Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

What do you think?

Andrew is on vacation for a couple weeks. I don't believe he has access to a computer there!

Mike...

Thanks Mike. What do you think of this design? It is a combination of his Simple and his Rimple. I took to heart about it being easier to built a round front without any angles, and also took out what I thought was the hard part, building a rounded galley hatch. Hopefully, this will be close to the trailer I end up building. Doesn't look to be too hard.

I think having the hatch support that close to the pivot (hinge) will put a little too much stress on the hinge. You may want to move the support rod a little further away from the hinge. My two cents.

I may be a little harsh... but since you asked, here are my thoughts...

The hatch looks a lot like the Grasshopper, except that it goes all the way down to the floor. So while at first blush it seems easy, you've definitely got a stress riser at that joint in the middle. I'm sure it can be dealt with. Rik Keller has the same kind of hatch. We can check out his page to see how he handled that.

The second thing I am not that fond of is all the storage you have above the foot of the bed. It appears to be almost 24" of storage. Do you really need that much for camping on a weekend? What happened to keep it simple? I'm afraid that the large storage areas will overwhelm the tiny cabin, and make you feel crowded. I would cut the space down to half of that, and eliminate the outside access to those cabinets. You've got the ones at the floor level for that.

I don't see a dimension to the wheel center, but I can tell you that those fenders look strange. I expect a much more vertical angle on the fenders... like this...

And if that's the case, then your fenders are going to hit the door. So either you have to move the door forward, or the wheel backwards.

If you move the door forward, the top front corner will break through the front curve. If you move the wheel back you'll increase the tongue weight. You choose...

Other than that, it doesn't look bad.

I've made suggestions like this in the past, only to find out that the fenders were home made, the hatch was re-inforced, and the storage was necessary. So take these ideas with a grain of salt and use what is needed!

Mike...

P.S. If your supports are sticks, which is what they appear to be, I don't see a problem with loading up the hinge... but if they are gas struts, then loading up the hinge could be a problem!!! :scratch:

Remember Mike, this was designed to go on a Harbor Freight trailer. That is pretty much what the fenders look like. (I have one with 8" wheels, looks even wierder)

Also, everything on that drawing is by Andrew, and was here on the forum before. I didn't change any of the dimensions other than grafting the front of the Rimple onto the front of the Simple.

As for the storage areas, I would probably go simplistic like you suggest, as I really don't need to take a lot with me when I head out. I just didn't want to do any more hacking on his drawing than I did, as I am not that good with drawing.

I was really asking what people thought of the outline more than anything else, but there is some good feedback that I will take into account when I finally build mine.

Thanks,
RC

Hey RC,

The outline looks good. We need to ask Rik if he needed reinforcements on the hatch.

As far as the inside goes, everyone has their own requirements... that's why no two teardrops are the same.

My message was mainly to generate some thought processes, and it seems it did that!

Enjoy!

Mike...

Yes indeed, it did get the thought processes going. As far as I am concened, the rear hatch on any of the trailers I have seen is always the hardest part of the whole project. I want this to be as simple to build as possible.

The hatch support is just a piece of wood, and it could possibly be ditched in favor of a stick somewhere farther out if it makes it too fragile.

Any help on designing a rear hatch is greatly appreciated, as I only want to build this thing once. I can go through a lot of design work without any problems at all.

Also, this plan appears to have the 12 inch wheels on it, as I said, mine are 8 inches. The fenders barely come above the frame on my trailer, so they will not be any problem at all. If I can figure out how to do some drawing on the plans, I will try and configure it to look like my actual Harbor Freight trailer.

Okay, I have an email in to Rik... waiting his reply here...

In the meanwhile, do you have a photo of your trailer so I can see your wheels?

Mike...

Ah yes, I see what you mean about the tiny wheels and the funny looking fenders. Know what I would do? I would get larger wheels, and different funny looking fenders.

There have been many discussions on the smaller wheels and the effects on bearings, as well as asthetics. So I won't go there now...

Do you know what the bolt circle is on your wheel?

Mike...

Asthetics aside, this trailer has been wonderful. I have had this thing for over 15 years, and have towed it all over the West Coast. It has seen extended speeds of over 75 mph, and has been loaded with about everything you can think of, including 2 motorcycles, one of which was a full sized Indian Chief (see my personal gallery) . This little trailer is bullet proof. One of the first things I did to it was to add diamond plate steel decking to the floor instead of the customary 3/4" plywood. That has probably helped make the little thing solid as a rock. Everything was fastened using Ny-Lok nuts so it would not come apart from vibration. The only problem I have had with it is that one of the tires always had a slow leak that I could never get to seal. So, I put a tube in it, and that was the end of that.

I do not know what size the bolt pattern is, but I do know that a 12" wheel will fit, as Harbor Freight and WalMart both sell them. Heck, I have one 12" wheel that someone gave me years ago, but I never did anything with it.

This thng is going to see very limited use, so the 8" wheels are not going to be aproblem. Heck, even the places where I will be taking it the people will be too drunk to think anything bad about it!

It is going to be used for me to sleep in maybe 5 nights a year. I plan on painting it red on the outside, so I think it will end up looking quite cute.

Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beerholder :!:

If the size of the tires is an issue then buy a different hub with 5 bolt hole patterns or 13" tires are available with a 4 hole bolt pattern from Northern Tool,,just be sure of the size of the spindle you have prior to getting the new hubs,,they are available in stud or non studded models,,they can be a bit of money but cheaper than replacing the whole assembly

chip

Paint it the color of your Indian Chief!!!

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:Paint it the color of your Indian Chief!!!

Mike...

I'd like to Mike, but it will be going to my Clamper Doin's. I am a Red Shirt, and Red is our traditional color. I can't let my brothers down!!