Howdy All -
Thought I'd post a sorta "get acquainted" note before gettin' into all the questions I'm sure I'll have. Wife & I are retired, in our late sixties (she was a nurse & I was Air Force Air Traffic Controller for 20yrs & then a cop for 15yrs). Retired second time in '92 but both worked part time for several more years. Now we kinda do what we want most of the time except for providing "taxi service" for grandkids & great grandkids. We do considerable fishing & I hunt as often as I can when there's a season open. Married 45 years last June, two sons, 5 grandkids, 2 great grandkids, been camping in one form or another since our boys were very small. I've build a # of campers including P/U caps, Cabover P/U camper, & "rehabbed" one small camp trailer.
We currently "live" in a 32' 5th wheel that's parked under a shed on property we sold to our son & his family when we retired last time. We're just down the hill from their house & so have access to the shop, tools, advice, kibbitzing, etc. We have a Ford F-250 Diesel to pull the 5th wheel or a small travel trailer, & it carries an 8' Skamper pop-up cabover for most of my huntin' & fishin". Trouble is it don't get really great fuel mileage & diesel has gone "outta sight" along with gasoline. I have a small Nissan King Cab 4WD P/U that gets fair mileage & has a respectable tow rating (3500 lbs, 350 Tongue Wt) but I don't really want to deal with trailer brakes so I'm probably limited to around 1000 lbs or so.
That's where the teardrop comes in (I think). I'm thinkin' one of the small Harbor Freight trailers might be a good base if I decide to build one. This would be primarily for warmer weather camping and/or short trips, more me than us?? I "GOOGLED" Teardrop Trailers a few months ago, found as much or more info as I needed or could absorb, perused this site for several days, saw what appeared to be a lotta great, helpful folks, so I registered & here I be!
The idea of a neat, off the ground sleeping space along with a separate, outside kitchen area appeals greatly, & the various portable shelters appear to be just the ticket for days when the sun don't shine. One problem(?) for us is we're at the age where "getting up in the middle of the night" is often a necessity. I don't find that as much of an inconvenience as does my wife. For her, we have a small "porta potti" in the Skamper that could also be used with a teardrop but one issue here is privacy (& room?). I've seen that some folks use one of the extremely light weight, pop-up type hunting blinds as a dressing room. Would one of these, set up just outside a door & containing the porta potti, be a workable solution?
Sorry for such a long 1st post. I expect I'll be back with lots more questions if/when I get into the project.