Teardrop and Mobile Kitchen - design phase

[kimberbuilds]

I know nothing about using CAD or SketchUp, but I'm a huge fan of graph paper and pencil. After looking up some designs and pictures of others' teardrops, I came up with my idea. It needs to meet a few requirements, but I think this is a good start. I used dip bowls and Tupperware to round out my corners.

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(Hopefully the image resizes well)

Must haves...
6ft wide or less
True queen mattress sized

Like to have...
9ft long or more for lots of storage
Removable chuck box kitchen
Build price of $3k or less

My biggest obstacle right now is the price of lumber. What a time to decide to build something that's primarily constructed of wood!!

[tony.latham]

Removable chuck box kitchen

Why removable? One of the things we really like about teardropping is popping the hatch and putting the coffee pot on. No muss no fuss (or setup).

This may give you some ideas on your galley:





Tony

[kimberbuilds]

Why removable?

Mostly for fun, I suppose. Something my husband and I can build now with garage scraps while waiting for lumber prices to drop a little. It would also enable us to practice our wood working skills with minimal investment and risk of messing up on precious plywood.

It's all ideas for now, so thank you for the galley video! I'm enjoying all the inspiration from so many sources!

[Finlander]

I will follow this thread, as I'm kind of in the same situation. Planning to have a removable kitchen/chuck box in my squaredrop. I won't be needing the kitchen on all trips and making it removable gives me the option to also use the camper for hauling stuff. And I love the idea of opening the entire backside up and enjoying the "openess".

[MickinOz]

As drawn, the floor space for the mattress is only 72" long.
This is at odds with your must have true queen mattress length of 80".
You've drawn quite a bit of kitchen length.
You might have to rethink the galley a little bit, and see if you can give some length back to the cabin.

[kimberbuilds]

As drawn, the floor space for the mattress is only 72" long.

Oops... It's those pesky little squares. I swear they move around as I try to count them!!

I did the same while trying to draw up my kitchen box... three times. I also keep coming up with more and more "stuff" to make room for, and I need to remember to KISS!!

Currently, I haven't accounted for a sink and water storage, and those really should take priority!

[kimberbuilds]

I need to take some time to re-work my layout, but I have moved on to getting a parts list/budget sheet together.

I'm trying to list parts off bottom up so that I can stay within my budget of $3k, assuming I'll blow through that, and in reality end up closer to $3500.

Looking at either a Northern Tool 5x8 or Harbor Freight 4x8 trailer. The catch is that the gate to our backyard is only 7'6" wide, which means we need to stay well within that measurement to easily get the camper in/out of the yard. I'm concerned that with the added width of the tires the 5x8 will be a tight fit, but that's the footprint I prefer.

If I snag the smaller trailer, I would consider building a small storage box to raise the flooring above the weel wells. Not sure if this would be alright to do structurally, as well as I don't want to be adding to much weight in wood and supplies.

If anyone has thoughts on these trailers, please chime in.

[TimC]

I'm wondering about your 6' wide requirement. A queen mattress will fit in a 60" wide cabin and will easily squeeze into a 58" cabin. What is the extra width going to be used for? Or are you talking exterior width of tires/fenders etc?

I'm in the no sink fan club as it is easy to accommodate needs with a couple/three dish pans. It also eliminates the possibility of hidden leaks. I had a sink in a popup years ago and found it was too small to do much more than brush teeth or wash hands. I ended up yanking out the water tank and we used the sink as a pantry.

You'll often be asked questions about your design. Don't take it personally. Some of us just want to share our experiences and make you think about it before committing to a design. But if a sink is what you want then do it. BYOB! (That's Build Your Own Build, not the other BYOB

[kimberbuilds]

I'm wondering about your 6' wide requirement. A queen mattress will fit in a 60" wide cabin and will easily squeeze into a 58" cabin. What is the extra width going to be used for? Or are you talking exterior width of tires/fenders etc?

6 foot exterior width, taking into account tires and fenders.

We can carefully pull our vehicles in and out of our fence gate (yaaay car-fulls of mulch!!), but adding the length and possibly additional width of a trailer, makes things more difficult. We also have a septic field to navigate around.

It's easier to custom build the teardrop to fit the gate, than it is to modify our cemented in fence posts... believe me, we considered ripping out the fence altogether.

[kimberbuilds]

Oof... the price of lumber is killing my budget.

With current prices, I figure I need $925 worth of various plywood and boards. That's just under 1/3 of my budget. Yikes. I'm wondering if I can skimp in some places, without sacrificing build quality/strength.

I've planned for 3/4in skeleton walls with 1/8in inside and out. 1/8in inside and out for the ceiling with 2x4's ripped to 2x2 for the spars. Then the base would be 3/4in, with 1in framing, and 3/4in as an "underlayment" to some floor.

I wonder if I can thin the walls a bit - it's not likely the tear would be used in sub-freezing weather, or super extreme heat. If it's that unbearable to be outside, we're not going to want to be stuck inside a small box all day either.

I considered shortening everything to fit single 4x8 sheets (current plan is 5w x 9l x 5h). But my husband is tall, so he wants the length... I like my sleeping space, so I want the width. Not sure if shortening the height from 5ft to 4ft would save that much in materials over comfort.

I think today I'll go back to the drawing board and see what modifying size would do.

[TimC]

Oof... the price of lumber is killing my budget.

...Then the base would be 3/4in, with 1in framing, and 3/4in as an "underlayment" to some floor.

Lumber prices are dropping with mills working hard to fill demand. And new house starts are expected to slow a bit. If you can hold off for a bit the prices are likely to get better. Don't cut back too far. You may regret it later on. Buy your floor materials soon and hold off on the walls and spars and such until you need them. I think you will save some cash that way.

The floor sounds a bit beefy. If I understand correctly you are having a 1X floor frame and then a 3/4" plywood underlayment? The 1X frame is enough with a 3/8" or 1/2" ply underlayment. My woodie has 1X framing and roofing tar coated 1/8" ply under that exposed to the elements with no problems in six years. The top is 3/8" ply. Your mattress will spread the load to minimal lbs per square inch. If you were walking on it that's another thing. But laying on a mattress and crawling on hands and knees are not going to load the floor in any one point too much.

[noseoil]

Here's my "blueprint" for the entire trailer. Same thing, the galley isn't removable, but it works! 5' X 9' X 4'

[kimberbuilds]

Lumber prices are dropping with mills working hard to fill demand...

The floor sounds a bit beefy...

I've been watching lumber prices too closely. I'll be so happy when retail prices start to fall.

Good to know I can likely ease up on the thickness of the flooring. I was considering a tri-fold mattress, but I'm not 100% sold on the idea.

[noseoil]

I used 3/4" poplar for the floor frame, then skinned it with 1/8" top & bottom. I did "cheat" a bit, as I added a small sheet of 1/4" on top of the 1/8" where your backside sits at the door, but with the mattress, it might not be necessary. See my build log for some images & information on the floor.

[kimberbuilds]

Teardrop Comfort Test #1:

We did some inside camping last night, because curiosity led me to the basement to dig out an old "2-3 person" dome tent. It just so happens that when a queen-sized air mattress gets shoved in there, the inner dimensions are fairly close to what a teardrop would be.

The mattress inflated to just under 5ft wide, and 75in long. My husband's feet were hanging off the end, so we definitely need the extra 5in of a true standard queen. A teardrop width of 5ft and length of 8-9ft seem like the perfect size.

The height of the tent's ceiling was 3ft above the mattress, and while we felt it was adequate, 3.5 ft would be more comfortable for sitting up more than a few hours on a rainy or cold day.

One big issue we had last night was the air mattress itself. We made it 2 hours before bailing to our regular bed because it was killing my back and my husband's hips. Maybe our air mattress sucks, maybe it was too firmly inflated. Either way, I think it's likely we will end up with a more standard type, 6-8in thick, regular mattress. So, taking into account mattress thickness, ceiling, and flooring, we've come up with an overall teardrop height of 5ft.

Big issue #2, unrelated to camping really, was the damn cats. They figured the tent was their new cat tree. I thought they would leave us alone overnight, like they usually do, but hearing claws pawing up the side of the tent is what woke us and made us realize how uncomfortable the air mattress was.

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