Regal Eagle Done! Video Tour 6/29/15

[Gunguy05]

So here it goes...

Been looking to build a 4 person (2 adults and 2 kids) camper for a while now.. Researching, researching... and more researching. Going to do a Raindrop style, stretched to 6 wide, and 5 high, with about a 30 radius at the front for the kids bunks. Total of 10' 6" long. This will be a build with my dad, who is about to retire, and wants something that him and mom can camp in as well.

I have some basic sketches that I am working up. I have been fighting with sketchup for a while now. But I should have something later tonight.
EDIT : 7/6/14' This is where we are to this point.




edit.. it isn't much, but you get the idea.



I think I finally found a person locally who actually wants the business of building me a trailer frame, axle, wheels tires and tongue with coupler.. nothing else. This has been a chore, as everyone either wants to sell me a ready made trailer that is made of angle iron, which I will have to chop up (and not be near the strength of 2x2 tube) OR.. I get the "what is a teardrop trailer?" or "why don't you just buy a pop-up".

I don't want a pop-up... I want a family sized teardrop... I've studied the camp-inn raindrop A LOT, and have various aspects of others builds that I will be incorporating in to the build.

I have the newly found trailer guy getting me a quote now.. sure I will have to "tweak" it a little, not sure still if I want a flat benroy style back, or radius at the bottom. If I go radius at the bottom, I will need to shorten the back of the frame a little to account for that. I'm thinking that the radius at the bottom with shorter hatch might be good since the cab is 5 high/6 wide. Not sure if taking it all the way to the bottom will make an unusually long range of motion/heavy hatch? BUT I do like the slide outs at the bottom if the hatch goes to the floor... decisions, decisions..

[aggie79]

Brian,

I really like the raindrop design. It's very attractive and space efficient. Some time back someone on the forum built a raindrop design teardrop. I scratch around and see if I can find a link to it.

Take care,
Tom

[inthewoods]

I really enjoy the raindrop design also. Someday I'd like to see the real thing at the factory. For now I have a 5x10 that I'm working on that will mimic the double front bunk plus full queen mattress. My kids love the small bunks and should love the trailer when I get it finished. As soon as winter leaves and it warms up the project will be full stream ahead.

[RandyG]

I'll be watching! Interested to see how someone else would build a RD. Mine has come with a few hic-ups, but what first build doesn't?

[Gunguy05]

Did a little more work on sketchup tonight. Trying to nail down the overall profile, the door and subsequent axle location. Right now I am planning on a 26x36 door, and an axle 50" from the rearward most point on the cab. A couple of drawings of what I have so far.





Thoughts, Ideas and things I have majorly screwed up on thus far. I am open to all the suggestions I can get.

I use computers every day and above average in proficiency at them.. I worked some minor CAD stuff in HS and just into college. BUT There is nothing like a pencil and paper, this sketchup stuff is kicking my butt! I am trying to force myself to use it though, because it makes revisions, and there have been quite a few so far, so much easier. So, my drawings are minimal, but I do have a good idea in my head of what I want.. getting it in the puter is just a chore.

Overall is 10' 6", x 5 high x 6 wide

Framing
1/2 birch ply on sides, stick frame top, 1/8 on outside, using wood floor like aggie79 did. I really like the finish that gave on the walls. Also, 5 ft plywood is not easy to come by around here, so this will hide the seam inside.

Floor will be 1x3 poplar and 3/4 plywood

Skin
Finish will most likely be aluminum. I have found a source for 60 wide. Will piece the top together.

Still have to nail down whether or not to put a radius at the bottom of the hatch, but I am leaning toward it. Just think it looks better.

Tom, one of the main things (other than the look) of the Raindrop design that I like it the use of the space. That flat roof really help to maximize the use of the height of the cabin in that area. I debated on stretching it to 6 wide or just leaving at 5, but that extra foot really seems to add to the overall space, and will let the kids use it for much longer.

Inthewoods, yes.. I'm in south GA.. so no worries about winter here. Summer is rough though, humidity is 90% most days and upper 90's for the temps.

RandyG. Watching you too.. I like that Aluminum frame. If i had the skill and equipment, I might have taken that route.

The frame (at least as of late) as been the biggest issue in moving forward. It seems that all ready made trailers of the 6 wide variety are angle iron. So, all the stuff on craigslist seems to be out, or at least it appears that way. I wanted to start on a good, new, frame, since that is what everything else will be based on. There have been a couple that could have been stripped down, and if I had welding skills could have been fixed.. but by heart is not in that part of it.

[KCStudly]

Have you been looking at boat trailers? They can be wider and the axle is usually already further back. Down sides are dealing with the 'V' shape (think drop floor or storage!), and they are usually galvy, so adaptation can take a little more effort when welding.

Just a thought.

[Gunguy05]

Have you been looking at boat trailers? They can be wider and the axle is usually already further back. Down sides are dealing with the 'V' shape (think drop floor or storage!), and they are usually galvy, so adaptation can take a little more effort when welding.

Just a thought.

I have actually been keeping my eyes open for something of the boat trailer type that would work. If the custom trailer guy doesn't work out, that will probably be my next step. I do live on the coast, so there are a lot of the boat trailers around . Most of the ones that are 6 foot wide are going to have a really long tongue on them, but I guess I could chop that off

[Gunguy05]

Have you been looking at boat trailers? They can be wider and the axle is usually already further back. Down sides are dealing with the 'V' shape (think drop floor or storage!), and they are usually galvy, so adaptation can take a little more effort when welding.

Just a thought.

Looks like you had the right idea. Found a good deal in a craigslist boat trailer this morning. Paid deposit. Will pickup in the morning.

Woo hoo! The first monkey off my back.

[KCStudly]

Okay, you're on your way!

No we need pics!!!

[Gunguy05]

Okay, you're on your way!

No we need pics!!!

Gotta trim the back off about 2-3 ft. Should end right at the next to last cross member. Move the axle forward quite a bit, but not bad for 250 bucks.

The angle iron is just sitting on top. it's approximately where the bow front will start. I was just trying to get a visual to make sure things were going to line up.

It's a good start. It was just sandblasted and has one coat of paint. Will need to do some other tweaks, like leveling jacks and adding in a cross member or two for the tongue box, but it gets us moving in the right direction. I'm sure the custom build was going to be over a thousand, and for under 400 we should have this one ready to build on.

My biggest issue thus far has been nailing down the frame. I felt like if I was going to go to the time and expense for a custom built one, I wanted every piece, every cross member to be perfect. On the other had, if we went (this) route, I didn't mind piecing things together a little if the price was right. Just wanted to have good "bones" to start on, and I feel like this is that.

Should go pick it up in the morning. I didn't have a ball on the car this afternoon, or the full $$ to get it. It was in the woods (litereally) and I didn't want to run all over the place looking for both. So I just decided to give the guy some money to hold it, and he agreed to remove it from craigslist (which he did)!

[Gunguy05]

Got the trailer today, now the chopping and moving begins. Also, I was able to do a little over the last few night with the profile and overall body. Did some takeoffs of the frame and added the body to it.

Just need to figure out now how to make things work together and see what has to change.

My sketchup skills are lacking, but you get the idea.

[KCStudly]

That looks like a great start for $250, all painted up nice already. Looks like the PO did a nicer job on prep and paint than a production shop would have.
Good deal!

[Gunguy05]

That looks like a great start for $250, all painted up nice already. Looks like the PO did a nicer job on prep and paint than a production shop would have.
Good deal!

The prep work and paint job are of better quality than I thought they would be. I hate to chop things up... but..

A couple things that I am looking at are 1. The length of the tongue, and what is too long.. I think I am getting at that point. I am struggling with my axle placement and getting it far enough forward in the design if I move the entire car forward (to make that tongue a little shorter). Right now it is around 4 ft from the front of the box to the coupler. I would like to shorten it up a bit. the total length (front to rear) of the spring and hanger is about 28 inches. The limits me because of where the frame starts to turn inward as it heads toward the tongue from the rear.

2. My design is modeled after the campinn raindrop. However, if I look at the camp inn, it appears that the axle is a little farther to the rear than I would expect it to be? Not sure if there is a reason for this.. is there something that I am missing in the balance of things.. I wonder if it would I be ok to have it a little more rear than the recommended 35-40 percent? My overall is only 6 inches longer than the CI at 10ft 6 for the body only.. not counting the box on the front. My calculations tell me that 40 percent of 126 in is about 50in, 35 percent is about 44 in. I would like to hear other's thoughts on this?

[rowerwet]

camp inn knows what they are doing, the weight of your galley will be where the heavy part of the tear is. The front is just going to have much lighter beds and open air. There is a thread on here to help you figure where the axle should be, of course you need to know roughly what your building materials weigh.
Once you get the correct placement, spread stuff between the tongue box and the galley to get the tongue weight correct.

[Gunguy05]

camp inn knows what they are doing,

This is sort of what I was going off of.. But I wasn't sure if it just appeared to be a little farther to the rear or not. I know the battery will be in the back, and the galley "stuff", and I will have probably (roughly) 150 lbs of gear inside that I can place as close to the axle as possible.

I have the axle placement xls file from Andrew, so playing with the numbers in that...

I just know that this is the next major hurdle that I have to get figured out. Once the approximate axle position is figured, then I can determine what modifications need to be made to the trailer to make it fit the design.

**EDIT**

i found this from another post I had a while back while researching.. makes me feel a little better about the axle possibly being more slightly rearward.

"For a trailer not to sway you need at least 10% of the trailer's total weight on the tongue. We target 12.5% on our 8' models to allow the customer loading flexibility and to account for a two bike bike rack on the hitch option in back. On a Raindrop however we actually put more weight on,close to 15%. Since the heaviest area of your trailer is the galley a good share of the trailer weight is behind the axle. On a shorter 8' model the axle ends up under some of the galley and load variances in the galley (cooler, pots, pans, food, etc) have a smaller effect on the tongue weight. But, with a 10' teardrop the axle ends up further forward a bit and this shifts the axle a bit forward of the heaviest load items in the galley. This means loads in the galley have a more pronounced effect on tongue weight due to increased moment arm. To account for this we actually leave the axle rearward a tad making the tongue heavier when empty. But, as you load the trailer in the galley the trailer's tongue will get a lighter. A really fully loaded Raindrop will have a tongue weight of about 10%. There is a much more interesting challenge to figuring out axle location on a 10' teardrop. 8" teardrops are relatively simple.

One idea looking at your drawing. Maybe you could make your axle movable? Drill a series of mounting holes at 1" increments or something. Try loading (full cooler, water in tank, pots, pans and other weight) it up and moving the axle around until you get a happy tongue weight. Then mount the fenders, once you are good on tongue weight.

Another thing to point out I have not mentioned on this forum in a long time. When measuring tongue weight, make absolutely sure the frame is level. Common mistake people make is to unhook the trailer and drop the coupler down on a bathroom scale to get a tongue weight reading. Tipping the nose down makes it heavier, tipping it up makes it lighter. So, they measure the tongue weight with the coupler down on the bathroom scale and the tongue weight is adequate. Then when they connect it up to the two vehicle the tongue weight is far too light and the trailer sways. Drives everyone nuts trying to figure out the trailer sway because the builder swears he has enough tongue weight, weighed it and everything. So, put some blocking on top of the bathroom scale at tongue height, zero the scale with the blocking on it and then weigh the tongue on top of the blocking. This one we see happen sometime too with improper "drop" on ball mounts. The person has a big 4x4 pickup and a little 2" drop ball mount. They hook up the trailer and the nose is of the trailer looks like it is getting ready for a moon launch. The trailer can sway like crazy because the tongue weight goes away when that far off level.

Cary"