Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hader wrote:

Nice! Thanks for the ideas.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

rhelvey22,
Just wanted to share with you what we've done, and how it looked in 'true scale'. Hope it will help you come up with what works for you.
This was built as a 'Full Hookup' trailer, and there were no holding tanks. Remember that 8.5' x 24' is quite a bit of space, you will need more Insulation, Heat and AC than the average 6' or 7' x 12' or 14' Cargo Trailer. What ever you do! Don't use reflective type insulation. There will bee 10K people to say different. We tried it, We lived in that trailer full time. It doesn't work.
I have no photos of the trailer as in the layout, but still looking for photos after we converted it for 2nd time to a Food Trailer.

Hader wrote:rhelvey22,
Just wanted to share with you what we've done, and how it looked in 'true scale'. Hope it will help you come up with what works for you.
This was built as a 'Full Hookup' trailer, and there were no holding tanks. Remember that 8.5' x 24' is quite a bit of space, you will need more Insulation, Heat and AC than the average 6' or 7' x 12' or 14' Cargo Trailer. What ever you do! Don't use reflective type insulation. There will bee 10K people to say different. We tried it, We lived in that trailer full time. It doesn't work.
I have no photos of the trailer as in the layout, but still looking for photos after we converted it for 2nd time to a Food Trailer.

Ok, no reflective insulation. No problem but can you tell me why it doesn’t work for you? We are wanting to build self contained, I like campgrounds but don’t want to rely on them. We are different than a lot of people here, I want to see other people, lol! We go for days without seeing another person sometimes at home. Yes, I’m checking square footage when we look at ac and heat, I figure to overkill it so it’s less taxing on our systems. Thanks again!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'd like to hear about the reflective insulation as well, I don't remember hearing this before. But then again, I don't remember a lot of things lately... ...

McDave

I kinda took that as reflective bubble wrap.

Iconfabul8 wrote:I kinda took that as reflective bubble wrap.

Ah, that would make sense.

McDave

Iconfabul8 wrote:I kinda took that as reflective bubble wrap.

You are right.

rhelvey22 wrote:can you tell me why it doesn’t work for you?

The Hallmark trailer that I posted the layout for, was ordered with many options including insulation. The trailer sat for almost 2 years without being used or moved.
When we removed the plywood panels to fix the windows, we discovered that the insulation was loose, and in contact with the outer skin, also, the bubble wrap was dusty on the outer side. The insulation being in contact with the outer skin and dusty, made it useless and ineffective.

We couldn’t figure out where the dust came from at the time. It was till our 2nd (current) conversion that we saw this (light where skin panels are joined. see photo below). light = dust. There are 11 joints in a 14’ trailer.

We experimented with a 5000 BTU window unit in the bedroom to see how effective the insulation was. The unit could not keep the bedroom (96 SqFt) cool or comfortable.

Installed 2 Mini-Split units, one 9000 BTU for the bedroom (96 SqFt), and a 12000 BTU for the living space (168 SqFt) excluding the bathroom. That kept the trailer nice and cool.

I don’t think that it should take a total of 21000 BTU to keep a 232 SqFt trailer cool. That’s why IMHO, I say that bubble wrap insulation don’t work for this kind of trailers.

Hader wrote:

I love this idea and I think it solves my problem. Did you end up doing any kind of special vent underneath or just leave it open?

Joel.brian wrote:
I love this idea and I think it solves my problem. Did you end up doing any kind of special vent underneath or just leave it open?

I used a screen to keep critters out. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-Actu ... 1000367331
This is how we designed it: http://httpswww.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php ... 5#p1207904

Of all the ideas we had about how to utilize the trailer tongue, we decided on this Tool Box from Tractor supply. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... in-1054811

It holds the 20 Lbs propane bottle, 2 10' Slinky (more if needed), 4 jacks, 5 2x6 pads for the jacks and 4 tire chocks. There's still space for a battery in front of it.