Teardrop for motorcycle

[jimliston]

I know, I know. Prolly the wrong place to post this, but I gotta start somewhere. I want to build a teardrop type trailer to pull behind my Victory Vision. I need it wide enough and long enough and tall enough to sleep in somewhat comfortably. Loaded with gear it shouldn't be over 450 pounds with a tongue weight of about 20. I don't need a galley, but I do carry food and a cooler. Thought? BTW, I'm a cabinetmaker by trade and a fabricator by wanna be. So skill set are no problem.

[angib]

You sound like the exact person my latest design was done for: Pico-Light.



Andrew

[jimliston]

Well, now that's just impressive as can be. How did you do that? I spent a career designing and building cabinets with a carpenter's rule, a story pole and guts. What if I had a hatch like a traditional Teardrop that allowed me to store my gear and then have the whole inside to sleep in? Sadly, I haven't missed many meals in the 60 plus years so I need lotsa room. Preliminarily, I am figuring inside dimensions to be 39" wide, 76" long and 36" high. A roof vent, two doors with operable windows and screens and a shelf to put a small LCD TV on for late night movies. The frame will be ladder style out of 1-1/2 square mild steel tubing, gusseted at the corners. I have torsion assemblies for the wheels. For the floor, I'm going to sandwich an inch of foam between two pieces of 3/8" OSB. It will make a pretty tight torsion box out of the frame. For the walls and roof, I'm thinking 3/8" AB ply behind FPR with the framing out of actual 1"x2" alder and an inch of foam between the outside and the rotary oak 3/8" interior skin. I'll have to laminate the roof out of two pieces of ply to get the front end radius I want. I need to make the rear hatch watertight. I'll scurry over to the big boy teardrop to see how the pros do it. More later. Sorry, guys, you won't see any plans out of me. Just a carpenter's rule, a story pole and guts. Later

[Miriam C.]

You shouldn't need two pieces of 3/8 osb for the floor. Something thinner on the bottom will work. You will only be laying on the top.

You might also decide if osb off gasses or if it bothers you. I had to go back in and cover the floor with epoxy and then Shelac. Truthfully needed to cover it all with shelac especially the pine...........

[B52]

A good option for a torsion box floor is a hollow core door. That's what I used on my Bedroll Motorcycle Trailer (see album) and I believe Roly used one in his 1/4 Nelson. The Bedroll came in at 220# with 20# tongue wt. Just an idea. It works for me!