Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi all - Jumping in with both feet, thanks a lot in part to all of the great information and support on this site. After a year of looking at the various travel trailer options available and seeing nothing that met what we wanted (not to mention the build quality for the $$), I stumbled upon this forum and now am the proud owner of a 7x16 EZ Hauler. I added a few custom items to the build, so I've had 9 weeks to diagram, stress, buy stuff, ask a bunch of electrical questions, and re-configure the layout. Now that we have it, I'll be working through the usual first steps of insulation, roof vents, windows, wiring, and interior walls/ceiling steps. I'll try to post pictures along the way.

Trailer:
7x16x7 Flat Front EZ Hauler
16" O/C walls/ceiling
RV door with window
axle flip
Cargo doors
rear stabilizers

Goals
1) Make it comfortable for my small family so I have camping companions
2) Build with good quality materials so it hopefully lasts a long time
3) Learn along the way, and get my build helper (5 y/o daughter) involved as much as possible

Layout will be bunks up front, queen over the axles, bathroom in the middle on the passenger side, with galley in the back with pull-out drawers that slide under the bed.

Oh yeah! This should be a fun build to watch. Glad to see you have a relatively long tongue to put stuff on.

Good looking trailer for sure.


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Slowly making some headway on the build, although this Portland Spring weather is making it difficult to do much of anything. Even bringing materials from the garage to the trailer without them getting soaked is challenging. Since the trailer's framing is 1x1.5 aluminum tube, the layers of insulation will be as follows. I know there is a lot of discussion on the pros and cons of insulation, but the goal is to try to avoid having to put in air conditioning (less about retaining heat in winter) and control moisture, and just using the Maxxair fan to be installed.

Walls: 1" Polyiso between wall studs, horizontal 1/2 OSB furring strips, with 1/2 Polyiso between, then the final wall which is 1/4" Baltic Birch (R-value will range between ~1 - 10 in spots)
Floor: Inside, 1" Polyiso on top of OE plywood floor, covered with sheets of 1/2 OSB, screwed down (R-value ~7)
Ceiling: 1.5" Foamular XPS, horizontal 1/2 OSB furring strips with 1/2 Polyiso in between, covered by another layer of length-wise furring strips and polyiso, then some cedar 4" T&G (R-value range between ~4 - 14 in spots)

Ordered the windows which are double pane acrylic from Tern Overland, there will be one large on passenger side, one small on drivers side, and two in front for bunks (one of the reasons we went with acrylic). Going to frame them in with 1x1 aluminum tube, 90 deg brackets, and rivets (after reading Alaska Teardrop's Northern Lite Traveler build 100 times).

Awning will be going in next weather permitting, so I can finish up the ceiling. I'm a little concerned about the weight of it, as it will be 70 lbs on the drivers side from the back corner to about halfway down the length of the trailer. It is the OVS 270 deg awning to cover the RV door and the galley in the back, overall pretty impressed with the build quality and the brackets should work out nicely. There are three brackets that come with two ubolts each to go under the ceiling studs (actually meant for roof racks I'm told). I am going to try to put 1/2 flat stock aluminum to try to spread the weight out amongst all the studs that is spans. Then wiring in awning lights and backup camera.

Lastly, when I picked up the trailer, I was frustrated to see my tailgate would hit the jack, so I picked up a Jack-E-Up adapter. Overall looks like a neat design, but I'll report back on if it actually works as advertised once installed.

I've been pretty bad about taking pictures, but I'll try to upload a few shortly.

Got the awning mounted up and then found a place to try to set it up. Might have gone overboard with the 270 degree awning as it is a beast to set up, but should be nice. Kids approved.

Also, the Jack-E-Up works out better than expected. Allows me to lower the tailgate and be able to use the truck bed. which is critical with the truck canopy on.

Looks like this will be fun to watch. I don't think the awning is overboard. I am toying with the same thing if I ever get mine finished.

I am glad that Jack-E-Up worked out for you. I had never heard of one before you made reference to it. I like it!

That awning is slick. I ended up doing a classic style awning but used a tarp instead of fabric, so it slides into an awning rail and then use some poles, but I really like the look of yours. Very cool!