Kansas City Home Built Teardrop

[RustyFenderBrewer]

I've spent several months lurking here and elsewhere learning about teardrop construction in preparation to building a camper with my brother for him and his wife. I wanted to wait to begin a build thread until I had something and that time is now. I'll be uploading pics to my album and updating this thread as we progress on the build.

[RustyFenderBrewer]

So, continuing the story... We bought a boat trailer on January 29th. We had looked at Harbor Freight trailers but rejected them for several reasons: 1) my brother is 6'3" and wanted a queen-size mattress for length resulting in a 5' x 9' trailer floor. 2) we wanted 14" or larger wheels for the look and for additional ground clearance. And 3) price. We got the boat trailer for $200 with new 14" tires and 20-footer chrome wheels. We spent less than $200 for the required steel, paint, etc. to complete the frame.

Here's the trailer:



In a couple hours we had the trailer reduced to two side frame rails with the leaf springs still attached and the trailer tongue.



The section in the picture below that says "Heritage" is what we took out of the frame length. Notice how wide that axle is, too. I fix that the following day.
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[RustyFenderBrewer]

I guess I should post up a pic of my brother's fullsize drawing.


The boat trailer was 6' between the fenders and our plans called for only 5'. I cut 12" out of the center of the axle.


I then plug welded a piece of 3/16" angle inside the axle ends. Using clamps and more angle iron to ensure the axle was straight in both directions I welded up the seam and remaining plug welds.



Now we had to mock it up to see if everything was going to fit as desired and to determine the final lengths for both side rails as well as the tongue.




Those wheel look like junk, right? We had a little more time so we scrubbed them up, too. First one...


Then the other...

[Vedette]

Welcome to the Forum
Your build looks like an interesting one to follow!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[RustyFenderBrewer]

We cut the side rails and trailer tongue to our desired lengths. I made a metal run for Assorted sizes box tubing and angle iron and we started cutting/welding/grinding. Here's the frame, it rolls!


Close up of the fishplate and gusset where the trailer tongue meets the frame.


And the top is final welded. Note additional diagonal tying the front frame rail to the side rail. This frame is over built because it may see more than just asphalt or gravel roads.



Flipped over (low rider) to weld the bottom and begin rust/paint removal.

[RustyFenderBrewer]

Welcome to the Forum
Your build looks like an interesting one to follow!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

Thanks, Vedette. I read through your build on the web, not sure if it was here. I really like it. Really made me start thinking about other (future) possibilities. Great job - it looks fantastic!

[RustyFenderBrewer]

Next we added angle iron across the frame width to support two under-trailer storage boxes. The "boxes" are actually cement mixing pans from the home improvement store. They will be stored inside while traveling and provide a great place to keep shoes and other dirty things so the inside will stay clean. I also welded on rear stabilizers and a receiver for a bike rack. (Frame is upside down in the next three pictures.)

[be_a_jayhawk]

Very nice start, I'm over in Olathe. Hope to see this one day soon at Hillsdale or Clinton Lake!

[finleycraft]

Gonna be awesome, I am in OP. Are you going to build yourself one when you are done?

[RustyFenderBrewer]

Very nice start, I'm over in Olathe. Hope to see this one day soon at Hillsdale or Clinton Lake!

My brother and I are also Jayhawkers. Thanks for reading! Clinton & Hillsdale are likely but we usually go to Pomme de Terre. I know that my brother and his wife are hoping to get much further out with this though.

[RustyFenderBrewer]

Gonna be awesome, I am in OP. Are you going to build yourself one when you are done?

I'm in Prairie Village. My brother is next door in Fairway. Thanks for the response. I think I saw the trailer in your avatar on Craigslist?? If so, very nice!

Yes, I've actually wanted to build one for years. When I mention the interest, my sister in law got really excited about the idea. They were just back from camping trip in the Pacific NW and had seen several teardrops. Looked like an opportunity to get on the learning curve.

[RustyFenderBrewer]

Okay, I'm realizing I don't have a good picture of the auxiliary table supports we'll be adding. Best pic is one I already posted with the grumpy looking supervisor (our 85 year old father). If you zoom in on the rear corners you can see I installed receivers at a 30 angle to accept a metal leg table which will attach to the trailer side. If you use both, you'll have a U-shaped kitchen to work in. Note: both my brother and his wife are "lefties" so they do everything backwards ! Here's that pic again so you don't have to go look for it.


I left off before with the frame finished so it's on to the trailer floor. The plan is to make this at least a three-season camper. With the mild winters we've had the last several years you could use this year round as we've got it planned. The trailer floor is sandwich construction using OSB for the upper and lower skins and 1x lumber for the frame. It is insulated with 3/4" foam sheeting.




After completing the floor we needed to waterproof it. My brother only lets me use the best tools for a job and provided a stick and a tin can to get the job done. And it got done.

[RustyFenderBrewer]

Getting that heavy, sticky mess on to the trailer and flipping it from jelly-side up to jelly-side down was a challenge. Next time I plan to use the stick-on asphalt sealer. I used a full gallon of Black Jack fiberglass reinforced roofing cement so it would seem to be only slightly more expensive to avoid the mess. Oh, well. Here's the floor in place. Note the hurricane ties sticking out which will allow us to tie the walls across the floor to the trailer frame.


And it's time to build the walls! They also will be frame and panel construction with 3/4" foam between using birch plywood for the skins. Current plan is to wrap the top in aluminum but leave the birch visible on the sides. Since it's almost 9 1/2 feet from front bulge to rear bulge that means we'll have to deal with a visible seam on the exterior. The interior seam will come at the rear bulkhead. We started with the interior plywood (best side down) and began laying out the wood frame.


Before we attached any thing to the plywood we copied all the perimeter pieces then we got serious.

[RustyFenderBrewer]

The tail section of both walls is solid plywood. We did this since it didn't require insulation and we haven't finalized attachment points for the auxiliary tables and anything else we may come up with.

Time to make the other side.



And this catches us up with last night. We're just over 4 weeks in and having a blast building this. The rest of this thread will be updated in semi-real-time. You can also follow on Instagram by searching #engelkenteardroptrailer.

[be_a_jayhawk]

Be sure to check out my build thread so if you see me around you can say hi. If mine is around it's hard to miss!