking setup. A few other storage crates for storage and seating and it would look like a field aid station when camo'ed in it's canvas disguise.

Oh better make the modern trailer tongue removable. Yes it has been done !

[Roly Nelson]

Hi Vernacular, welcome to the forum. Wow, with all that discription, it makes one want to go out and check out those events. You will surely have a unique trailer and will probably amaze many of your friends.......or enemys on the other side. Keep us posted take pics and enjoy your build. Good luck
Roly, the li'l ol' woody TD guy in So Calif.

[Redneck Teepee]

Welcome to the forum Vernacular, if they have not tarred and feathered you yet, you must be a pretty good camp chef.

About 12 miles from me out here in California is an unincorporated town called Knights Ferry, which during the civil war had a Union Army Camp and they do the reenactment battles every year also, interesting to say the least. I have not been in several years, but I do plan to take my grandson as soon as he is old enough to understand and appreciate it.

On a side note, I just read where a Park Ranger found an old Winchester Rifle, it was found in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada leaning against a tree.
http://news.yahoo.com/130-old-gun-won-w ... 51551.html

Now back to Knights Ferry....A friend of mine who grew up on 4000 acres across the river from the old Army Camp when he was about 14 years old, was down by the river when he found an old civil war rifle leaning against an oak tree that had grown around the barrel. He cut the tree to get the rifle, and to this day it hangs above his fireplace minus the oak tree. I find this old war history very interesting and am proud of those who keep it alive and informative for all the generations to come. I just thought I'd share this tidbit with you with no intent to hijack your thread.
Good luck on the build and keep us posted..........Larry

[Vernacular]

Hi folks, thanks for the replies!

I guess I should clarify something: I reenact with the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Company F, Confederate States Army! When I'm Federal I fight with the Irish Brigade, Company F of the 88th New York Infantry, also a volunteer regiment. One of my great-grandfathers fought with the 8th Tennessee Infantry, CSA, which also had a parallel unit in the US Army. I have at least one other ancestor with confirmed CSA service, but I've had relatives in the armed forces of the United States from the Battle of Kings Mountain to Operation Desert Storm, so I feel comfortable portraying a soldier on either side. (Being a field officer is too much work for me, plus I'm already running the Mess.)

The original Co F of the 1st SC, CSA, was raised right here in my hometown of Conway, SC. The captain was a law-school friend of the regimental commander, Maxxie Gregg, who made General before dying at the Battle of Fredericksburg. One of our founders is from upstate New York, and many of our members have Irish or Scot-Irish ancestry, so that's why we chose to portray the 88th NY. There's often a Yankee shortage at events here in the South, plus we march in a local St. Pat's Day parade every year!


Anyone interested in reenacting can check out The Palmetto Battalion, an umbrella group I belong to, here:
http://www.palmettobattalion.org/

Or check out the 1st South Carolina/88th New York, my home unit, here:
http://acwknapsacks.com/horryrebels/

If you live in SC or visit frequently, contact me for recruiting info!




Getting back to my TD build, my Civil War unit's split personality is the reason for my paint scheme: grey on one side, blue on the other, with the regimental colors (flags) displayed alongside the unit designations. While I like the ambulance and other disguise ideas, if I really want to keep the TD in camp I can just pitch a tent around it, like my friends do with their motorcycles!

My idea is that I can store all my heavy camping gear in the TD, so I don't have to waste time hauling all that crap in and out of my garage every month and packing it into my truck. I can use the galley at the beginning and end of reenactments, while we're loading and unloading and the event isn't open to the public. Lots of units and individual reenactors have trailers for similar reasons, and I was actually shopping online for a cargo trailer when I came upon this site. I need a trailer, and I'm poor but I have time and know how to use tools! A new project is always welcome; maybe I'll learn something that will help with my outdoor-catering plans.

I brought my drafting board inside and the rainy weather recently means my profile is almost done. I'm ready to look at the galley plans and a simple interior design, but first I need to work out axle placement since I'll be carrying a lot of weight. And I want to search the site and see what others think about marine-grade plywood, used for boat-building.

Regarding other replies, YES, our unit unashamedly uses food as a recruiting tool. We have my skills and those of my brother, formerly also a professional cook, as well as the services of my good friend and fellow founder Pvt. Deerslayer. We often have Venison Stew or Wild Boar Jambalaya while other camps are eating hot dogs and beans. My boys are also keen on simpler items like Pan-seared Brats 'n Pasta, Biscuits 'n Gravy or my famous Grilled Spam and Pineapple (2 of my crew are Hawaiian).


And those who cherish old firearms would love my brother's original 1833 Springfield smoothbore flintlock, converted to percussion cap for use in the war. One of my uncles found it in the swamp in the 1930s with the bayonet stuck in the ground, likely a temporary grave marker that no one survived to come back for. If anyone's interested I can post a photo. I proudly carried it in my first event, the funeral procession for the last crew of the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley, back in '04.

[Vernacular]

There we go; I managed to resize it and an avatar we have! Thank You, Alaska TD!

[Vernacular]

Alriiiiggghhhhttt!

Spent a night checking out boat-building sites, and now I know how to make a waterproof tongue box!! that's right i said tongue box

I am familiar with fiberglas tape-an-resin repairs from surfing daze....

I am now planning a canoe for funsies......