Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi y'all
I've recently gotten a 1988 Toyota Corolla FX (with a hatchback)
a month and half ago. which is right after i saw a show on the travel
channel showcasing all the homemade camper such as a teardrop trailer.
Since my car is pretty weak in term of pulling it weight and the fact that i just don't have that much money to buy a trailer at the moments, I had decided
to turn the inside of the car into a camper.

What i've done so far is to remove all the unneccessary seats since so far i've had not needed to take anyone around. Luckily the back of the back seat folds down so i don't have to remove that.

anyway with the back folded down i got a great space that i could put a large plywood (cut to shape of course) on top of the back of the back seat. parts od the plywood would overhang the empty floor of the old passenger seat. i plans to put a cooler and a bin of clothes there. i could make a small frame out of 2"x2" around the cooler and the bin to hold up the overhanging plywood. those overhanging plywood would be my bed.

i will get a few more bins to hold other essiental and those bin will be put right behind the driver seat and along the back of the car.

I was lucky to find that there is a kind of notches that over the rear wheel cover thingie. It look like it is used for holding those groceries covers that you see in vans and suv. with some of the plywood that i will cut off, i could make a table to use the notch. the table will also cover the back bins a little. also there used to be speakers on each side. i took both of them out (no big deal to me, i'm deaf) and it is perfect for holding a tupperware for things like fork, spoon, knife, ladeling spoon and other dining item. I could also use the other tupperware to hold things like salt and pepper and spices for cooking.

Once i get my car fixed or at least improved (it is pretty worn down), i'll try and find a small trailer (like a motercycle trailer) to build a gally. on top of it would be almost like a chest that would hold the tarps. with the back opened and the tarp draped over it from the galley, it will create an pretty spacious area. i could also use a musquito cover to the same effects for dining.

Well there are not that much more i could describe on. I'll just wait to hear from you guys for more ideas.

as you can see it have been quite a few months since i've started this thread. i still have somewhat the same idea but instead of cooking inside the car, i plan to find a small trailer and make a galley out of it and have it support the tarps that will cover the opening of the hatchback. I've drawn a few sketch of this concept and I plan to use Blender3D to try and create the trailer design I want to make for later on.

Click here to see my sketch of the basic concept of the trailer use

Click here for the basic idea of the trailer design itself

Sorry for the bad handwriting But once I develop my 3d model I should be able to type up the infos into a small GIF that I may make out of this to explain clearly the design ideas. Beside I need some practice with 3D Modelling anyway.

Hi Will,

Looks like a pretty inovative low budget camping set-up.
Have you done any car-camping since you started this project last November?

Looks very do-able. Do you plan to travel & camp or mostly local camping? That looks like an idea for seeing some of the country!!

Well I haven't done any camping at all the last year (and the few years before too ) This is the reason why I wanna set this camper up so whenever I go camping, I would be able to travel wherever I want to go without having to follow along with my family. Currently I'm trying to find a job, so in the meantime, i wanna to try and make a plan for this to be completely sure of how I wanna make it. This camper is designed to be as cheap as I can make it to be so I can afford to spend a little extra on good food, gas, and other activities.

At first I may just camp around town just to get used to camping again then once I can afford the gasses and the food, i would go on weekend trips then over time makes a longer and longer trips.

Steve_Cox: How is it innovative? I'm pretty new to this kind of thing and I don't even know how to set up the electrical connection for the electric griddle and stuffs, I also have no idea if there is a colorado law concerning such a trailer or where I could go to find out.

are you talking about the combination of the car and the trailer or the use of the tent pole to hold up the tarp that way or what? I dunno if these thing have been done before on this forum but If it have been done i would like to see that person post so maybe i can adapt my idea better using whatever experiences they may have.

I still don't have anything at all to start on with this make so it may be a little while before I could make it but at least it may gives me enough time to create the 3D modelling of it and to really clearifies the design.

just checking since I found out that there is a harbor freight tools store near my home, would this trailer be good for the design i've posted above?

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=42708&CategoryName=AUTOMOTIVE&SubCategoryName=TRAILERS

curiouswill wrote:Steve_Cox: How is it innovative?

Lots of people sleeping in their cars now days, what I meant was you are taking it to a higher level. Making do with what you have but creating living and storage space within your Toyota. Now that's inovative.

Lol yeah. I should draw a picture of how the inside of my car would look like in a full camper set-up. Once I put up the drawing, it should make sense to many people just how well I'm trying to utilize the spaces of my car. I'm actually considering removing some of the interor to make more rooms and stuffs but that might come later once I learn to enjoy the camping trip again.

Oh I forgot to ask about a bike rack. I have a bicycle that I would like to figure out how to attach to my trailer. Do any of you have any idea of the cheapest way for me to secure my bike during whatever drives I may have toward any camping destination.

and I would also like to learn of what security measure would any of you suggest that I include in my design. I would perfer to work extra to get the security measure rather than losing the whole thing just cause I was lazy.

Thanks again for your advices.

Next time I have something else to ask about, I'll try not to double post and triple post cause I just found out about the edit button and stuffs

curiouswill wrote:Oh I forgot to ask about a bike rack. I have a bicycle that I would like to figure out how to attach to my trailer. Do any of you have any idea of the cheapest way for me to secure my bike during whatever drives I may have toward any camping destination.

I used to use "bike tights" on my pop up camper, they were cheap and held the bikes solid. Here's a link to one that recently sold on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Bicycle-Fork-Mount-Bike-Tight-Carrier-Rack_W0QQitemZ300003522894QQihZ020QQcategoryZ22692QQcmdZViewItem

If you really wanted to save money, you could probably make a home made version of one by mounting a block of wood that was the same width as the front wheel of the bike to the trailer, bore a hole in it, and run an old bike axel or piece of all thread through it to clamp the fork tight.

Sorry, I can't seem to visualize how those bike rack works. How do it secure the bike to the rack? Do i have to remove the front wheel or what?


[EDIT]

I've just finished a sketch of the inside of my car to show how it would be set up for camping. The material will be plywood and the drawing is not entirely in porportion cause it is just a cincept drawing.

Tried the IMG tag but the picture are too big so here is a seperate link again.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c275/Radscientist/b7a4d004.jpg

curiouswill wrote:Sorry, I can't seem to visualize how those bike rack works. How do it secure the bike to the rack? Do i have to remove the front wheel or what?

Basically you screw those down to the trailer floor and attach your front forks to them. Removing your front isn't that big of a deal if you have quick release hubs. I've also seen those screwed down to the bed rails of a pickup. It allows people to carry several bikes sideways in the bed..

oh ok now i understand, the only issue would be that if i try to use this design with my trailer, the bike will stick straight off the top of the trailer (where else could i put it without putting too much strains on the bike front), I was thinking along the line of like a hook or something to secure the bike onto the side of the trailer. remember the trailer plan will cover the tire on the outside so if i put the bike on the side, there should be no interference with the tires. I'm hoping that you or somebody else have a better suited idea for my trailer.

curiouswill wrote:oh ok now i understand, the only issue would be that if i try to use this design with my trailer, the bike will stick straight off the top of the trailer .

That's how we carried ours on our pop up, four across the top of the trailer. On my 5th wheel I have a bike rack that is mounted to the back bumper, basically two pockets to set the bike wheels in, and an upright to tie the crossbar to. I'll try to get a picture for you later today.

yes I couls understand that but the issue is that the top of the trailer will flip open into a table and since i'm a bit of a security concious person, i would be locking up my trailer whenever I go elsewhere so this would be a pain to try and remove and put back on bike all of the time. I hope you inderstand. That top flip will be used as a extension of the trailer for meal time so i may have to flip it open and close all the time.


Another Question again:
what kind of real cheap finish would you reccomment for my trailer? I plan to draw up a good picture of mt trailer and car in a full camping set up so I can put it on the back of the trailer for whoever r curious about my trailer. I'm thinking of a weatherproof latex paint? My dad used to use it all of the time for outdoor woodwork such as porches and whatnot, but i'm a little worried about the sanitation of that cause it is the galley and I would like to have a good easy to clean top for cooking.



[EDIT] Maybe I'll include a pic of a teardrop and put this forum site address below it cause basically this is the primary source of info on teardrop and smilar trailers for me and it may be for others.