Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm curious about what those of you who're building foamies have done to attach to the frame? What method, by what means?

You mean attaching the floor to the frame? Or the walls to the floor?

I used long bolts lined them up with the existing holes in the frame and drilled holes in the wood and slipped them in there is 6 total with 3 on each side. they are set in somewhat. You need to read my grits build. at least go through and look at the pictures. You will probably get some ideas. I read the whole thread before I began my build, I built mine so in the future it could be removed.

Mary C.

jseyfert3 wrote:You mean attaching the floor to the frame? Or the walls to the floor?

By the frame, I mean, the metal part your axle and tongue are attached to... and by attachment, I mean whatever you used... bolting, gluing, welding, etc.

I have done a lot of looking at builds, and rarely do people say in detail how they attached, and even more rarely do they take pictures

So, I thought it might be interesting, especially for the foamie crowd, to see what they did in terms of frame attachment. I've been pondering that for some time now, and have yet to come up with any ideas that I think are not just good, but foolproof and the strongest it can be.

mdk wrote:

jseyfert3 wrote:You mean attaching the floor to the frame? Or the walls to the floor?

By the frame, I mean, the metal part your axle and tongue are attached to... and by attachment, I mean whatever you used... bolting, gluing, welding, etc.

I have done a lot of looking at builds, and rarely do people say in detail how they attached, and even more rarely do they take pictures

So, I thought it might be interesting, especially for the foamie crowd, to see what they did in terms of frame attachment. I've been pondering that for some time now, and have yet to come up with any ideas that I think are not just good, but foolproof and the strongest it can be.

That's what I thought you meant, just making sure.

The bolded part is what I found too.

jseyfert3 wrote:One thing I haven't come across yet, is attaching a raised floor. If you make a raised floor frame from 1x4's, how do you bolt that down? Metal angle brackets, that bolt to the frame then to the 1x4? Seems like you couldn't drill through a 1x4 and run a long bolt through it lengthwise. Perhaps you could, or maybe lag bolts? But it seems lag bolts could have a problem with rotting near the threads, plug again not much room drilling into the narrow edge of a 1x4. I did look for this, but haven't found it. Seen a couple raised floors, but when I did, they didn't say how they attached it to the trailer.

If you click the above link, it takes you to the post I read, where we had a discussion on ways to mount my floor. And I took detailed pictures.

My floor is a raised, extended floor made from 1x4s, raised to get it over the tires so I could extend the width of the trailer (5'2" inside for a queen mattress) on my 4' trailer. Not sure how your floor will be, but here is mine (I'll try to keep this short and not screw up my links).

To attach my raised frame, I used hurricane ties. Here is the post where I attach them, and two pictures showing them attached from the linked post.


Hurricane Tie, Mounted by jseyfert3, on Flickr


All Brackets Mounted by jseyfert3, on Flickr

In this post, I finish up the floor frame.


1x4 Framing Complete (1) by jseyfert3, on Flickr


1x4 Framing Complete (2) by jseyfert3, on Flickr

Note that the floor, which is 1/2" OSB, will extend to the front of the side 1x4s. The gap between the first cross 1x4 and the trailer crossbeam is to allow outside venting with no visible vents on the sides. The walls (2" thick foam) will sit on the floor. They will be glued to the floor with Gorilla Glue and the canvas that is glued to the outside of the foam will wrap down the wood sides and under the edges, which will help hold the walls to the floor.

There is my TD to trailer frame attachment method, in a nutshell, with pictures. Lmk if you have any questions, and please note that although I think this is a sturdy method of attachment, my build is not yet completed (first Teardrop build).

I just checked my pictures of my build and your right I didn't take any pictures of how I attached. I promiss I will go take some pictures of how I did it so you can see. I will take them tomorrow late in the day when it is warmer.

Mary C.

my tear has 6 bolts, one at each corner and two at the aft end of the tongue that actually use the floor to counteract a known shortcoming of my trailer makers design (carry-on, no floor), otherwise it would only have four.
my next tear will have a few bolts holding the floor to the frame (gravity does a great job every time it is tried) the floor will be plywood and the foam walls will be tied to the floor by the sock effect (wrapping the fabric skin under the plywood floor for strength)

Js, although your floor frame came out very Nice , I still think opposing the grain on the “filler” blocks would have been a good idea ...

JS that is ingenious, using hangers ...brilliant!

grantstew8 wrote:JS that is ingenious, using hangers ...brilliant!

Thank you, but I can't take credit for it. It was KCStudly's idea.

My floor is built up from 2x's and 1x's on edge with 1-1/2 inch foam fill and 5mm ply top and bottom. My trailer frame has holes thru the intermediate angle xmbrs and bolting tab plates welded at the front and rear tubular xmbrs. 4 holes across x 4 xmbrs = 16 bolts. The 2x xmbrs in the floor subframe align with the angle xmbrs in the trailer. Along the front and rear xmbrs in the floor frame I added blocking made of 2x4 square blocks, biscuit joined and glued in.

Before the top floor skin went on, I aligned the floor on the trailer frame and marked all of the hole locations on the underside of the floor (actually, my friend Karl was the one to climb under and do it). From there, with the floor flipped up, I drilled thru each location with a pilot drill, then from the top I drilled a recess for a threaded insert using a Forstner bit. Then I drilled down thru the finished hole size and put the inserts in from the top. Now with the top skin on the bolts come up from the bottom and are not visible from the top.

Some people use elevator bolts that have very flat large diameter heads on them; they don't stick up.

I like the hurricane clips! But, I still want to be able to use my trailer when I need it. So, I'm going to try a "removable" teardrop - there's a few out there, so no nay-sayers!

My trailer has a 3/4" plywood floor, to which I'll bolt the trailer to in about 6 places - the impact gun should make quick work of that. I'll trial and error it 100 times before I do anything to the actual trailer.

~Tim , how about some BIG wing nuts to make the changeover really quick ...???

I used 6 carriage bolts and got washers made to keep them from twisting. They drop I through the top, and I put a rubber washer, a large fender washer and a nylock nut on underneath. My camper she'll is 'reoveable also. I did have a hard time finding the carriage bolt washers. Had to order them from McMaster Carr.