Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Just a quick question for everyone out there, is there a reason no one seems to go with a peaked roof? Most seem almost flat or are curved. My current plan is to go with a 6" total rise over a 5'10" wide roof.

Having built many stationary structures including houses and my garage it just seemed like a no brainer to me but maybe I'm missing something? Are people trying to keep overall height down?

At this point I could change plans on the roof if there were some good reasons since my walls are already 6'6" tall. I do need extra headroom in the wet bath however since the greywater tank will be on top of the floor and under the shower.

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is there a reason no one seems to go with a peaked roof?

Wouldn't you have to have a bottom chord to keep the A-frame members from pushing the walls apart?



T

Absolutely you would. I will build trusses and the ceiling will be flat at 6'6" but the front 22" of the trailer (the width of the wet bath) will have a "cathedral" ceiling to gain the 6" of height right about where you would stand for the shower. That's the plan anyway.

Mostly I want a peaked roof to shed water quickly which seems to be the demise of many a camper. Waterproofing is my #1 priority and effective insulation my 2nd. Aesthetics come somewhere after utility, autonomy, weight, and aerodynamics.

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Unless of course there is some advantage I'm not seeing to having a curved roof. I suppose I could rip 2x8s into curved roof joists or even laminate plywood strips in a jig. But since I've already got 1 wall built at 6'6" tall I wouldn't lower the overall height, I would just gain ceiling height.

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tony.latham wrote:

is there a reason no one seems to go with a peaked roof?

Wouldn't you have to have a bottom chord to keep the A-frame members from pushing the walls apart?



T

I can think of two reasons not to build a peaked roof trailer, especially a TD or TTT (a small home-built, not a standy, canned-ham, or humongous cargo conversion, of course):

• 1) added work in construction...Most small TD's & TTT's use spars to support the roof, which is usually made of thin plywood with suitable covering materials. Easy to attach, without any purlins, hangers, collars, ridgeboard as extra supporting structure, and without a ridgeline seam to waterproof (a lot of sealant, paint, etc to maintain, as compared to a flat roof). Besides, the supporting members will diminish any headroom that may have been hoped-for with a peaked roof.

  

  peaked roof structure.JPG (72.32 KiB) Viewed 5966 times

• 2) added overall height restricts garage clearance...Many builders want to store their trailers out of the weather during off-season, to avoid water and/or sun damage, in a garage or shed. Adding extra height, just for a few inches of "limited" usability, may make such storage impossible (unless one rolls it in/out on a special dolly, or smaller wheels). IMO, too much work for little gain. Fortunately, my chosen garage bay allowed me 10" clearance (now <2", after 6" diameter fishing rod/gear tube was mounted on the roof).

Granted, my little 4x8 squareback TTT is cramped inside, and just basically a box with a sloped front-end, but built as I designed it to fit in my garage (length & height restricted). I used 3/4" plywood with steel hardware (to support a flat 50"x 48" piece, requiring no spars underneath), and with no sag after 6.5 years, and capable of supporting double my weight.
Though my roof is flat, and has bolt-heads protruding thru it, I avoid pooling of water on top problems by constant maintenance of the waterproofing, slightly angling the trailer 5 degrees (same as recommended for window A/C units) at camp to promote run-off, and always using a canopy overhead , because it always T-storms when I camp.

Those are some good points you brought up, and I had previously thought about several of them. My original plan way back in the dreamer days was to build a hilo style trailer to make towing easier and to allow me to back the camper through my garage (I have 8' tall doors on the front of my garage and 1 7' tall door at the rear).

I had to abandon the hilo idea because of the cost and weight of added structure. So then I wanted to make overall height lower to at least get it inside the garage, this way I could build in the heated garage and pull out when done. This was also abandoned as the deck height of the unloaded trailer is right at 22" and with an absolute minimum of 6' of headroom to avoid being cramped plus the thickness of the roof and any equipment on top such as solar panels it appears it's never gonna fit through the garage doors anyway.

I have just kind of accepted that final assembly will have to happen outside and it will stay outside forever. I can't compromise on headroom for this particular build as living in it for 2 weeks straight while hunting I need to be able to stand up out of the weather and cold.

I don't see any problem with sealing the peak as I plan on sanding the foam to a rounded point and applying the canvas or fiberglass mesh centered over the peak and overlapping the lower pieces.

As for the added headroom the only place it is needed is an area about 2' wide and and 22" deep at the very front of the trailer. My plan is to have the ceiling attached to the bottom chord of my trusses throughout the trailer and only in the shower (between two trusses) would the ceiling be attached to the top chord. Think of how skylight tunnels are built into a standard trussed roof.

I will think about it some today and redo some measurements, at the point where I am there is still a possibility that I could cut the first wall down to 6' and make the roof almost flat but I'm not sure it will ever make it through the garage door.

Thanks for your input.

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any update? I'd love to see the progress and pictures

Matt

Fairly new here and hadn't seen the original post of this. Pop-top is the way to go. Low to travel, lifted to camp. Westfalia did it for years before others caught on. Now the rage is full lift vs. slant!