What is your favorite TD plans available for purchase/free?

[matphat]

As a new builder, I'm not very excited at the prospect of building without a plan or building from the back of someone else's napkin.

I'd like my first TD to be from a solid set of plans that have material and tools lists, some hand holding with the electrical, and as an added bonus if the planner had a YT channel that showed their process (I'm a very visual learner). I'm thinking of a 5x8 or 5x10.

So, given those general criteria (And ofcourse ignore it if you like), do any of you have a set of internet available plans you like?

I'm also looking for solid trailer fabrication plans while we are at it.

Thanks all!

Mat

[Tom&Shelly]

Think I'm "on the record" saying if we weren't 3/4 of the way done with ours when Tony Latham's book came out, we'd have gone with his design: https://www.tonylatham.net/building-a-teardrop-trailer.html

Think it meets most of the requirements you stated. The plans in the book are easy to follow. Since he's built it and camps in it, it's much more than the back of a napkin; it's a proven design. He has documented some of it in You Tubes. Best of all, he's right here to answer your questions.

If you have a large CNC router (I don't) he also has downloadable plans for that.

The book also has plans for the trailer.

Tom

[twisted lines]

Tony has it wrapped up !
Only other I have seen is the Wyoming woody!

[tony.latham]

You guys are too kind to that old goat.



But he does lurk here once in a while and is known to give advice.

Tony

[matphat]

Thanks all. Been looking at your plans Tony and this may be the push I needed ot go ahead and get them. My one problem is, with a full time career, 4 yr old, wife and house, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to finish the thing. What do you gents think is a reasonable amount of time to expect the build to take? I was estimating around 250-300 hours.

[twisted lines]

I was estimating around 250-300 hours.

Change the title

[tony.latham]

What do you gents think is a reasonable amount of time to expect the build to take?

I think every person works differently when building. But a teardrop is a much bigger project than most think. I'll say two to three months is reasonable. And I'm not talking about just weekends.



Tony

[friz]

What do you gents think is a reasonable amount of time to expect the build to take?

I think every person works differently when building. But a teardrop is a much bigger project than most think. I'll say two to three months is reasonable. And I'm not talking about just weekends.



Tony

Mine consumed all of my spare time for 6 months. Full time job. Some weekends lost to Kansas State football.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[bobhenry]

PLANS WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING PLANS

[tony.latham]

PLANS WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING PLANS

That's one of my old-time favorite movies. Especially since I used to carry a badge and of course, that's what the original narration was about: "Badges? We don' need no stinkun badges." Classic.

But don't you have a set of napkin plans you could post? Help this guy out?



Tony

[matphat]

PLANS WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING PLANS

Ha! Maybe not, but plans will make my time in the garage a lot more productive and less stressful. Having them means I get to hit the ground running every time I manage to squeeze an hour in. I've built structures without a plan, and they all came out...ok.

[Tom&Shelly]

We took three years in our build, but some of it was while we were both still working (though with Summers off) and we were learning as we went along. And there were other fairly large projects that intervened. So I won't hazard a guess about how long it took. It would take a lot less next time, and it would have taken a lot less if we were building to a proven design.

I designed ours based on advice in Steve Fredrick's "Building a Wooden Teardrop" shop manual (not a step by step guide, but a good general guide on how to design a teardrop, as well as chapters on how to epoxy, how to cut templates, etc.), along with advice from folks on this forum. A lot of it I had to design as we went along--like the mounting for the struts for the hatch, after the hatch was built--which added a lot of time to the build. A full fledged design was too much for my brain to handle in one fell swoop, particularly since I hadn't even seen a teardrop close up before.

Which brings to mind "Life is tough, but it's a whole lot tougher if you're stupid." --John Wayne (I thought, some on the interwebs disagree)

Tom

[pchast]

We spent 5+ months and there were little touches yet to do.
I'd say it was camp able within 3-4 maybe. There were weeks
with sickness and time waiting for parts or the money to buy
the next pieces...

Altogether a good time and it works well for me now.

[alaska teardrop]

You might also consider exploring the Member Design & Build Journal threads fo ideas.

[MickinOz]

I bought a boat trailer and started stripping the boat related bits on 25th August. It is now 15th January here, and the TD wouldn't be half done.
How many hours spent on the actual build? A hundred or so.
Hours spent looking for materials here in Oz? Un-bloody-countable.

I spent half of today looking for some 3mm plywood for the inside skin of the front curved section.
I'm building a generic benroy/rimple and I don't have anything left of suitable size that will curve that tight, so I figured I'd get some super thin and flexible stuff like I did last time.

The local supplier has a shelf marked 3mm luan, but the sheets are actually 4mm hardwood marine ply.
It's $115 per sheet , and stiffer than a honeymooner's you-know-what. Well, not flexible enough to get around the inside curve, anyway.
I swear it's the same sheets that were $74 two years ago when I started the first build.

I'd heard a rumour that the young fella who bought the other building supply place had branched out into timber (previously mostly steel, bricks, and concrete).
So I went to see him. Only got 17mm formply, so far.
I now have to travel a minimum of 100 miles or find an alternative approach.

So it's taking quite a while.
I don't spend whole days on it, even though I'm retired. Didn't touch it over Christmas, was really sick for 3 weeks.
Had to provide some post-op care to the missus, there's a grand-kid to baby-sit, a contractor son to provide casual technical support to, can't work when it rains, motorcycles to be ridden, rifles to be sighted in, boats to be floated, etc.
It all adds up. Just pick up a tool every time you go past the garage/work area and do something. Eventually it'll come together.