Oregon Teardrop

[sincere01]

I know there is a "Newbie; introduce yourselves" section to the forum but thought I would start what will become my build thread and introduce myself at the same time.

My wife and I had been discussing what we should do for our ten year anniversary(September 2016). Discussions ventured from visiting Ireland to Fiji and everything in between. Most of the vacations we considered would have been difficult with our two boys, ages 4 and 1 as of this coming September. Yup, September is a rather busy month for us.

Anyways, we decided it would be much more fun to road trip and see some beautiful sites here in the states but didn't want to stay in hotels. Though we are no strangers to tent camping and not afraid to do it, we thought it might be nice to have a more comfy, warm place to sleep. We have a 2011 Toyota Sienna as our TV and want something light for our trailer. We don't need many amenities, just a place to sleep and cook. Teardrops met every requirement and so the planning began. I'm obsessive to say the least and my wife wouldn't hesitate to tell you if you asked. Or if you just saw her and didn't ask she would probably tell you anyway.

Though I work in healthcare I'm a complete DIY addict and am no stranger to tools, fixing things, or remodeling my entire kitchen between terms in college while working a full time job (that was 2013 and I probably bit off too much but somehow I managed it with the help of my dad). My greatest downfall in projects is that sometimes I just want to see things finished and rush when I shouldn't and then have to go back and fix things.

Anyhow, I committed to building my own teardrop and have been researching for the past month or so exactly what I want and how I want to do it. Here is my list of wishes/plans/designs:

-"Finish" the teardrop by May 2016
-Wood skinned with stain for the outside. (I'm not set on this, I could paint it instead or I may go aluminum. But I do like the wood look best)
-Try and stay around 1000 lbs
-Probably based loosely around the "Wyoming Woody" design. I really like what he did.
-Try and keep things as low cost as possible without building a piece of junk (save where I can and spend money where its important)
-Probably a ton more that I can't think of at the moment

I was almost ready to weld my own trailer but just didn't feel like screwing around with it. I had been looking for free or cheap trailers off craigslist but finally decided to just spend the money on a 5'x8' from northern tool. Thanks to a post on this site I got the $50 off and should have the trailer in the next few weeks. I will be building slowly over the next few months as I have cash to spare. Once things start rolling I will post some pics.

This forum is a great site and a wealth of information of what I have read so far.
Any criticisms, recommendations, questions, comments, snide remarks, encouragements, or general snarkiness are welcome.

[pchast]

Welcome Scott.

Luck beating that Obsessive Gene.
Its tough deciding when things are
'Good Enough.'

[KCStudly]

Welcome to the forums and good luck with your build!

Advice 1: Learn how to post pics. We like pics.

Advice 2: Don't let the time creep away from you. Everything will take longer than you think. For each step you will need to: design your plan; source material; figure out or make your tooling (sometimes requiring a design in itself, sourcing of more materials, doing the work to make jigs or templates, etc.); do the work (this is the part that most people imagine when they think of how long something will take); fix the screw ups (sometimes starting at the beginning); do the finish work (stain/poly, paint, etc.); and fix the screw-ups in the finish work. So don't slack off. Unless you have plenty of free time on your hands, and are building using a very simple method with few details, the next ten months will slip right by. To give you an example, I work on my build very regularly and am in the 2nd half of my 4th year building, on top of a full year planning. Probably not typical, but I, too, tend to be obsessive and many of the more "particular" builds can easily take 3 or more years. Then again, some people whip them out like jelly beans, so...YMMV. My advice would be to stick to a simple plan and simple techniques, up to and including copying another well documented build that you like.

Advice 3: Have fun! Building something with your own hands should be mentally engaging and inwardly rewarding. Take pride in your work and enjoy doing it.

Advice 4: I am assuming that you will be doing a bunk arrangement for the kids. There are plenty of good examples of people who have done that. Ryan's Wyoming Woody is a great build and definitely a good example to follow on build techniques and quality, but you can get more interior space out of a Benroy or canned ham profile. It can and has been done in a teardrop shape, but it might be easier to fit the family in a profile that is a little higher or not rounded off so much, at least not at the transitions to the floor. Just saying, plan your build out at least somewhat to scale and see if you will have enough room before deciding. Build a cardboard template or mock-up as needed to help figure door locations, cabinet locations, bunks, etc. Definitely do the 5 wide (as a minimum) with two doors (not negotiable) and consider profiles that are 9 to 10 ft in length.

[sincere01]

Welcome Scott.

Luck beating that Obsessive Gene.
Its tough deciding when things are
'Good Enough.'

Thanks so much for the welcome. I've given up trying to "beat" the obsessive gene. I just give in most of the time and control it enough that my family still comes first. Good thing I'm obsessive about hanging out with them too.

Welcome to the forums and good luck with your build!

Advice 1: Learn how to post pics. We like pics.

Advice 2: Don't let the time creep away from you. Everything will take longer than you think. For each step you will need to: design your plan; source material; figure out or make your tooling (sometimes requiring a design in itself, sourcing of more materials, doing the work to make jigs or templates, etc.); do the work (this is the part that most people imagine when they think of how long something will take); fix the screw ups (sometimes starting at the beginning); do the finish work (stain/poly, paint, etc.); and fix the screw-ups in the finish work. So don't slack off. Unless you have plenty of free time on your hands, and are building using a very simple method with few details, the next ten months will slip right by. To give you an example, I work on my build very regularly and am in the first 2nd half of my 4th year building, on top of a full year planning. Probably not typical, but I, too, tend to be obsessive and many of the more "particular" builds can easily take 3 or more years. Then again, some people whip them out like jelly beans, so...YMMV. My advice would be to stick to a simple plan and simple techniques, up to and including copying another well documented build that you like.

Advice 3: Have fun! Building something with your own hands should be mentally engaging and inwardly rewarding. Take pride in your work and enjoy doing it.

Advice 4: I am assuming that you will be doing a bunk arrangement for the kids. There are plenty of good examples of people who have done that. Ryan's Wyoming Woody is a great build and definitely a good example to follow on build techniques and quality, but you can get more interior space out of a Benroy or canned ham profile. It can and has been done in a teardrop shape, but it might be easier to fit the family in a profile that is a little higher or not rounded off so much, at least not at the transitions to the floor. Just saying, plan your build out at least somewhat to scale and see if you will have enough room before deciding. Build a cardboard template or mock-up as needed to help figure door locations, cabinet locations, bunks, etc. Definitely do the 5 wide (as a minimum) with two doors (not negotiable) and consider profiles that are 9 to 10 ft in length.

1st off, you have an amazing build in progress. I glanced over a few pages of it. I intend to spend some time going through all 210 pages as I find time.

Thanks so much for all the advice. Its a lot to take in but I'll try and keep it all in mind and come back to it as I plan and build.

I had to look up the benroy and canned ham profile. Most of the canned ham ones I saw were standies and not exactly what I'm going for. I do like the basic idea of the benroy profile. The part I'm not a fan of is that the front tends to be a little bit more square than I prefer. I'm thinking about taking the basic design of the benroy and adding a more rounded front. Once I get a new mouse I'll screw around on sketchup and see if I can come up with something I like. Or maybe I'll do it on graph paper for the time being.

And yes, I will post a lot of pics once the build starts. Thats always my favorite part of going through other peoples builds. My biggest problem is I get focused on working and forget to take pictures. I might just have to have my wife there while I'm working to take pics for me, or maybe get a gopro and set up some time lapse.

[KCStudly]

Thanks. Didn't necessarily mean to suggest a standy, just meant that you can round off a Benroy a little more to eliminate the flat lines. Also, you can get a little more of a radius look to the lower edges by running a skirt over the frame and contouring that, while the floor still extends to the limits. It adds a little work and if you are working with a prefab trailer you may have to make adjustments for overall width (either dealing with over 60 inch roof or narrowing the starting width of the trailer), so not as simple as some other methods, but it is doable.

Here's an excellent example of skirting put to good use on a totally different profile, but you can see how Len didn't give up any floor and still had a pleasing shape on his Over the wheel RT Build; compare the before and after pics.

Build what you like, but make sure you will like using it!

[noseoil]

Hi Scott, have to agree with KC's input for you. He's been working on his a while & it's turning out very well, just takes time. I would also second the idea of a Benroy shape for added interior space. You're going to need all the room you can find & a Benroy tends to maximize the volume & makes sense. I decided on a Benroy because I wanted a longer build & bringing the curves down and in at the bottom would have reduced space in the galley & at the headboard. In the front, a tongue box will go a long way to breaking up the square lines and adding some needed storage space as well.

Here's a novel approach to the squared-off look from Keith. We went camping this past weekend with him. He didn't like the "square look" so some paint was used to break up the front edge. His build took about 6 months, but it was after work & weekends almost every day, so plan your time carefully!



I'm in my second year of the build now, but I'm moving slowly. My biggest problem is the heat. This weekend's forecast is for 106 again, so I'm not going to be as productive as I might be otherwise. I just work on weekends during the summer, so I'm limited on the hours I have. It's just too hot after work to start dragging out tools & start for me. The more time you spend in planning and sketching the details in advance, the less time you will be spending fixing mistakes. They are inevitable, so learn to roll with the punches.

Here's one Wolf did this year. He spent about 3 months on it, start to finish, but already has patterns made for the sides & other things. He's done a few now & has some help from friends, he's retired & does a nice job on his builds (he told me I should finish mine before rigor mortis sets in).

[sincere01]

Thanks again for all the advice. Its much appreciated as I'm planning.

I found a local supplier for aluminum composite as I was contemplating it for the skin. 5'x10' sheet is $150 though. Might be a little out of my price range for just the skin, but we'll see.

Plus, I think I'm still drawn to the wood look. Everytime I scan photos of different teardrops, the ones I always linger on are the wood finished ones.

[sincere01]

I'm sure its there somewhere but I couldn't find the answer I was looking for throughout the forums. Any advice on purchasing doors versus building your own? I prefer the look of doors that are built specifically for the teardrop versus ones just bought and installed.

my two major questions:
1. It seems cheaper to build your own, but after buying latches, a window, seals, etc... Is the price fairly comparable?
2. Any problems with ensuring a leak free seal when building your own door?

[noseoil]

I worked as a cabinet maker for over 20 years & have built entry doors, cabinet doors & lots of stuff in general. That being said, I went out & bought some ready-made doors for my build. You could save money by building your own, but the amount of planning work & time in building was not what I wanted. I never did do an actual cost analysis of materials & labor necessary for building the doors, just knew it wasn't a direction I wanted to go. As you said, windows, locks, trim, panels & finish all tend to add up and multiply.

I wanted something which was leak-proof, easy to install & not too time consuming in general. That's what led to my decision. The cost was higher this way I'm sure, but build time & convenience won out in the end. I had seen too many threads where people had to deal with leaks after they were done; change seals & re-do the basic stuff with hinges, etc. I want to finish mine & hit the road, so this was a trade-off in time & money & was a fair one.

The hatch build is a "door" I'm looking forward to now, it's just around the corner.

[KCStudly]

The big differences are appearance and time. When building your own, hinges, latch sets, trim, door seal and windows are the big expenses money wise. You also need to work out and fabricate a bunch more details, like seal flange, latch fitment, window fitment, door gaps, seal arrangement and trimming details (if you are using trim ).

Pulling from my admittedly weak memory, I believe my door costs ran about $200 for windows, $80 for latches, $88 for lift off SS hinges ($22 ea) and $42 for trim seal. That doesn't include the cedar framing, 5mm ply, or foam. So maybe half the cost of a bought pair?

Home made doors will almost always have a smaller window, whereas manufactured doors are available as almost a full glass door and are available with both glass and screen door combinations.

For me, I wanted the door to look like part of the rest of the camper, so I built my own. The flush mount rimless windows I chose have added a bit more work to make router templates and recess the outer mounting flange, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

For your 10 month build schedule to be realistic, you may want to take a closer look at manufactured doors. Just saying, the details are what kills time.

[sincere01]

Thanks for both of the replies on the doors. I really like the looks of custom doors. But at this point taking both of your points into consideration and then thinking about the overall build, I'm probably going to use premade doors. What I'm now considering doing is building a very functional teardrop that I can have done by next summer for our trip. Then after next summer starting another build and doing it much more slowly with a larger budget to make the exact teardrop I want. That will be good cause I can learn a lot from the first build and apply that to the second one. Plus, whats better than building one teardrop? Building TWO!

[booyah]

On the doors front, I looked seriously at building my own just to reduce costs... When I ran the numbers commercial doors cost me about $600 for two, and the home made was in the area of 450. I opted to buy based on reports of others where home made took about 2-3 full days to build, adding that cost to the materials, and the concerns about leaks, and I figured manufactured doors were a bargain!

Now, if you wanted something special to match a specific style, that may be different.

Feel free to check out my build, I'll have about $3000 in it when its complete, and we're getting there slowly, but I'm really quite happy with the decisions I've made to this point.

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=63145

edit

I was just posting that then say you post on mine :-)

For what its worth, these are the doors I bought
http://teardroptrailerparts.com/26x36_F ... _Door.html

[KCStudly]

Almost forgot to mention, if you build your own you can make them whatever size suits you. I wanted plenty of head room and lots of space to swing my legs thru, so I built a bit larger than most commercial TD style doors. My R/O is something like 32-1/2 x 40-3/4... nice and big.

[aggie79]

Miscellaneous thoughts:

1. You've made a great decision to start taking the kids camping while they're young. We started when my wife's kids got older and they just weren't interested that much as pre-teens and teens.

2. You have an ambitious schedule. As others have said, keep things simple and use pre-fabricated components where possible. I started with a simple hand-drawn sketch of the profile and started building from there. To minimize mistakes, I had to think ahead of how components and assemblies would come together. Glue, adhesive, paints, and finishes take time to cure. While something is curing be working on another part. My build took about 3-1/2 years working every other weekend on average. I bet I have two-months plus of weekends in just my doors alone.

3. One trick to minimize a flat front is to use a radius at the bottom. The front of my teardrop is the "trailer for two" profile with a 6" radius at the bottom.

4. Post lots of pictures (while time allows) of your build.

[sincere01]

Miscellaneous thoughts:

1. You've made a great decision to start taking the kids camping while they're young. We started when my wife's kids got older and they just weren't interested that much as pre-teens and teens.

2. You have an ambitious schedule. As others have said, keep things simple and use pre-fabricated components where possible. I started with a simple hand-drawn sketch of the profile and started building from there. To minimize mistakes, I had to think ahead of how components and assemblies would come together. Glue, adhesive, paints, and finishes take time to cure. While something is curing be working on another part. My build took about 3-1/2 years working every other weekend on average. I bet I have two-months plus of weekends in just my doors alone.

3. One trick to minimize a flat front is to use a radius at the bottom. The front of my teardrop is the "trailer for two" profile with a 6" radius at the bottom.

4. Post lots of pictures (while time allows) of your build.

Thanks so much for your input. Actually your build was the first one I read on tnttt. I have to say your tear is amazing and beautiful. It was fun to basically take the 3.5 year trip with you crammed in to a couple hours at my computer.

I grew up camping all the time and have very fond memories of it. We do a lot of tent camping currently and are planning a week at the coast coming up here in August.

At this point I will be trying to plan out every detail I can while I save up a little bit of cash to order doors and windows. Once I have those in hand I will start construction. I Don't want to start cutting shapes until I have the doors and windows to make sure everything is cut correctly. I will post as many pictures as I possibly can, but pics may not start showing up until I get those parts.

I really like the shape of your tear and it appears that it would be a shape that could handle a bunk for the kids. Is there anyway to get a copy of your wall profile? If not, that's totally cool.