Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

by **razzer** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:19 pm

Sure thing GPW I get the news letter and all that . Parts , parts every where . I'm not really a bike path kind of guy I'm more that guy on the bike that you go " what's he doin on my road ? " . I think the funniest comment was from a yahoo yelling at me on a long trip " GET A JOB ! " And I had already worked my job plus 500 hrs O/T so far that year . I figured I paid my road taxes and his too . :lol:

I've got to the point where I think I'm going to build the body/cabin first then build a trailer to put it on . :thinking:

One of the things I keep working on is a way to get in it . It's going to be real small and low . I don't bend and twist the way I did as a teen . I'm thinking of having one side and part of the top open .

by **GPW** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:13 am

"I don't bend and twist the way I did as a teen .” ... Me too !!! Have to think on that entry idea ! :thinking:

by **razzer** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:23 pm

Ah here we go , I thought you had drawn out something like what I wanted to do to the door .

: modernTD.jpg (151.77 KiB) Viewed 1117 times

I like your style door here because it would keep the rain off of me when I opened the door . And I could sit under it with out getting wet . The design could be used in a tiny VSF . Of course I'm thinking of making the door about 54" wide and only 30" high .

: RE_%20Vardo%20Kera's%20fm%20TinyHouseblog%20111111.jpg (99.58 KiB) Viewed 1117 times

I think my final design will be somewher between your spaceship TD and this vardo style trailer . Hopefully it doesn't look half baked when I'm done .

by **atahoekid** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 12:20 am

OK... I closed my eyes and thought about it and I'm not sure what a hybrid of these two designs will look like. They seem like polar opposites to my eye. My eye tends to lean towards GPW's designs. He and I share a liking for the wide and low look. Every once in a while I'll look at that design and think of the steps I would need to work through to build that. Sure a long way from from his Very SIMPLE Foamie. Both are very cool in their own way.

by **GPW** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 6:21 am

Wider doors sure are helpful !!! At my age, I like to be able to sit at the door edge , and sorta ‘ just roll right inside ... :lol:

With the way you can build with foam , adding and subtracting , seems most anything (shape ) is possible !!! :thumbsup:

You can see some of my earlier designs were more plywood based (till I learned the truth) but could be easily adapted to foam ...

The plans submitted above ^ was merely an attempt to produce as Simple a foamie trailer build as possible ... and not be just a “box” ...
Some observations .... for a simple camping trailer , the 4’ inside hight is Plenty of head room for most folks (allowing the use of full foam sheet sides) ... but the real key to Comfort is having the foamie wide enough !!! My little foamie is only 44” wide inside , and really not big enough for two ... 60” or more would have been Much better ... The idea of the Magic number of ~ 50 sq. ft. of floor space seems accurate ... for me anyway (@ 6’3” )

by **razzer** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:55 pm

Sorry about my lack of pictures atahoekid . The basics of my design thought is really nothing more then a long and tiny A-frame house . Kind of a foam pup-tent for one person on a bicycle trailer that has one side that lifts up so an old cyclist " passed that double nickle " can get in and out easier . Any complexity is nothing more then arching the roof some and maybe tapering it from front to back . I mean it's foam , it's tiny , it should be easy to model into a cool looking shape and make it look pretty . Then just glue the cloth to it . If I weren't trying to give it a theme it would be just the three sides and the two ends . Really very simple .

Just to support the idea of cloth and paint on a foamie , about 7 years ago I made a geodesic sphere out of corrugated cardboard 4ft in diameter and then painted it and stuck old rags to it and then painted over the rags . " no glue " I then left it in the yard for the kids and dogs to play with . After being outside year round on the ground for five years it finally got egged shaped from water messing up the cardboard . No paint inside . It had rolled great up till then as the biggest triangle was only 3" or less . Gotta love free cardboard and mismatched paint . :lol:

by **GPW** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:51 am

Razz, I see your idea now , and was thinking , you know a sheet of foam can be bent into any curve you want , by bringing the temperature to around 190F , bending it into the desired shape and fixing it to that shape (a form) till it cools , then it will retain that shape forever, stays bent

... so that sorta’ bulgy A-frame would be entirely possible, quite Strong , and easy to fabricate once you have a temporary form built ... Cool idea !!! :thumbsup:

Could be built Very Light ... :thinking:

by **GPW** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:21 am

Something like this ? :thinking:

by **razzer** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:43 am

GPW , that is exactly what I am envisioning . :thumbsup:

If I weren't so computer dumb I would have figured out Sketch by now so I could make the design to show everyone myself . Alas I'm learning to use a word processor to update my resume . All the companies want you to E-mail your resume and fill out applications on line . I was thinking of a short knee wall at the bottom to raise the arched roof up a bit but after I'm done you probably won't be able to tell anyway . I hope to experiment with the heat bending this weekend . Oops need to make a form first . :thinking:

I'm not taking your thread off topic am I , let me know and I'll be more careful .

by **razzer** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:56 am

I just realized this looks a bit like one of your ideas for the foamstream . :lol:

" laughing at myself "

by **GPW** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 10:06 am

Never off topic around here... adds a bit of “color" now and then ...

Bending is easy , and you could easily do the 1” thick and be fine , small trailer and all ... :thumbsup:

FoamStream .... funny when I realized the neighborhood was full of horse trailers that looked the same ...

...

by **razzer** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 10:29 am

Now you have me going , Duh ! Horse trailers of course , I didn't think of it either . :oops:

When you have a shape that works the best for something ... Just make yours prettier . One of your paint jobs will do that .

by **GPW** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:08 pm

... or maybe just some fake horse tails hanging out the back :lol:

.... The neighborhood is full of horse trailers that look just like the FoamStream (or vice versa) .. could go completely unnoticed down the road ... It just took me so long to realize that was the influence for the FoamStream , horse trailers stuck in my head all this time ... :frightened:

I can see it now , the neighbors will be saying ... "the old man got some horses. “ :roll:

by **Ned B** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:57 pm

Shades of the Roger Moore era Bond films, in one installment, he had a horse trailer towed behind a Range Rover as part of his cover. There was a false horse's behind, complete with a tail that lifted out of the way. The trailer really carried a 'micro-jet' iirc.