Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

When I bought the trailer there was damage from the previous owner. He had jack-knifed during the winter. The diamond plate was torn, upright was bent. My dad and I spent about a week going through it, repairing what needed to be repaired. The fenders were only held on by drywall screws and silicone! We took the paneling off and insulated the walls. Since I will be hauling stuff and intend on making rolling boxes for Trade Shows I put 1/2" plywood on the bottom 16" of the walls. This also allowed us to through bolt for the fenders. Dad painted the inside with some left over light tan he had. We started building the cabinets in the front.
I have used it twice now for two different shows. The first time with someone else sharing the space inside, the second time by myself.

Here it is hooked up to my current tow vehicle. A 2005 Mercury Mountaineer with 4.0 V6 with tow package. It tows well enough, but only gets 11.6 MPG at 70 MPH. On the other hand I got 14 MPG on the return trip at 63 MPH.


I didn't really want the spend the money right away on new diamond plate at $126 per sheet if I didn't have to so I could do other things. Where the plate was torn it had stretched. That allowed to me to overlap and silicone to seal.
Here is the repair:


Here is the inside from this last weekend with my comfy seat and bed set up:


I have to go to MO to bring my son home after working on Whiteman AF base. So we are taking it and my dad's 2010 Ram 1500 with 5.7 Hemi. We'll see how much better gas mileage we get with that.

This build will be slow over time as I get time to work on it.

Jeff

I see you have discovered the intricacies of towing with a V6..The 3.5L in my Ridgeline gets 14ish mpg if I keep it around 60 mph, but as soon as the transmission kicks down to 4th or even 3rd gear, i'm lucky to get 11. My better instincts tell me this is malarkey, but I seem to get slightly better towing mileage with premium fuel.

Nice rig, looks pretty comfy!

Welcome! Nice CT. Something you might reconsider is your fender bolt process. What you did is more sturdy but there actually is a method to their madness. If you (heaven forbid) hit something with a tire that hits your fender or you lose the tread from a blow out, the only damage to your CT should be just the fender. A Sturdier mount could cause substantial damage to the CT wall. Looks like you did a good repair job. It should last as long as you need it too.

Keep us updated with plenty of pics please sir. Good luck on the rest of your build.

Earnest

dustboy wrote: My better instincts tell me this is malarkey, but I seem to get slightly better towing mileage with premium fuel.

I wouldn't doubt at all that you are getting better mileage using premium if the premium is ethanol free. I buy only ethanol free gas unless I can't find any and I do get better mileage with it. Premium or E85 is recommended for my truck so I buy only premium.

I finally got the pictures of my trailer from when I first got it with the damage.

Driver's side, notice the rusty fenders. This is with the new jack.


Passenger side where the damage to the diamond plate is:






Gutting the inside paneling for insulation, replacing the bottom 16" with 1/2" plywood as a base board and repairing the front upright and sole plates. The front two were rusted so I backed them with 1" angle iron.




Damage from inside. The upright and sole plate were bent back into position here.



Repairs done outside:



I didn't get some photos of the build due to the fact that my retired dad did a lot of it while I was working.

AND YES my brother is playing on our anvil and forge set up. He is a knife maker.

I got a new tow vehicle! 2010 Ford F150, 4.6L 3V Supercab 4X4. Only 35,000 miles and extended the warranty to 100,000 miles 5 additional years. It still has the "New Car smell" too! I can't see anything wrong with it, no dings scratches or wear marks. This will pull my trailer a lot better than my Mountaineer V6 for sure.





I will hook up the trailer this weekend to test everything out for my trip to Missouri next week.

Great looking truck I know how you feel I just bought a used but new to me 2009 Silverado 2500HD to replace my suburban to pull a 30ft toyhauler I just bought.
I am going to hookup up my 7x16 this weekend to see how it pulls it, haven't got the nerve yet to pull the 30ftToyhauler yet?

That's a nice truck. Don't expect to get any better gas mileage than your Mountaineer V6 got. It doesn't seem to matter what you tie onto a trailer with, the gas mileage goes south. In fact, the mileage seems to be about the same whether you have a V6 or big V8. My current tow vehicle is a '12 Silverado with Max Trailering Pack (6.2 liter V8, 3.73 rear gear ratio, heavier springs, 4 wheel disk brakes) and it gets about identical mileage as my previous two trucks that had smaller V8s (one was a 4.8 liter and the other a 5.3 liter). The good thing about the V8 (especially the larger ones) is that hills are no problem at all. The bad thing is that they never get good gas mileage - even without a trailer. 18 mpg on the highway is tough to get with 6.2 liter. I have to keep my foot out of it and buy non ethanol gas.

Here is the new tow vehicle hooked up. It felt soooo much better pulling it with the F150. I could hardly even feel it back there, especially when pulling out into traffic. The engine brake is a great feature and will be nice on the highway. The big test will come with next weeks 1400 mile round trip to MO to pick up my son and bring him back home after two years.

Gas Mileage update:
Empty trailer and truck bed, from Detroit to Whiteman AF Base Missouri, 691 miles, 14.5 MPG
Return trip with a 1 bedroom apartment worth of boxes and some furniture, I figure about 3,000 lbs worth. I got 14 Mpg all the way through until I reached Michigan! Then it dropped to 13.6 MPG for the last 75 miles. I blame the terrible roads yanking and tuggin on the trailer. I am very pleased with the 4.6L 3V. Great pulling power and gas mileage, even in the hills of the Ozarks.

I get around 13 MPG towing my 7 x 18 , same in town or highway under 55 MPH

Tundra 2007 CrewMax limited 5.7 ltr