Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

A little more progress. I installed the side cargo door so I could finish framing in the bath. I got "lucky" with the paint color and found Rustoleum Metallic to be a perfect match. The rest of the process was more of a struggle as I fit a 12"x20" door where an 11"x20" would fit much better. Initially I thought there would be room between the first framing wall stud, but ended up 1/8" short. Of course I only figured this out after completing 75% of the cut. So I had to re-adjust my lines and trim a little out of the first stud.



I took my time to line everything up and tape it, but then you can see where I had shift everything to the right. This is the unlucky part of already having walls in place and guessing.


Happy with the install in the end. The inside will be a hidden storage area so the frame is function over form.


I used plenty of Butyl tape to seal it. I'm going to give it a couple of days and then trim the butyl again and silicone it.

Grey water tanks installed. Decided to go one cross-member forward from my initial design. I used some 2" angle iron for the brackets and some flat steel strip for the center hangers. Everything ended up above the axles.







I used 20 gallon Class A Custom tanks again, but in the under mount UM-2000 style.

Finally a little more electrical completed. I found a 30amp Southwire transfer switch on sale for $48 and decided I had to have it. This automatically transfers the power supply from the inverter to the incoming shore power when plugged in. No messing with turning the inverter off, or manually switching anything.

The 1200W Giandel Pure Sine Wave inverter is enough to run the fridge, so good enough for now. With the transfer switch it powers everything plugged into the distribution center, with the exception of the A/C.

I needed to make sure the 12v converter in the distribution center only ran when plugged into shore power, and not the inverter. To do this I tied the 120v converter power line into the 120v incoming line before the transfer switch. That way the converter only runs when shore power is plugged in, and not off of the inverter. A separate 30amp breaker was added in the switch housing for this line, so it is still protected. As a bonus this freed up a breaker slot in my 8900 series WFCO distribution center so the bathroom will be on its own breaker.





Not sure if this is the final configuration. I have a Hughes 30amp Power Watch Dog that might get installed inside. I bought it for my previous camper and never used it. It's meant to be plugged in to the pole outside. However, because of laziness or convenience, it never got used.

Some pictures of where I left the project last fall. I'm going to get started on it again this weekend and try to have it usable by the longest day weekend later this month.







If you have ever wondered what is the difference between a vertical and horizontal access door...this is it. If the gap in the seal isn't at the bottom it will leak when it rains. A little butyl tape fixed this for now.

I've been dreading making the decision of which water heater to buy, and then cutting another hole in the trailer, piping in propane, etc. So I literally just hit the easy button and ordered this 6 gallon 120V unit from Amazon. For right now I won't be running the big propane tanks and that should be fine 95% of the time. In fact, a descent generator might solve that problem entirely.

Stiebel Eltron 235089 SHC 6 6 GALLON WATER HEATER, 6 Gal



That unit will end up under the kitchen sink next to the shower. I'll run an electric heater for now and then just use a small portable propane tank for the cook top.

jaws_1972 wrote:Grey water tanks installed. Decided to go one cross-member forward from my initial design. I used some 2" angle iron for the brackets and some flat steel strip for the center hangers. Everything ended up above the axles.







I used 20 gallon Class A Custom tanks again, but in the under mount UM-2000 style.

Glad to see this thread resurrected, really enjoyed reading through it when I was in my planning stages. Would you be able to post a few more pictures of your holding tank bracketing? I just received three of the exact same tanks from ClassA yesterday and am going to be purchasing the materials for the hangers here shortly. My framing is 16" o/c leaving just enough room to squeeze those tanks in there.

cwaet wrote:Glad to see this thread resurrected, really enjoyed reading through it when I was in my planning stages. Would you be able to post a few more pictures of your holding tank bracketing?...

Hi cwaet - Yea, my trailer has the same 16" spacing

This is a picture of the smaller black water tank, but it will give you the general idea. I used similar 2" angle iron on the ends of the larger grey water tanks. They are hung from the cross braces with long bolts. On those tanks I also used some flat stock runners to support the middle that was hung from the cross braces the same way.

jaws_1972 wrote:

cwaet wrote:Glad to see this thread resurrected, really enjoyed reading through it when I was in my planning stages. Would you be able to post a few more pictures of your holding tank bracketing?...

Hi cwaet - Yea, my trailer has the same 16" spacing

This is a picture of the smaller black water tank, but it will give you the general idea. I used similar 2" angle iron on the ends of the larger grey water tanks. They are hung from the cross braces with long bolts. On those tanks I also used some flat stock runners to support the middle that was hung from the cross braces the same way.

much appreciated!

Finally made some more progress on the camper (pics to follow). Last year ended up being a complete bust for me for several reasons. On the camper I was trying to get the shower together in June of last year and ran into the equivalent of writers block on how to do it. Also found a gray trailer is extremely hot to work in during the summer months. I was running the AC in the trailer trying to stay cool. It seemed like it was really fighting me, so I ended up parking it with the thought I would come back to it. But then life happened...

My wife came down with Alchalasia, our dog ruptured her cranial cruciate ligament (aka canine ACL) and needed surgery. I separated my shoulder and then found out I was having issues with my ligaments from taking the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. I was actually tearing other ligaments in my biceps and legs during physical therapy. Never take any antibiotic that ends in "-floxacin".

Things are better now. My wife was able to get a procedure done in February to help with the Alachalasia. She can now eat and drink a little better. My dog recovered from her surgery after 12 weeks of being on a tether, but just ruptured her other one. So she is back on the tether for another 10 weeks. My shoulder is better, but my ligaments still feel frail. I'm able to do much more now. It's unfortunately not a condition that is advantageous to off-road motorcycling. Hopefully time will heal all.

So now for the updates. I was able to complete the shower, get more of the plumbing done and start on the kitchen cabinets. I end up doing things twice since there's always a better way. I always run into the "chicken or the egg" syndrome when trying to decide what to do next, or plan a workflow. In a house it's much more straight forward, do the framing and then the plumbing and electrical. On the trailer you almost have to frame around where your electrical and plumbing ends up.

Turns out my shower was in the right spot the whole time. Here is version 1 of the shower

That was looking pretty good, but no sense in leaving well enough alone. I had originally planned to run all of the plumbing under the trailer. I had a bunch of clever ideas. As soon I crawled under the trailer I decided I didn't like any of them, and also decided I was done working under the trailer. So....on to version 2 of the shower.





I used 1/2" ply since there was so much support structure from the 2x4 below and the construction of the shower pan.





The 1/2" pipe on the left is the grey water vent. Not sure I would go through the effort to do it this way again, but it is done. Really wasn't that big of a deal. The black pipe is the vent for the black water tank. Really shows how frustrated I was last year. I didn't have any white 1-1/2 so I used what I had on hand as I was done running back and forth to the box store. Not a big deal since it's a vent pipe but really no need to mix materials like that. The white 1-1/2 is the drain from the shower and bathroom sink. I ended up putting a false floor/shelf above all of this to protect it from the storage area. Also made the storage are less deep so it's easier grab stuff from the outside access door.



Having decided to run the drain line under the shower and inside the camper made everything better! The sink plumbing was easier, the access to the grey water tank was straight forward since I would be using a preexisting hole from an tie down no longer needed.

Back of the shower water connections ended up in the storage space so I'll have nice access to them if ever needed.



Decided some protection would be good.


Now it's a little shelf with some hooks to hang hoses and electrical cords, etc.



Some foreshadowing on what the vanity will look like. I really whittled down that nice piece of wood.



There will be a wall between the wires and the vanity, so not as scary as depicted in the pic.

I installed the fresh water connection. This will be the last cut in the trailer for awhile. It's back by the bed and will be hidden in the kitchen cabinet.



Electric water heater staged. I placed it between the 16" wall studs so if I ever decide to upgrade to a propane heater I can just cut a hole in the trailer without disrupting the cabinets.



And now the hanger and water hookups.



The water pump and accumulator are nicely hidden under the kitchen sink location. This worked out really well as the fresh water inlet and tanks are just to the left of this location.

I had a pair of wrens that kept flying in the garage trying to make a nest. I would chase them out, hit the garage door opener to let them know it was bad location and they would just come back. I thought they were making it up in shelves in the rafters. Luckily my wife was more perceptive and found the actual location


No harm done, I pulled the nest out of my helmet and placed it outside. My wife hung up a bird house outside the garage and they actually used it.

Amazon has gotten the best of me. I decided I needed this 12v electrical panel but didn't have a place for it and didn't want all of the wiring to be in the storage area which is just to the right of it. So I made a little box to house it in. It would have looked cleaner on the wall but this will work. Below it is the GFI outlet for all of the kitchen and the switch will turn the water heater on/off.



Now for the fun part. I started the cabinets and completed the face frame. I also added a little shelf area by the bed that would be good to charge cell phones, etc.





I'm actually a little further along than this, but that's enough for now. I'm currently making the cabinet doors and drawers. I was sanding them with a little electric palm sander that my wife had when the cheap pot metal gear flew apart and shot out of the housing (scary!). Might be treating my self to a portable belt sand then doing some finish sanding by hand.

One more pic in the spirit of doing everything twice. I had to adjust the top stays to accommodate the sink and stove.