Good day from Nerdsville CA

[nuke]

A hearty good day to you all from the gut of Silicon Valley (Mountain View). I found this site while searching for a good way to live for a week and a half in the desert without renting an RV, and a Teardrop seems pretty close to ideal for that purpose. I just got a hitch receiver installed on my trusty 2000 VW GTI VR6, and I'm in the scheming phase now, trying to figure out the details for what I want to build and how I'm going to do it. I've been scouring the forums as much as possible, but there's a lot here, and I'm only slowly soaking it up.

I do have a first question, so I'll go ahead and ask it. Has anyone built a teardrop that is easily removed from the underlying trailer (say like a RedTrailerSJ-8531), so that the latter can still be used to haul other things around? The only vehicle I have is my abovementioned car, and I'd like to be able to use the trailer to haul plywood and lumber when I'm not out camping. If so, what did you do to facilitate that?

Thanks, and look forward to lots of (hopefully not terribly) stupid questions from me.

[Nitetimes]

.... and I'd like to be able to use the trailer to haul plywood and lumber when I'm not out camping. ......

Need supplies for the new computer???

Welcome aboard. It's been done but they generally don't get removed after they get built.

[satch]

"Facilitate"?, must be from Sili' Valley, but at least you are another Cali. Peaple around here have floated the idea of a removable deck, but I don't think it has been done. Your best bet is buy all the ply first, or "buddy up" with someone with a truck. btw WELCOME

[Miriam C.]

to the playground Nuke. It has been done and can be done but removing it might require some extra planning.


I have never found the TD I saw when I first started looking. They just hauled it off on to a porch. Another I remember had a frame set up like you use for a slide in truck camper.

Good luck with your search/build and remember to keep the bubble oil level.

[nuke]

"Facilitate"?, must be from Sili' Valley

Thanks for the welcomes. I'll be posting some preliminaries over in the 'Member Designs' forum here shortly.

[Dean_A]

Nuke,

I concur with Rich. From what I've seen on the board, It's been tried a couple times, but the eventual verdict is that it never really gets removed, so it wasn't worth the effort.

I think this is what you would call and "edge case". Personally, I've spent way too much time and effort designing and planning for oddball "what if" scenarios. Luckily, I (usually) come to my senses before I start cutting. Ask yourself how often you will really be hauling lumber, and if it's worth the additional engineering challenges/time/cost etc. It might be easier to just make friends with someone with a pickup truck

If you still want to go ahead, you might look at the idea of a modular, removal rack that fits into fiitings on the frame, like you see in the backs of contractors p/u trucks. Of course, I'm not an engineer, so this might be a REALLY bad idea.



Good luck and keep us posted!
--Dean

[starleen2]

Our first design was removable but it was too much of a hassle to do it and usually ended up more effort than time.

[Gage]

Something like this?

[Mike C.]

Hi nuke,


Welcome to the forum. Looks like you've already received some great answers, but it may not be what you wanted to hear. Since designing a teardrop is kind of freestyle thing, maybe you could come up with a new and different way of doing things, and make it work for you. Just remember, as you design and build, to post lots of pictures, because it keeps Aunti's bubble oil level.


See you around.