This is the abridged story on how I came to build my Teardrop camper "snowcone" and the journy, trials, scraps, thrown tools and formaldehyde posioning... along with much much more..
I am an outdoor-est to say the least, Love to camp, climb, cave, swim, paddle, hunt, fish, I have even thrown myself from a perfectly good airplane
on occasion. and over the years of tent camping I have been surrounded by friends who "truck-camp", and I was always envious by the speed at which
they could roll into a campground and climb into the back and fall asleep, all the while I drug the tent around in the mud looking for a place to set up...
well you know the drill on the ins and outs of tent camping.
As I do not own a truck, and have always felt like the only good use for one was coon hunting and old love songs about heart ache.. no offense to all you truck owners out there.. I had to come up with an alternitive idea that was quick to set up, and equally quick to be on the road, especially on those rainy mornings!
I can't recall where I came across the first teardrop camper for sale but I was hooked! but I found many drawbacks to the purchase of one, The overall cost did no appeal to me, I hade to leave some money for "play" time, and I really wanted one that fit certain criterias, I wanted it to be insulated, Plenty of ground clearance as I planned to drag it through many less than well maintained areas, the more I looked into them the more my needs outweighed the options available, then I found sites where folks were building these at home, and someplace I found an add that said build one at home for around $300 !!! (dream on Hooker.. dream on) I later found out that the plan I drew up in my twisted mind was going to cost a little more than $300.... but still less than some for sale out in the world.
The journy began.. I wanted the entire unit to be built out of single 4x8 sheets, this ment I did not have to splice or seam anything on the floor or sides, this makes it VERY water tight and VERY strong, I drew out the shape of the body and cut out a template, I purchased a 4x9ish trailer kit from Harbor Freight and cut it down to 4x8 (this moved the axle to an almost perfect spot for my trailer) later in the build I had to purchase another axel do to poor tire and wheel choices, lesson learned when buying larger wheels and tires, make sure they fit under your axel!! I found some surplus airplane 4x12 bake-lite aluminum covered sheets to skin the unit, and panel out the inside, $5 a sheet!! man she was going to be a beauty! lession learned... the material was impregnated with formaldehyde, and when it became wet it outgases... if you have never had formaldehyde posioning... your missing out... dumped the origanl skin, covered her inside and out with FRP... she is still a beaut! The build has taken the better part of 2 years, but very few build time hours, just lots of misshaps in between!!! Those stories will have to wait for the camp fire! I hope to have her on the road by the end of the month, batteries are charging and she is almost fitted out! See you all around the bend!
Jimmie
