Ultralight Tiny Teardrop the Lil' Hobo, 425 pounds

[Crawdaddy]

I started this build in January 2016 and my goal was to make a lightweight, small teardrop trailer. I am a disc golf player and travel to play in tournaments around Texas, I used to tent camp but a 3-day trip last Fall was a cold and wet experience. I am 60 and getting too old to sleep in a tent. I decided to build a small dry place mainly to sleep and carry my gear so my vehicle would be free to go play golf. My Honda Fit does not recommend towing but a little research said it would be OK but the load must be less than 750 lbs. The total gross dry weight of my trailer is 425 lbs., fully loaded with camping gear it is 525. It is an original design, I had a basic idea and just adapted the design as I built. It is possible to build on the fly but it helps to have an overall concept. I just completed this build, August 2016, and will be doing a test camp run soon. What follows is a build journal with photos from the last 8 months.
Here is the napkin sketch I made to start brainstorming and get an idea of general dimensions.



I ordered a Haul Master 40"X48" trailer from Harbor Freight, item #90153, weight is 153 pounds and cost $239. In a few days two boxes showed up at my garage, and assembly began.



I extended the front by one foot, added a plywood deck and wired up the lights.





This is the basic trailer, the teardrop has its own floor or platform that bolts to this, the teardrop can be removed from the trailer and used elsewhere like, a pontoon boat, treehouse or pickup bed.
laying out the platform:





I made a paper pattern to know where to screw into cross pieces and added 3/4" rigid foam insulation.
Painted underside with Barn and Fence paint.




Now ready to get some flat materials.



7 sheets of 1/4" maple plywood at $25 a 4/8' sheet=$175
4 sheets of 3/4" polystyrene rigid foam insulation at $10 a 4/8' sheet=$40
2 sheets of 1/4" underlayment plywood to deck platform 4/8' sheets=$35



With trailer, $240, car hitch,receiver, $100, wiring harness, $30, locks, $30, framing wood, $100, flat materials, $275, and $50 for screws, nails, liquid nails, bolts and odds I am into this about $850 at this stage. My goal is to be around $1000. Really the big stuff is bought, I planned to hand make a lot of the details like windows and interior lights from scraps and things I already had. I had Formica , molding, wood pieces and paint on hand. So far only using basic tools, like jigsaw, circular saw, I have an old Shopsmith that I use for cross cuts. One thing I did go buy was a trim router, $25, from Harbor Freight. This turned out to be invaluable.
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The walls are made from from the 3/4" rigid foam laminated or sandwiched between two sheets of the 1/8" maple plywood. This will make a thick, sturdy, lightweight and insulated wall. First make a template from a sheet of foam to use to trace on all the other sheets.


I removed the platform or teardrop floor from the trailer and put it on sawhorses for a table to make the walls.


After a lot of testing for the right adhesive I found the best option was Glidden Gripper Interior/Exterior Primer & Sealer. This is a thick primer, using a roller apply a thick coat on the wood and working quickly lay on the foam, apply a thick coat to the foam and lay on the other sheet of maple. Weight down and let dry for 24 hours.




After cutting the sides and cleaning up the edge with the jigsaw mounted o a yardstick compass there were a few places on the top where there voids or gaps. I injected primer into these gaps and clamped.



I put a 1X4 along the bottom edge of the platform to act as a lip to set the walls on while I attached the walls to the platform with stainless steel screws and liquid nails.



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The trim router I bought at Harbor Freight is a handy tool. Here is a video on cutting out the porthole windows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox-qDYZ_O7E

[greygoos]

Nice looking trailer. Good luck with it. What did you use to skin the roof?

[lgatlin]

Interesting - I'm looking forward to seeing more. We've built a nice vardo, but I would love something very small/light for our annual speedy cross-country trip to tow behind our Corolla - just a place to sleep a tow a few Christmas presents

[Crawdaddy]

What did you use to skin the roof?

I used 1/4" maple plywood at $25 a 4X8' sheet.

[Crawdaddy]

Interesting - I'm looking forward to seeing more. We've built a nice vardo, but I would love something very small/light

Great looking little home, I really like the look. I almost named mine "The Gypsy."
I think mine would be OK for short trips, my Harbor Freight tires and hubs might be iffy in a long haul.

I just looked through pictures of your build and I really like that style, building a model is brilliant! This design is new to me and I am very interested. As a retired signpainter the paint job is impressive!

[pchast]

So far, in my experience, the hubs hold up quite well with periodic maintenance.
We have done about 10000 miles so far.

[Crawdaddy]

So far, in my experience, the hubs hold up quite well with periodic maintenance.
We have done about 10000 miles so far.

That's good to hear because my plan was to take it up to New Mexico, 900 miles. I packed the bearings when I was putting it together. On test runs at highway speed the hub's get warm but not too hot to touch.

[Crawdaddy]

Using Poplar 1X2"s for cross pieces. These were glued and held one by one with a pipe clamp and long stainless screws through the outside wall.



On the back I wanted to be able to remove the rear panels. To attach something to the foam I drilled holes and glued in large dowels to have something to screw into.



Here is that same back corner finished with removable covers, these can be replaced with screen versions while camping and also make it easy to load a mattress, or fill the air type.



Originally I wanted a galley, but really this one is just too small. Maybe on the next one.

[pchast]

So far, in my experience, the hubs hold up quite well with periodic maintenance.
We have done about 10000 miles so far.

That's good to hear because my plan was to take it up to New Mexico, 900 miles. I packed the bearings when I was putting it together. On test runs at highway speed the hub's get warm but not too hot to touch.

I've not had the hubs get warmer than a few degrees over ambient. I check at every stop.

What tire pressure are you running? How is your alignment to the hitch? Resist adding extra grease to the hub or using a 'bearing buddy'. Are you backing off the nut to add your carter pin about 1/8 to 1/4 turn? You don't want the wheel to rattle but it should be loose.

With too much grease or too tight compression, bearings will heat up, wear.

[Crawdaddy]

So far, in my experience, the hubs hold up quite well with periodic maintenance.
We have done about 10000 miles so far.

That's good to hear because my plan was to take it up to New Mexico, 900 miles. I packed the bearings when I was putting it together. On test runs at highway speed the hub's get warm but not too hot to touch.

I've not had the hubs get warmer than a few degrees over ambient. I check at every stop.

What tire pressure are you running? How is your alignment to the hitch? Resist adding extra grease to the hub or using a 'bearing buddy'. Are you backing off the nut to add your carter pin about 1/8 to 1/4 turn? You don't want the wheel to rattle but it should be loose.

With too much grease or too tight compression, bearings will heat up, wear.

The tire says max pressure 60 lbs. so I run between 50 and 55 depends on weather. The little 4'X4' trailer is rated for 1090 lbs. and fully loaded I'm only at 450 lbs. This forum is great because before I bought the trailer I read all the posts I could about the Harbor Freight trailers, lots of good advice found here. I think the big thing i learned was the hubs came with a protective substance and not the ideal grease. Yes I packed the bearings by hand but not so much as to squish out, backed off nut till spun free and not binding. But I think before I go off on 200 mile trip I might pull them and redo them. There are two small trailers available from HF, I opted for the more expensive one because it had 12" tires. Thanks for the input!

[Dan242]

Awesome build and gives me ideas for mine, I too am going for a pretty bare bones rig, but a little bigger and heavier, my floor plan will be 5x9, need room for two and hoping to be around 700 lbs before putting gear in. I have been toying with the shape, I want to max out aero and not lose function, The final shape in my head is similar to yours, just not as extreme of a dive in rear roofline.

Looking forward to hearing more about it and your adventures. Posting in here so I can find it in the future

[pchast]

Ours is the 1720lb HF trailer at less than half the designed weight. We run 30psi in our
original tires with a 560lb total weight.

I pack the bearings full so that grease is pushing through by hand and install them in the
empty and clean hub. It sounds like you have everything right.

The only other thing I can think of to check is the axle alignment to the trailer hitch. You
should have an equal measurement to the hub inner bearing location on both sides of the axle.

[lgatlin]

So what are the total measurements of the platform for the TD? I also see you have a fair amount of headroom - what is the interior height at the peak? It seems very roomy! It won't be much of a challenge to get my old man to start a new project, he seems a little forlorn now that our first build is pretty much complete - at least his part is (I still have interior paint embellishments to go). I notice also that your roof doesn't seem to be insulated - I am interested to hear how warm it stays in the winter -- the main time we'd use ours would be winter, so I am anticipating doing an insulated roof as well as sides.

[Crawdaddy]

Ours is the 1720lb HF trailer at less than half the designed weight. We run 30psi in our
original tires with a 560lb total weight.

I pack the bearings full so that grease is pushing through by hand and install them in the
empty and clean hub. It sounds like you have everything right.

The only other thing I can think of to check is the axle alignment to the trailer hitch. You
should have an equal measurement to the hub inner bearing location on both sides of the axle.

I did that when building the trailer, in fact after reading a lot of posts about building trailers I measured it many times, different ways. The trailer pulls great, smooth, no wobble or sway. I load my gear to have about 45lbs on tongue weight, or 10% of the 450lb trailer weight. Doesn't push down too much on the car. Does that sound about right?

[Crawdaddy]

So what are the total measurements of the platform for the TD? I also see you have a fair amount of headroom - what is the interior height at the peak? It seems very roomy! It won't be much of a challenge to get my old man to start a new project, he seems a little forlorn now that our first build is pretty much complete - at least his part is (I still have interior paint embellishments to go). I notice also that your roof doesn't seem to be insulated - I am interested to hear how warm it stays in the winter -- the main time we'd use ours would be winter, so I am anticipating doing an insulated roof as well as sides.

The length is 83" (6'11"), it is 58" (4'8") wide and the height inside is 42". I can sit up and not hit my head, I am 6' so it is a tight fit to stretch out. Cozy is the word. I was worried about pulling too much weight with my little Honda so I built small. I really camp with a big 10 man tent that has tables and a big queen mattress. I like to cook outside. My goal was just a dry place to sleep if bad weather hits or just need to pull in somewhere after dark and crash. I got carried away and really got into the build. It's an odd feeling now that it is completed, I think I like the building and designing.

I am thinking my next project would be something similar to yours, I keep going back and looking at your pictures, I love that design. If you are the artist I tip my hat to you, the designs and paint are spot on someone is very talented. I like the slanted walls and the gypsy wagon concept, Yours is a real work of art!

I just really need some real world testing before I add anything else. The bottom, walls and lower roof sections are well insulated. The rafters inside would allow insulation held in with molding. I was initially concerned about sleeping in such a small enclosed space, I put in an outside air vent with fan and would probably crack a window. I have not slept in it yet.

Are you still in the trial run phase?