Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

now that I have built my modified, Generic Benroy TD, I am starting to dream about my second build, has anyone sketched or possibly built a six person TD? The idea I have in my head is a TD with six doors, a generic Benroy with three "rooms" in a row. The idea I have is outside doors to access the storage space above the feet in each "room" (the space taken by the galley in the last "room" above your feet) along with a door into the rooms ahead and behind.
Doodling on paper I find the axle (s?) placement could be a problem with door swing/opening.
I like the idea as I have four kids and we would like to do a family trip across the US when they are all old enough to remember it (before they move out) My Dodge Grand Caravan (or whatever will haul all six of us then) should be able to pull a trailer like this and unlike a standie the drag wouldn't be there.
I couldn't find anything like this by searching, if there are threads please let me know.
My other idea is even crazier, putting one "room" up above the foot areas of the other two rooms, and turning the rear sleepers backwards. That compromises the galley shelf area and would kill the advantage of the low profile of a TD though, as well as giving up storage space (three girls).

thats a sweet idea.

I like it, hadn't even thought of that way of making it shorter and longer for towing, not sure how practical or easy to build, but easier to tow than however long three 80" beds in a row plus walls tongue and galley would be. (26 feet long roughly)

Hi rowerwet,

If you placed the beds crosswise using either a 6ft or 6ft6in width
it would be much shorter: 1 1/2in wall + 3ft wide bed +2ft wide aisle +5ft
wide bed + 1 1/2in wall+ 3ft wide bed +2 ft wide aisle + 1 1/2in wall +2ft
wide/deep galley +1 1/2in wall = 17ft 6in long body using 4 doors and
one rear galley hatch. Tongue length should be at least half the T V's width
+ @2in + any projection length of the body shape/profile from the body
base limit. The extra galley width would be useful for a larger amount
of campers to be cooked for. The bed sizes would be the minimum
in my view for comfortable sleeping - something very important when
you are all couped up in a vehicle when traveling, plus the extra exercise
that sight seeing and activities can entail. [Wall thickness can vary -
picked 1 1/2in as an example.][Wheel wells can be under last set of bunks
and thus not interfere with door placement.]

If you wanted everyone to sleep together essentially, you could do
crosswise: 1 1/2in wall + 3ft wide bunks + 5ft wide bed + 3ft wide bunks
+ 1 1/2 in bulkhead wall + 2ft wide/deep galley + 1 1/2in wall = 13ft
4 1/2in long body, using 4-6 doors for crawl-through entry/exit and 1
galley hatch, for an @ 4ft length savings. I would think that'd be really
tight though. I'd keep the two 2 ft wide aisles for the elbow room 6 people
would need inside and they could double as travel storage space for the
usual/necessary camping equipment - Ez-Ups, Chairs, tables etc..

The extra width should fit pretty close to a Dodge Grand Caravan's
width. I'd make the body 5-5 1/2 ft tall [or size to the Tow Vehicle height]
to allow reasonable bunk turn-over space. You could make the 5ft wide
bed a dinette of sorts for rainy day use. The bunks could be made to
have the top bunk hinged to fold down as a seat back too for rainy day
use etc.

I think It'd be doable and still keep it in the tow vehicle 'profile shadow'
for that aero benefit.

Just some thoughts on how you could lay it out for possible use.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

my math was a little off, I tghink 20' might be closer to the length. thanks for the input. Now I am thinking of two rooms and one roof top clam shell type sleeper on the van roof ( for my son) the girls could share one cross wise bed (three) or even a clam shell on the roof of the TD (kind of like the VW bus camper top)

Hi rowerwet,

Check out J.Heyboer's build thread:

http://tnttt.com/viewto ... sc&start=0

It's very close to your modified proposal.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

Yup, Mezmo is correct.

If you are short enough (like I am) you can sleep crosswise and fit a lot more people in. My camper will be able to sleep 6, although I had to sacrifice some of the galley area to do it.



John

now I think two rooms would be enough, put the kids in crosswise (unless one ends up being a giant), though three rooms made modular so one could be removable in the future would be great and give the option of some cargo ahead of the TD.
That telescoping idea is cool but the hassle of opening and closing as well as weather proofing seems counter productive and heavier.

Looks like the stretch limo of teardrops.

Randy