My Tikitear Build

[TikiTime]

I recently completed my teardrop build and went on it's first camping trip. I used this site to gain a lot of knowledge and ideas for building teardrops. Thank you to everyone for posting all of the great info and inspiring me to build my teardrop. I will try to walk through the steps I took to create my teardrop, "Tikitear".

I started with a Harbor Freight folding 4' x 8' trailer that had been sitting outside for many years. A good friend gave it to me to get it out of his yard. Free is always good! The tires and all of the wood were rotten so I up graded the wheel from 8" to 12".


I started by tearing all of the rotten wood off.


I disabled the folding mechanism, shortened the side rails, and moved the axle back 4 inches.


I added 2x4's to the front and back and then built the sides out so I could achieve a finished width of 5'.


Added 3/4" T&G OSB for the floor.


I cut the walls out of 1/2" OSB.


Attached the walls and added 2x2 spars for the roof.



Added plywood for the cabinets and shelves.



Trim for the outside of the walls.


Hatch framing and the latch.



Attached the tool box for the battery.


Cut out the doors and trimmed them out and installed the windows.




I made the windows open to the inside but in retrospect maybe not the best idea. I may move them to the outside someday.



Cabinet face frames and doors.





I also built some side tables.


Wiring run through the 2x2 spars.


Two layers of 3x4" foam insulation glued together for the roof. This allowed me to sandwich the wiring between the two layers.


3/4" foam insulation glued to the walls too.



Roofing installed. I bought 10' sheets and cut them in half so I had very little waste.



Test run to make sure it tows OK.


I glued Lauhala woven matting directly to the foam insulation on the walls and the ceiling with 3M spray glue. Then I trimmed it out with 1" bamboo strips.



Interior completed.


Galley completed including beer coaster bar top sealed with 2 thick layers of bar top epoxy resin. I covered the underside of the hatch cover with Tiki mask fabric.


I took it on the first camping trip to Mammoth Lakes.




All of the construction materials came from Lowes or Home Depot. The woven matting and bamboo strips came from Oceanic Arts in Whittier, CA. The fabric for the curtains, bedding, and hatch cover came from Islands Fabric in Carson, CA.

[pchast]

Nice Job!


I particularly like what you came up with for the roof.
Can I ask what weight you ended up with?

[SLUG36]

great looking build

[TikiTime]

Thanks for the comments. The finished weight is 820 lbs. Although the weight of the corrugated steel is heavier than the traditional aluminum roofing I was able to save weight on other things like using 1/2" for the walls and not having to sandwich the walls or the roof with an extra layer of plywood.

[noseoil]

Very nice job on the build & really like the finishing approach. Simple, durable, light & funky all at the same time! Curious about the tongue weight on this one, since the passenger car as a TV would be sensitive to the load. I see the all-up weight, but what do you have for the "finished rolling weight" hanging on the tongue?

A simple bathroom scale will work for the load, but it looks like it balances well enough in the picture. Again, nicely built & great build pictures. Really like the interior finish. Aloha!

[TikiTime]

The tongue weight is 150lbs. A little heavier than I would like. I could not decide how much to move the axle back and after reading a thread on tnttt about it I went with the suggested 4 inches. I wish I had only gone 2 or 3 inches. The Civic does well with it until you get to high speed. It cruises fine at 65 but anything higher than that creates too much wind drag for the little engine to handle. Of course I have the roof rack and two bikes on it and golf clubs and other things in the trunk. I was pretty well at the max capacity for that little car and it handled it like a champ. I was even able to pull some very steep grades without any drama. I did add a trans cooler and changed my fluid before the first trip.

[rebapuck]

I like it!