Desert Moose logo painted on

[desertmoose]

It finally was time. Took the tear to DMV to get it licensed.

Hooked it to the truck, and thought I’d better check the lights… all ok, except the RH turn signal didn’t work. Was working when I wired it a month ago???

Pulled the lens, had power, but the cheap Chinese fixture wasn’t making contact. Bent the contact, and since the bulb was missing one of the index pins, I replaced it with a new one. OK, it works again.

Grabbed the receipts, and headed out. Couldn’t tell it was behind the one ton diesel…

Parked at DMV, checked the lights, still working, and went inside. Stood in line, and was told I had to take it to the inspection station first.

Pulled it around to the inspection station and parked on the scale. Guy came out to see what I needed, and then said I had to go across town to get it weighed. The scales at DMV don’t work.

Headed across town to the gravel pit and got it weighed.

Back to DMV, pulled into the inspection station. Did some paperwork, the he wanted to check the lights…..

Rh turn signal didn’t work…..

Pulled the lens, and found out the brand new bulb was burnt out.

Dropped the trailer in the DMV parking lot, drove to an auto parts store and got a new bulb.

Back to the parking lot, replaced the bulb, it works again.

Back to the inspection station, cleared the inspection and got the assigned VIN number stamped on the frame.

Went inside, waited in line for an hour, and got the plates.

Stopped by the insurance place and made it home just after lunch. All in all, a typical trip to DMV…

Still have about a dozen items to wrap up before the first camping trip, but it’s getting closer.




front window turned out ok.




Sam

[parnold]

Wow! Quite a "looker" you got there!

[Kharn]

Great idea on matching the tongue box to the body

[Boanerges4]

I sure would like to see a closeup pic of how you did your hinges on doors. thanks Dennis

[S. Heisley]

Congratulations on finishing and licensing your pretty little teardrop.
The tri-color finish makes a beautiful statement. Well done!

[mezmo]

Great Job!

Just went through the thread again. The removable bumper is
a great idea!

The Painted canvas finish looks rich in the pics, it must look
even more so in person. The bottom paint scheme is very
classy too.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[redmech]

Great Build, sorry you lost your first part of this thread. How tall are your sides? It looks like the sides are a bit taller than a standard 4 ft wide plywood would afford. Might as well ask the length as well.

Thanks, a lot of slick methods in this thread.

[desertmoose]

This is a big tear.
10' long, 5' wide inside for a queen mattress, about 5'-5" outside width. (2-1/2" thick walls)
5" high. Basically it's a 4' tall cabin on a foot tall cargo trailer. Take a look at the photobucket album and you can see the storage underneath. It looks even taller since I made it for off roading and it's 22" from the ground to the bottom of the frame.

Add the 5' cabin. 3" frame , and 22" ground clearance, and it's about 7'-1" from ground to top. Don't look over the top of this one. Good thing my garage door is 9' tall so I could build it inside.

Kat wasn't sure about the whole tear drop thing when I started this, but we are having more fun camping in the tear than we do in our 30' toyhauler with all the goodies.

Sam

[desertmoose]

OK, after careful consideration, we decided that "Horny Tow'd" didn't apply to our tear. It's WAY big (been referred to as that Big A**ed Teardrop)... and a little lizard name didn't fit.

Since my handle here is Desert Moose, we decided to call our tear that. After all, it's a moose of a teardrop, and we live in the desert.

A recent change is to make use of some wasted space. I know, wasted space in a teardrop??? Heresy!!

The clothes storage behind the sliding doors in the headboard has worked well, and holds a lot. Here's a shot with the doors removed.


And a shot looking down.



We've been putting all of our clothes in here for a couple of years now, but decided a couple of things. One, it's difficult to find a pair of socks down there while laying on your belly and poking around, and two, the space behind the doors, above the bed deck has never been used. Everything ends up down below the bed level.

So, we still need access to the lower bins, but would like to use the space above. Here's what we did. Made a shelf unit that sits behind the doors.



It's half the width of the headboard, so it can slide to the side to give access to the bins when needed.





It fits fine behind the sliding doors.



Full shelf access



Full bin access



And the normal centered position. A simple removable pin locks it in to keep it from banging back and forth when driving offroad or on winding roads like the one going to IRG...



Heading out this weekend to try it out.

Sam

[jonw]

Looks good Sam. Very clever. And I like the new name...

[Transit80]

Very much like the bumper,canvas job,sliding shelf,tongue box,and the finished job looks brilliant!!!! .

Chris

[ae6black]

Just curious, how might height is there in the cabin above your mattress? At my age, I sort of like as much as the four feet that I've got when I do the Tear Drop wiggle when I am putting on my jeans. Got a admit I am envious of all the storage space you have under your mattress.

Art

[desertmoose]

Just curious, how might height is there in the cabin above your mattress? At my age, I sort of like as much as the four feet that I've got when I do the Tear Drop wiggle when I am putting on my jeans. Got a admit I am envious of all the storage space you have under your mattress.

Art

Art:
Take a look at my photobucket album. (link below this post) The pictures there really show it better than I can describe it, but basically, my (oversize) tear is a standard 4 foot tall cabin built on top of a foot tall cargo deck. Nose to tail has a foot of storage under the bed platform. Overall the sides are 5 foot tall.

The picture below shows the cargo deck before adding the cabin above. (please excuse the poor exposure.)

Sam

[S. Heisley]

.
Good Job!

[nevadatear]

Who in their right mind would call your trailer big a*sed?