Like most of us, I've also had an itch to travel after being cooped up for the past couple of years. I spent a lot of my childhood driving cross-country with my father (5 times coast to coast, at least), and now that I'm older I wanted to spend some time on the road with my daughter. Last spring, we packed the whole family into a rented RV and drove from Phoenix to Yosemite to Olympic to Glacier to Yellowstone and back, and we learned a lot about RVing. Most importantly, I learned that I never wanted to own or travel with a larger RV again. Something smaller like a teardrop, one that I built on my own, would scratch both my itches.
As the weather started warming up here, I began to lose motivation and considered just buying a teardrop - something like a T@G XL. But after looking through a few different brands and models of teardrops, I wasn't able to find exactly what I wanted. I'm a tall guy, and though I've spent a lot of time roughing it growing up, it's nice to have amenities at my age. Most of the travel trailers I've found have either been lacking roominess, or amenities, so I'm back to come up with a plan to build my own. I'll probably rent a T@G for a summer road trip to get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses, to better envision what I'd like to build.
I'm not an experienced woodworker, but I have tools, time, and I'm willing to learn and make mistakes. I do have a bit of experience running power and gas/water lines – no concerns there.
With that in mind, there are a few things I'm considering initially:
1) It has to fit in the garage, and I have about 15-16' of length and 80" of height to work with. As far as width I'd like to try to keep it as wide as my vehicle, so 6’ or so. I would consider a custom-built trailer, but odds are I wouldn’t build it myself.
2) It needs to be roomy inside – an 80" length bed that's wide enough for me and my daughter for now. My wife's not all that into traveling, but she may come along at some point.
3) I'd like the same level of amenities as the T@G has - microwave, faucet and sink, stovetop, and cooler/fridge
4) It gets hot here, and even our shoulder seasons are hot – so it needs AC. At the same time, we nearly froze our butts off in Glacier and Yellowstone last spring, so it’d be nice to have heat as well.
5) I’d like to incorporate a bike rack and panoramic window on the roof, and solar in some shape or form.
I’ve read through Matt Berger’s book a couple times now, and I’m expecting Tony’s in the mail tomorrow. I’ll be sure to start a build thread when I’ve got some better ideas of where I’m going
