Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello, I had a really good picture to illustrate what i'm talking about but the file was too large and I couldn't figure out how to downsize it. I will just try to explain it and see if you all can picture it and if you think it would work.

I want to build a foam camper trailer about 5x10 and 5' high to sleep two adults and two children. I would like the option to add a rooftop tent to the trailer in the future as well. My idea was to use a router to inlay 1/2 inch plywood sections flush into the interior side of the foam walls. There would be three of these inlayed plywood sections, One at the galley about 3' wide and the height of the camper, one smaller section in the middle about 2' wide and camper height, and one small section at the front about 2' wide and 3' high. They would each be only as big as needed to support the weight of the rooftop tent/occupants and would serve as anchor points for shelves in the galley (rear section), forward rooftop tent anchor (middle section), and a bunk bed style cot system (front section) for the two children to sleep width-wise in the camper. The rear galley and middle section would extend from the floor to the roof and be connected to a mirrored section on the opposite wall by the roof spars running width-wise across the camper. They may be connected to the floor by angle iron or something similar, not sure yet.

The rooftop tent/rack would attach via vertical plate that will go through the roof and bolt into the side of the vertical plywood sections standing on edge or I could beef up selected roof spars to be 2x4s in stead of 2x2s and mount a traditional roof rack/rooftop tent mounting system into those selected spars flat on the roof. Either way, I am hoping that the vertical inlayed plywood sections standing on edge would be strong enough to hold the weight vertically and the connecting roof spars and canvass wrap around the whole thing would prevent side to side shifting. What are your thoughts on the rigidity of this design? Would it work? I'm sorry for this very long post, It would've been much shorter with the picture I drew. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I think I kind of get it.

I wouldn't penetrate the roof. Any relative movement will just break the seal and result in wetness inside.

I'd rather have the reinforcements flush to the outside. That way when you attach to them and seal any fastener holes, at least they don't reach all the way inside the cabin. Much less likely to get water inside from a wall penetration than the flat(-ish?) Roof where standing water can make things much worse.

Actually the picture would be much appreciated ....

My concern is lateral stability as the kids are getting up/down, goofing around etc.

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second attempt...I think it worked...it works better if you right click and select 'view in another tab'. The pink is foam board, brown is plywood, and the pink lines over the plywood represent the foam over the wood with the wood being set into it flush. The brown squares around the edges are the spars which will be notched to lock into the notches in the plywood.

That looks pretty good, no ones smelly feet in anyones face
It is a bit of a challenge to fit everything you'd like into 50 sq.ft. I went through 6 redesigns and now it's changing as I build it.

If you make a gallery here you can upload pics to it and post the from there with just a couple clicks and w/o dealing with picture size.

You have a hump on the roof that appears to be an AC unit maybe? If that is the case, either you know of much smaller rooftop air conditioners than I am familiar with, or you are massively over cooling the space and will never be able to pull humidity from the air.

Unless there is a 5K or smaller BTU rooftop unit I somehow missed, I would suggest you go with a 5K BTU window unit through the front wall of the camper on the tongue end. Small enough to be handled by a tiny generator off grid, but more than powerful enough to run you out of such a small space for it being too cold...

JMHO, it might be good to consider the vertical center of gravity of the trailer ...You do want most of the weight down low ... A lot of weight further up could make the trailer unstable in cross winds .
And then why not just pack the tent in the trailer and set it up on the ground for camping ...no worries about bracing the trailer roof or leakage ... And as a kid , our parents always got the comfortable accommodations ,and we got the tent , which was just fine for us ... It was camping ...


GSP, it might be a good idea in future posts to reduce your drawings to fit the size of the columns here... A lot of us don't have large computer screens and can only see a part of the drawing at a time ... Thanks !!!

why not just pack the tent in the trailer and set it up on the ground for camping...

I gotta agree with you Glen.

I can't imagine having to crawl down a ladder at zero-dark-thirty to pee... not to mention it would wake everyone up "downstairs."

Tony

Roof top Awning, can make a tent on the ground

I keep pondering this idea and coming back to issues of weight. The addition of the hard shell RTT on top of the foamie, it is also toward the back almost behind the axle.

It would seem to me to be an invitation to instability going down the road with the "load high, and behind the axle".

Might be worth some experimentation, but don't be wedded to the idea fully...

As I read through the above posts, I wondered why anyone would want a roof top tent system. I found this article that explains the pros and cons. Now I understand why someone would want one … or not.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2021/ ... top-tents/