Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hey has anyone ever built a sport hauler??

I would like to have a tear drop and be able to haul my bike as well any ideas

I am completely new to this

I think its awesome I am looking forward to building one!!

Little Guy sells an ATV/Teardrop. http://www.golittleguy.com/sixsport.html# Just as a thought.


I'm sure that it could be home built. The big thing to consider is tougue weight. With the ATV on it you would have alot of tongue weight. Can your tow vehicle handle it? They show their tongue weight at 140#. I'm sure that is with out an ATV on.

I have seen them they are super expensive and I do not like the tongue wieght issue,I was thinking of moving the axle to a center point still planning it out but I need to get started soon.

silvervtx wrote:I have seen them they are super expensive and I do not like the tongue wieght issue,I was thinking of moving the axle to a center point still planning it out but I need to get started soon.

Normally there would be an issue with the wheel & fender interfering with the door opening when locating the axle in the center of the trailer, here's one trailer that worked around that problem.

I imagine you could build something similar to this with the extended tongue to allow room to mount a quad or other sport vehicle.

You could do a 60/40 ballance with the ATV on but you could not tow it without the ATV or equal weight on because it would be tail heave and sway like mad.

It depends on what size bike you want to carry.

Here's a variation of the Generic Benroy design to carry a dirt bike in front. For this you need to have a decent tow vehicle, since the hitch will be carrying a little over 60% of the weight of the bike, in addition to the trailer's empty hitch weight - so you can be talking about 300-400 pounds.



If you want to carry a bigger bike, then you need to look at loading it inside the trailer so that it's centred just in front of the axle, like this:



This is the New Kampmaster from my web site (see Design Library menu item above) with a Harley Road King overlaid on it at the right scale. Like all such trailers, this one has the problem that you have to remove the bike to sleep in the trailer. There is also a commercial trailer that works like this, though I can't remember the name.

Andrew

On the generic benroy from Angib you could put a reciever hitch in the back and have a acc. rack or box that would be good for the riding gear, helmets tools etc. That way when the bike is on you can offset the weight on the tounge. Thats what I'm planning, its just been a long time planning.
Good luck,
Steve C

Isn't the obvious answer to haul the ATV on the back?

yes, then there is a galley "situation". A creative solution might be to have the galley slide out from the side.

Just a thought.

Mark

Elumia wrote:Isn't the obvious answer to haul the ATV on the back?

Nope, it just gives you the same problems, but in reverse.

With the ATV in place at the rear, you need make sure there is an acceptable hitch weight - 10-14% of the total trailer weight is the usual recommendation.

To achieve this, the trailer wheels will have to be right at the back. I've tried some numbers in my trailer balance spreadsheet and the axle may need to be right on the back of the trailer body, with the fenders extending behind the body!

All this works - until you remove the ATV. Then you are back to having a hitch weight of 300 pounds or so, because the trailer wheels are so far back.

If you never want to move the trailer without the ATV on it, there's no problem. But then there's no problem with a front-mounted ATV as long as you never want to tow the trailer without the ATV - you just move the trailer wheels forward to give the balance you want.

Andrew

Find that balance point with the bike or ATV. Weigh the Bike/ATV. Either haul the TD with the bike/ATV OR the equivilant weight in barbell weights or the like. That way you can always have the 10% tongue weight, but you are sometimes hauling dead weight.

silvervtx

The obvious answer is to get your wife her own bike, and haul them fore and aft...

Angib

Could you paste a lotus seven into that Kampmaster?

Another option is build the Teardrop freestanding. Build a flat utility trailer that is the size of your TD and the bike. Then you can slide the TD to the rear and put the bike on front. You can slide the TD in the center when it is just the TD. You would have a platform behind the hatch when used alone, this may be inconvienent. This would alow you to fine tune your balance.

McTeardrops wrote:Could you paste a lotus seven into that Kampmaster?

This is a (book) Locost:



As you can see, it doesn't quite fit even with all the interior removed. But make the Kampmaster a couple of feet longer and it might. You would also have to move the wheels partly or wholly outside the body for the car to fit between them, but that's no problem.

Andrew

found this

http://www.aliner.com/page72.html

Silvervtx,
Any new thoughts on your bike hauler/Teardrop? What does your bike weigh? What are you using for a tow vehicle? How much tongue weight will it handle? If it is a big truck or SUV you could have a fairly heavy tongue weight with your bike and 10% with out the bike. Make sure you have a long enough tongue so the bike doesn't come in contact with your Tow Vehicle on a hard turn.