Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Ned, that looks like a moulded fiberglass cap on the front .... nice way to easily get some aerodynamics onto a Box...

It sure is/was. There were two tiny doors into the space, and it got used for storage of books and things that didn't get used much (back then I read a lot of novels...). There was a carpeted floor, but the top was just fiberglass, no insulation. I camped fully four seasons (as in all four: spring summer etc...) in that rig, when it was really cold I'd just close off the bedroom in the nose and sleep on the fold out couch in back. Shutting off the heat to the nose kept the kitchen/living room warm enough for comfort.

All in all it was a good RV, despite suffering from typical stick and staple construction.I had to replace the inverter one time, but it never had any leaks, just wasn't fancy even when new.

Now of course I want to build my Wanderer, someday...

Ned B wrote:Norm,
Way back in the late 80's to mid 90's I traveled across the USA. For a couple of years I stayed in hotels, but eventually I decided that I would rather have an RV. I bought a pickup truck and a 5th wheel made by Shadow Cruiser out of Elkhart, IN. It was what I would call an entry level unit, typical stick and staple construction, etc... but the one thing that I really enjoyed was that instead of the 'normal' boxy nose, it had a very aerodynamic front end:

I'm liking the front air aerodynamics on this. Just two questions and I think I know the answer to both 1) Could you stand up in the bedroom (probably not) and 2) Was the very front end of the cone useful for much of anything? (maybe a bit of storage) OHHH to have the perfect solution.....

The nose was available for small item storage, from about where the fiberglass cap started forward. There was a walk through bath with steps up to the bedroom. I'm sure that any teardrop owner would feel right at home. I found it cozy, my wife said it was a touch too close for her tastes.

A nifty newsreel from the 1930s on Aero:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... svkSmtFDzs

That film about says it all eh !!! So we can build trailers that look like a ’36 Chevy ... Cool !!!

just a rough sketch ... Certainly not an Easy build ... but possible ...

did we ever come up with an easy method of forming foam panels using heat? if we could get them to the "wet noodle" stage, any shape would be easy to mold, and permanent once cold.

190F does it ... and then a mold to cool over... many possibilities there huh ? ...

did we come up with an easy method? I keep thinking of a salamander heater, but then I'm not sure of the heat out put

or a steam box idea, but big enough for 4x8 panels...

Row , there’s the Rub !!! A big enough “device” to put a whole sheet of foam in .... Impractical for just onsey’s and twosey’s ... Unless of course you're an “addicted” Foamie' builder ... like me...

We have a heat gun so a while back I tried heat bending a small 1" thick pink foam panel. Heat only penetrated a certain amount, maybe 1/4 inch, in a reasonable length of time. With the need to keep the heat gun moving back & forth, you can only work on a relatively narrow panel without one end cooling off by the time you've gotten back to the other end. Though with patience the heat does slowly build up in the foam, it felt like forever before it penetrated a reasonable depth. I could get one side to bend but the other side stayed cool. So as the warm side stretched out the cool side just folded & squished with the tendency to try to expand back to it's original form. So you have to heat stretch one side, then go around & heat compress the other but because it's already in a folded, crumpled & mutilated form it doesn't compress uniformly so it is difficult to get it to heat uniformly. Certainly my lack of skill with the heat gun didn't help the process one bit.

You'd definitely need the heat to come from both sides & even then I'd think a 3/4" panel would be the thickest you'd want to try. The combo of using narrower panels, thinner panels, & only bending a small strip at a time made it take far too long. Basically the idea didn't work well for me. I can see how it would be possible but for me it would be impractical. My mind went through many different ways of doing it in a little basement shop. It could be done, I think. Though I'm definitely not going to be the girl to do it. If I was planning on doing a lot of building then maybe, but that's not part of my plan.

Aerodynamics have really been on my mind a lot though. For several reasons, I'm planning a standy. Even being towed behind my high roofline Transit Connect van (a model of poor aerodynamics) it's hard to make a standy aerodynamic & still allow for loading, unloading of my recumbent trike. I'm still going to do my best.

Well, you could get a big block of foam , and just start carving off the excess... Fun , but messy !!!

what about cuttin the foam into stripes, like lath. then you would be working with a small area and molding a rounded shape should be much easyer.