My name is Rob and I have been lurking for too long. After many years of happily tent camping my beautiful wife has decided that a) it is too cold to camp in the spring and fall where we live (reasonable) and b.) we really enjoy having a bed under us vs. camp mats, and c.) the children will perish if they experience the (somewhat enjoyable ) experience of waking up cold in a sleeping bag under the stars. To be fair they are only 4 and 1 yrs old so she makes some valid points. Add to that my summertime gig is all engrossing and allows minimal time at home to gather camping gear and such for a quick overnighter to our local favorite spot and you have a recipe for some kind of mobile, tent-like, camping-type, leave-it-packed-and-hitch-up type of vehicle. Off to the Interweb! And what is this? a teardrop? hmm kind of small, towable by her suv, maybe if I could do a bunk bed... there's one, a little tweak here, I love the kitchen outside aspect, wonder about a heater... hmm foam? Yes Foam!
Its been about two months since finding the idea of building a tear... spent gathering (stealing) information from you fine people and...
Time to jump in feet first and get another Tear on the road. I recently picked up my donor trailer, a '77 Coleman Valley Forge tent trailer that had succumbed to an invasion of critters which left it unusable and very very stinky. This morning I tore it down to the frame rails to see what I have, saving whatever hard parts seemed reusable and gaining for the princely sum of $200
1. a frame (unregistered...hmm going to have to do some "creative registration"),
2. a stainless sink and electric pump (may or may not use, I was thinking hand pump),
3. a water tank
4. a propane heater (did I mention the wife gets cold? I'm not sure if its worth installing since you guys all seem nice an cozy but we do live in the mountains, camp at 7000ft and it gets down into the teens in the fall. 6 degrees and sunny this morning)
5. a propane cooktop (I like my old trusty camp stove though... hmm)
6. a variety of aluminum trim and molding in lots of shapes and sizes that may be able to be re-purposed to some use?
THE PLAN:
(such as it is)
I am a make a general plan, get going, see what falls into place and fix it on the fly kind of guy. I have a history of building homes and remodeling other peoples problems. I'm pretty handy, but this project is going to take me into some places I've not traveled. And hopefully when its done we'll go to some other places I've not traveled.
I am going to build something similar to Camp Inn's new design, to fit two adults, two littles with a full bed mounted transverse to the axle and two 28"w bunks. I intend to halve the queen bed down the middle long ways to create a fold up couch pushed against the front of the interior. Also the top bunk will hinge (somehow) down from the rear bulkhead wall to create a rear couch. This will also allow for ease of entry and stuff packability when the rig is not in sleeper mode. Also allows for some interior card playing space if it were to someday precipitate again in California. (We just recently got our biggest snow storm in 13 months weighing in at a whopping 10 inches. We usually get snowstorms measured in feet ie 3-4.)
The construction method is to be Foamie, maybe modified Foamie with a bit more framing to support the potential snow loads. I'm thinking insulated torsion box, foam walls and roof, home built windows and doors only because I want the shapes to match the profile of the rig. Speaking of profile, excuse my sketchup design flaws, I am learning as I go here. I need to figure out how to post the sketchup image when I'm done rambling on.... (good name for the tear?)
Hopefully you all will chime in with your suggestions as I move through this project at lightning speed
did I mention I have two little kids that I am in charge of 4 days a week (wife is at work) and I do home remodels as well? If I can finish this by june I'll be stoked. (as will the wifey). Thanks to all of you for bringing me this far, I hope my build thread will do the same for some other builders out there. A question, Should I repost this into the Foamie build section or do you (we) find that kind of redundancy annoying?
Rob
