Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello to everyone on this list.

One interest of mine is teardrop and small trailer design and I have produced quite a few traditional designs as CAD files.

I have just added a drawing of the 'Streamlined Midget Trailer' from 1940 Popular Mechanics - its name is misleading as it's actually quite large for a teardrop (9' x 5.5' x 5.5').

Angib Designs

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Good to see you here. Also good to see that you are still cranking out the designs. As you know, looking at new and unique designs is still my favorite pasttime.

So are we ready for a really unique design? Something that hasn't been done before? Something that is still small, still affordable, still easy to tow, still gets you off the ground, but is sooooooo unique, it'll turn heads everywhere?

I am ready for it. But what form, what shape will this thing take? Any ideas?

Mike...

Liike wise. Hey do use a favor and post the square tear again. Please.

Bufordt

Hi Andrew.

Welcome to the list. I've admired your work on your website for a while. Keep up the great work!

Has anyone looked at the photos of the replica Midget teardrop trailer lately. It's looking really nice!

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/[email protected]

Bob Kloppe has done a wonderful job!!!

Mike...

That is so neat! And somewhere to sit! I wonder if that is what folds down into a bed. I'd like to find out what it weighs when finished.
Bev

that is neat, thanks alot.

Any body have the geometry (how ever you spell it) for the midgit

Joe,

I went to see what I had done for this design and found this:



I've added it, and a more detailed pdf version, to my Midget page.

If you want a different type of information, contact me.

Andrew

I just have to put this out here for discussion. I took a look at the balance point calculator.... I have given this some very simplistic thinking and here is my way of doing it.

Create a miniature profile of the trailer (maybe one inch per foot) out of any non-paper, stiff, material... cardboard of plywood..... Hang a clothes pin from a piece of string. Hang the profile from the clothes pin, moving it till the bottom edge is parallel to the floor. Mark that point... It is the balance point of the empty trailer, but does not deal with tongue weight.

I suppose the profile could be hung upside down and make it even simpler....

thhanks andrew. what is the formulas for the doing the geometry for figuring out the curves they will not be that hard to gut but i to figure them out first

Joe,

The profile I've drawn is a fairly exact copy of the plans, but some of it is freehand curves. I've added a drawing to my personal album to illustrate this: http://www.tnttt.com/gallery/image.php?image_id=595

While the upper body shapes front and back are almost exactly elliptical, the lower body shapes definitely aren't - they're much more 'bellied'. And they need to be - if they weren't, the door wouldn't fit in.

Andrew

Arne,

The trick to what you're trying to do is to stick (eg, Blu-Tack) a ruler to your table on its edge - this makes a nice fulcrum on which to balance your cut-out to see where its centre of area is. And you can use paper - just put a crease along the paper to stiffen it up.

HOWEVER, using the centre of area of the profile of your trailer isn't necessarily a good estimate of where the centre of gravity of the trailer will be, even if you ignore all the other weights like the tongue, the galley, the bulkhead, etc.

What you are doing here is assuming that the weight at any point is proportional to the height of the side wall, but in fact a lot of the weight (such as the floor and the roof) does not depend on the height of the side wall.

Sorry to rain on your parade , 'cos it is a pretty technique - traditionally used for model aircraft.

Andrew

Andrew thanks
do you happen to know what size the frame is or what is built with i wonder if i can build it out of steel i am not really concered about weight i something i can move it with
joe

Joe,

The original has a chassis that's mostly oak! So a complete redesign is needed.

The photos of Bob Kloppe's Midget show one way of doing the chassis. Buford may shout at me, but I think this is one trailer where a frame of 2"x1/8" square tube would be appropriate.

Andrew