Climber's Teardrop Build

[dvdpeiro]

Hi All,

My name's David, and I joined the tnttt site to plan and build a small teardrop. Last year I started going on a lot of weekend outdoor rock climbing trips. Camping in a tent works fine, but Kentucky humidity makes my sleeping bag wet and it is quite cold in fall and spring... I would like the convenience of not having to remember to pack everything I need to sleep and camp every single weekend. Having a nice bed, fixed lighting, a cooking area, and more cargo space all sound real nice, too. Specially considering I drive a two door jeep!

Anyway, the goal for my build is simple and affordable while not skimping on essentials. I have a loose budget of 2,000$ - 3,000$ and am keeping a spreadsheet with all my purchases. I am not very tall so a 4x8 size seems fine, and will allow me to avoid seams and extending the footprint over the trailer. I want a Benroy-esque shape, simple galley with pull out ice box, maybe some drawers, and a PMF exterior.

So far I have purchased a HF 1720lb trailer off craigslist. It was brand new, never even hooked up to a ball, but pre-assembled! I paid $370 for it. Without the 20% off coupons I figured that would be a good price. I have a fan-tastic vent, a window, two doors off ebay, fuse block, wiring, connectors, a ceiling light, led light strip, 110 hookup plug, usb outlets, cooler, stove... I'm about $1,600 in so far. Only need plywood, insulation, hardware, battery, canvas and glue and paint, and misc. items.

Right now I am cleaning and packing the bearings with good grease. I will post soon with progress on this step.

One issue I see coming up is when building the floor, some protruding bolt heads might get in the way. I could remove them and weld the spots, or try to drill recessed holes for the heads to sit in... But that might not work with the 1/8'' plywood I plan to skin the floor frame with, and the PMF I will use to protect it with...

[TimC]

Hi All, ...
One issue I see coming up is when building the floor, some protruding bolt heads might get in the way. I could remove them and weld the spots, or try to drill recessed holes for the heads to sit in... But that might not work with the 1/8'' plywood I plan to skin the floor frame with, and the PMF I will use to protect it with...

On my woodie TD's floor it was framed with 1x4s and 1x6s and the road side was skinned with 1/8" lauan. I dry fit the floor on the frame (clamped) and with a small sledge hammer I gave a whack to mark the head spots. At the same time I drilled holes through the trailer frame and floor for 5/16" carriage bolts. The topside of the floor was countersunk just enough to keep the carriage bolt heads below the floor surface. I was then able to countersink the bottom of the floor at the frame bolt spots to accommodate the bolt heads.

I also made thin strips to go on each cross frame steel to support the floor at the same height of the outside trailer frame members which sit proud of the cross members due to the design on my Northern Tool trailer (I'm assuming the construction of the HF is similar).

After the bolt countersinks were finished and before anchoring the floor I put two good coats of black jack (roofing tar) on the entire floor and into the countersinks. To keep the floor from permanently being stuck to the frame I put light plastic strips across the frame members. I was sure I would need to remove the floor at some point. After six years I never have, but ya never know.

Good luck on your build...

Tim

[QueticoBill]

Assuming a row of bolts on the sides like mine, i will have solid wood at edge. Plan for ply to sit inside raised side rails, and dado or route groove full length for bolt heads. Seemed simple.

[western traveler]

You are on your way! I hope to follow along on your build.

[dvdpeiro]

Today I finally got my new bearing grease seals for my HF trailer. I got them off of HF customer support phone number and they took almost two weeks to arrive. They were the cheapest way to get replacements tho at only a dollar each. I got 4 to have spares. Packing the bearings and installing the hubs and wheels back on went pretty smooth.



Next I needed to get rid of the casters that allow the trailer to stand up when folded. I also didn't need the metal frame that they bolt to, so I just marked and cut it off.





Finally, what actually took most of the afternoon was doing the wiring for the trailer lights. I decided to run a separate wire to each rear light for the ground instead of using the frame as a general ground. I thought since it is a bolt on kit and there's paint everywhere, it can't really be that good of a ground all the way to the rear lights. Worked well. I used some wire loom to protect and organize wiring in places.

[dvdpeiro]

Today went out to buy some lumber. It was raining too much to get the needed 1/8'' plywood, so I just went to Menard's to get a few 2x4's. Boy was I surprised by lumber prices! These two 2x4x8' boards cost about $25!!!



I ripped them carefully a bit thicker than the protruding bolt-heads. Then, I lay them out next to the bolts and marked the center of each bolt approximately on both boards. Then I set up a 1'' forstner bit in my drill press and a fence so I would drill the center of the board consistently and set the stop about an eighth of an inch from the bottom of the board so as not to drill all the way through.



Then the boards snap into place over the bolt heads and lay flat on the frame of the trailer.




On this last image, you can see that the cross members sit inside the C-channel of the sides so it adds about another 1/8'' from the frame to the top of the new wooden board. I measured this and cut up more strips to make a flush surface to glue the floor to.



With this I am now ready to lay down some glue and slap some plywood on the flat, even surface frame. I made the best of the rain and went out to get a HF trailer tongue jack with a wheel. Installation was a bit annoying since the provided bolts were hilariously long. They poke out about 4 inches, and the threads end before the nut could tighten at all! I went back to Menard's and bought some 2-1/2'' bolts. They are 7/16''. After this modification I am quite pleased with the jack. I don't need to use a 5 gal bucket to hold up the tongue anymore.

Finally I spent some time cleaning up my cluttered workbench and saw-dusty table saw. Now I have a clean workspace to work with.

I'm hoping to get some plywood tomorrow and start on the actual floor.

[dvdpeiro]

I went to Home Depot today to buy plywood. They had plenty of ~1/8'' plywood (2.7mm actually) so I bought 9 sheets: 2 for each wall, one for the floor underside, one for the inside headliner, a couple for the roof, and an extra one for mistakes and/or cabinet panels and whatnot. It was cheap-ish enough at $11 each. I also grabbed a 5mm sheet for the floor, since the 2.7mm seemed so thin, I was worried a knee might crack it or something despite the sandwich construction. I also got a 1/2'' sheet for cabinets and shelves and some furring strips of 1x2 and 1x4 to frame the floor and some of the walls. Here is the trailer loaded up and everything clamped down:



Then once I got home, I put the leveling frame back on the trailer and lay a sheet of 1/8'' on top. It did not line up perfectly, so I measured corner diagonals and the trailer was about 1/4'' off square. A couple wacks with a mallet on the right corner brought it close to square. I hope once the drop is on it, it will either not move anymore, or it won't matter!

Once it lined up well, I put down some glue on the leveling frame I made yesterday, and put down the sheet of plywood. Weighing it down with some heavy stuff and clamp along the edges, using a 1x4 on each long side to apply even clamping pressure:


Here you can see how I did it. Bottom pine is the "leveling frame", on top is a layer of glue and the 1/8 ply, on top of that I threw down the 1/2'' sheet to distribute the weight and allow me to put plenty of it on, and above that is the 1x4 going down the long side of the trailer.


I let it sit like this overnight to give it the best chance to bond properly. Tomorrow I hope to build the floor inner frame, get some 3/4'' insulation and put it in and then throw on the top layer of 5mm plywood to have a completed floor structure.

[Bezoar]

You are off to a good start - will look forward to watching your progress!

[dvdpeiro]

This morning I cut out the inner frame for the floor. Here is a pic of the glue-up for the long side rails (the boards going across are just for spacing right now):



When the glue had dried up, I took off the floor from the trailer and put it on the ground. There I clamped the two studs on the ends of it to create a giant frame all the way around. With the empty trailer, I went to Menard's in search of some rigid foam board insulation. I took a scrap piece of the studs I am using to make sure the foam is the right thickness. This was a great idea since the pink boards with the panther were probably exactly 3/4'' thick, while my 1x2's were probably a bit under that. They had some cheaper polystyrene boards that matched my thickness just right and still had a similar R-value to the pink ones (3). Here they are loaded up on the trailer when I got back home:



Now I thought I would think ahead and decide about where I would like to place the division for the galley and the cabin foot box so I could add some reinforcement to the floor frame to screw into later on. I placed the big cooler on there and made a decision on the location. Turns out the cooler will take up a fair amount of room so I will probably only get to have a couple drawers under the counter. I made this rough sketch:



And here you can see how I reinforced the wall support on the frame. I found some scrap plywood that goes over the steel frame cross member and overhangs enough for me to screw the wall into.



This is the insulated floor, I cut the foam with a utility knife. It was pretty easy.



Now it's starting to look like something!

To end the day I took all the foam and cross members off, and applied liberal amount of glue on their underside, then placed them and the foam back in, and then I globed on a lot of glue on top of the whole inner frame. I slapped the 5mm sheet of plywood on top of that and put on every clamp I own on the perimeter. Then every heavy item I could find went on top to clamp it down. Even some of my dad's irons from his collection...



Tomorrow I will remove all the stuff that's on top, and probably try to drill through and decide where to bolt it down to.

[dvdpeiro]

Yesterday I removed all the clamps and heavy objects. I looked at the floor and all its frames... And as I expected it was not quite a flush, square surface. You can see on this picture the protruding 1x2 around the plywood floor.



To alleviate this issue, I used my 1/2'' sheet of plywood as a straight edge and a circular saw to trim it closer to flush and square. I made sure to cut as little as possible, ideally not even touching the top 5mm plywood floor layer. Here is one of the setups and the result:



Then when all four sides were done, I slap it upside down on the trailer again to get ready to do the underside sealing



I went off to Harbor Freight to buy some canvas. They have drop cloths in different sizes that I will use for PMF (Poor Man's Fiberglass). I was originally going to PMF the whole underside, however, I was worried that the added thickness from the canvas would prevent the sub frame from snapping into position on the trailer. Furthermore, I read up on sealing the bottom and seems like most people don't go that far as it doesn't really get that wet, and if it does water does not pool on it. However I still needed to seal the edges of the floor as my wall will sit on top of it, leaving exposed plywood. I could cover it with the wall PMF later on, but it would not wrap under the trailer easily. Therefore I thought if I PMF the edges and the rails of the sub-frame, I could overlap later on and have a decent seal around the plywood edges. That is what I am going with, we will see how it turns out...

Here I lay out the canvas and cut out straps of it to go around the edges:



Slowly I applied Titebond II on the edges and the top rail of the frame and stretch the canvas on. I also cut slits on the bolt clearance holes to form fit better around them:


Today I finished up the canvas job by doing the short ends of the floor and applying glue on top of the canvas to size it. I only did this on the top (trailer frame side) as the sides will get glue when wall PMF goes on and overlaps. I considered black beauty asphalt fence paint, but my tractor supply was far so I went with this white elastomeric roof coating from Menard's that I saw recommended on a few threads here



This is what it looks like. I ended up doing three coats on the plywood, sub-frame, and top sides of the canvased corner



I just brought it inside to cure overnight as the instructions say not to let it get under 60F for 24h. I think that has more to do with dew or exposure to elements as it is a roofing sealant, but better safe than sorry and it's not heavy!



Tomorrow I hope it is dry. I will put it on the trailer, and next steps are to find the bolting locations, drill the holes and countersinks, and apply some floor varnish I bought at Menard's also.

[noseoil]

Looks like you're off to a good start. Should be a good build & plenty of fun for towing & camping. It's nice to have a dry place to camp when the wind is blowing & there's rain moving in. Going to keep following the build, best of luck!

[dvdpeiro]

It's been a couple days but I am busy with school, I have kept chipping away at the drop. Here is my progress so far...

The underside was dry, and looks great. I flipped the floor over and slapped it on the trailer to mark the bolt hole locations. I was going to only do 4 bolts, but the frame already had three holes on each cross member, so it was not that much work to put in 6. Plus I already had the hardware anyway so it didn't add cost either. Once the holes were marked, I flipped the floor, put a backer board under it to avoid chipout and drilled the holes. Flip the floor one last time, and put it on the trailer. Some of the holes had pretty bad tear out anyway, but with a chisel I cut around the tearing veneer to avoid it getting worse. Trying to put the bolts in, 3 fit and 3 had alignment issues with the frame. I just shoved the same drill bit and pushed until it drilled the holes at a slight angle and fit fine. Now I could varnish. I used varathane floor varnish and did two coats. I made sure to drip a bunch down the holes to try and coat them to prevent moisture getting in, even though it seems unlikely that would happen. I taped around the edges with 1'' tape to keep it bare wood and glue down the walls later on.



This is the hardware I used to bolt the floor down. 3/8 carriage bolts, washer, nut, and pronged carriage bolt washers. This is how it looks like after I pound the washer on the hole.



This is the bolt from the other side. I used some blue thread locker to prevent them from coming loose. the nuts don't ever get "tight" as they just compress and flex the woof and plywood on top, so I just made it pretty snug.





Then I cut lay out the profile of the teardrop on an 1/8'' sheet of plywood. The galley is a 48'' radius and the front is a 24''. I made the pencil marks with a ratchet strap since it is not stretchy. I just tied a pencil to it and had someone hold the other end with their finger. A jigsaw was used to cut the shape and I went slow and got nearly zero tear out. I am quite pleased.



Then I drilled some pocket-holes for the bottom of the frame. This will be used to attach the wall to the floor later on. This board is then glued to the bottom of the plywood with a couple clamps.




Finally, while that dries, I started on the 48'' radius frame. Plywood is so expensive right now I decided not to go with the skeletonized plywood frame. I think it would have been way easier, but it is what it is and to keep cost down, this is how I'm doing it.


Here it is with some pocket holes and glue to hold it together before gluing it to the plywood.



I will keep working on the frame...

[dvdpeiro]

I have done quite a bit of work on the last few days. Here is a quick recap:

I traced the curve on the frame I made and rough cut it on the band saw. Here is how it looks after that, and gluing it down



the small radius I framed using this small piece of plywood scrap I had. Worked great and I actually got enough in there to make the small curve frame for the other wall. You can see how I used the cut-off as a caul



And here is the rest of the frame glue up



Next, I positioned the door where I wanted it, and framed around it. This was kind of tricky and I had to use some creative clamping methods



While that dired, I cut , fitted, and glued a support to screw the footboard/galley later on



When that was dry, I flipped it over and used a flush trim bit on my router to make the frame match the plywood skin



Here I fit the door to make sure it goes in nicely. I had to trim a bit off of some spots but now it goes in alright.



Now on to make the second wall. It should be easier with the first one as a template. First the bottom board with pocket holes, next I used a rather small (probably 18'' square) piece of plywood scrap to make the large radius frame. This worked great as I could trace it on the first wall and cut on the bandsaw and make the angles fit perfectly. With wood being so expensive right now this was a great way to cut cost since I am running low on lumber...



Speaking of lumber, I ripped the second 2x4 I had bought into 1x2's. These came out super straight and have nice sharp crisp corners. Much nicer to work with than the 1x2's I bought...



When the second wall was framed completely, I used the first one to trim the shape. I clamped it on to the trailer, but apparently not well enough, as when I was almost done routing, the walls slipped and I cut a gouge into one....
In retrospect, It would have been really nice to cut out the shape on a template plywood sheet that was at least 1/4''. Using a flush trim bit on the 1/8'' ply is really quite hard since the bearing can only be half on the wood... But with prices of lumber that is not possible this time around.



Fear not, I fixed it with a piece I traced, cut at the bandsaw and sanded to size. I laminated the 1/8'' ply onto some 3/4' ply, but on the wrong side, so now the wood color doesn't match... Oh well.



Finally, today I put the walls side by side and gave them two coats of varnish. Looking good and making good progress!



Next up I think I need another sheet of 3/4 to make the galley hatch frame. If so, I will get it before erecting the walls. I think I can get away without buying a full sheet, but I want to get a good price for the wood, and full sheets seem to be the best value by far. We'll see...

[dvdpeiro]

It has been a minute since my last post, but I have been quite busy with school lately. I also went on a climbing trip across the country, but more on that later. Nevertheless, I have made quite a bit of progress on this TD.

With the walls finished, I was ready to glue them on! First step was remove the tape on the edges of the floor. This worked perfectly to keep varnish off of the gluing surface.



Then I applied some glue to the bare wood stripe, and plopped a wall on there. I used a scrap piece of the 1/8'' plywood to offset the wall in to allow space for the outside sheet to be glued later on. The pocket screws worked well to clamp down the walls and hold it in place. It wound have been nice to have one of those pocket hole clamps to prevent it from shifting, but at $40 each I had to pass... I managed to screw it in place without it drifting too badly with normal clamps, positioning it a bit too close and letting the screw pull it into place, and screwing the middle first helped make alignment easier.



Then when both were up, I tied them together with some pre-cut studs I had made.







I let it sit like this for the long memorial day weekend while I went on a climbing trip to Red Rock, near Las Vegas. It was my first time there and first time climbing outside of the Midwest. What a great experience, there is nothing quite like climbing 1100ft of sandstone in the middle of the desert. It was quite an adventure, including us getting lost in the dark on dangerous steep hike back to the car. We didn't make it back until after midnight, without water! Here are some pictures of the upper pitches of the climb. You can see my partner leading pitch 5 or 6 in the first picture, and a cool rock bridge on pitch 7.



Back home, I continued framing the roof. I ripped a 2x4 and that gave me all the wood I needed in 1x2 size. I made the spacing work for my window and fan roof vent. I put the door as high up as I could without going into the radiused part of the roof. A bit low still but it'll do.



Then I made some holes on the front to allow for wiring to come through and out of the underside. The wall will only be an inch thick, but the existing holes on the frame are in 3/4'' from the edge, meaning that the holes would end up being visible from the inside... I decided to drill them at an angle. This worked OK, if a little sloppy. It will get covered up by the wall, and I only have to feed the cabling in once, so hopefully it will work alright. Here is the drill bit at the angle needed. And then poking out from the underside.



I glued a stud with pre-drilled holes that line up with the slanted holes.



Here it is with roof mostly framed



Next, I wanted to start on the galley. I will size it around the cooler. I found a piece of random scrap plywood 1/2'' that fit the base of the cooler perfectly. I will use this to make a drawer for the cooler to pull out from under the counter.



Here I mock the layout with spacers to see how much height I needed for the couter



Then I cut the piece of 1/2'' ply and screwed it in place with lots of pocket hole screws



Next I need to make the countertop and galley wall

[tony.latham]

Turns out the cooler will take up a fair amount of room so I will probably only get to have a couple drawers under the counter. I made this rough sketch:

You might ditch the monster cooler and use that green Coleman Steel cooler. Ours is good for three to four days. The super coolers --in my opinion-- are just too big for a teardrop galley. Especially in a 4'wide 'drop.



It's a thought.

Tony