New guy from Orange Co. CA

[StanDahl]

I've always been a tent camper and enjoy tent camping, but there are times when I'd like to just be able to pack up and leave with a minimum of fuss. My son and I go camping without the rest of the family a few times a year, and a teardrop would be nice and easy to set up and put up.

I've been toying with the idea of building or buying a teardrop for a few years now, and I recently had the good fortune to camp with Doug Hodder and some fellow Coleman enthusiasts and I was able check out his American Voyager up close. That experience made me think that there was no way I could build my own - it was like looking at a Rolls Royce! After looking over some of the build journals here, I realized that they weren't all as upscale as his are and with some advice, I could do this.

I have a decent amount of woodworking experience and tools, but no welding skills. As soon as I get a custom chassis going at a local shop, I'll be looking forward to putting out a build journal so I can benefit from the experts advice here. I've been scouring the site for tips on building my own, I can't decide on a Benroy or something less practical and more, uh, curvy. I'd like to do it right the first time, if that's possible. I only plan on building one, but I can see that more than one of you seem to build one a year - I hope that's not contagious!

I know another guy on the forum who's more local to me, I think he goes by "The Country Squire" here. I see that there are quite a few of you in my local area, I look forward to meeting some of you and comparing notes.

John

[cuyeda]

To see a variety of teardrops all in one place, you might consider visiting the Lake Perris teardrop rally event in March. You can order full size profile patterns from Grant. Full size profiles takes the guess work out of getting the initial shape.

Cut, or trace the pattern on to a piece of plywood and cut! You now have the sides walls. The pattern will also provide suggestions for basic cabinet placement. You can easily make your own profile. Steve Frederick sells a nice CD detailing some his techniques for building your own teardrop. The information will provide a good overview of construction.

I live in Long Beach, just around the corner!

[canned o minimum]

Welcome ,John ! I'm in Riverside and cuyeda has jus given ya the BNEST advice EVER ! Come to the SCTT Teardrops only gathering at Lake Perris this March. You'll see MANY and varied designs and git lotsa info on buildin yer own !

If you have SUM knowledge and SUM tools.. you'll make one FINE teardrop trailer !

If one has the finances.. this teardrop trailerin IS addictive ! "I" would be buildin ANOTHER one right now if the finances were there !

It seems that jus about everthang to do with teardrops is addictive.. Coleman stuff, string lites,dutch ovens.. the list is limited ONLY by yer imagination.. as is the trailer!

Sum of us are headed to Parker,Az. this weekend fer the Arizona Roundup at Buckskin State Park.The Lake Perris Teardrops only gathering is THE BEST in So.Cal. and NOT to be missed by ANYBODY in So.Cal. !

[doug hodder]

John....glad to see that you "outed" yourself over here. Once people know you and you're not just lurking....you'll find much more info and you can ask away whatever you want. No one will think it's a dumb question, as we all had to learn at sometime or another. You'll have the benefit of not having to learn absolutely everything the hard way.

There's lots of ways to skin a cat so be prepared to think a lot of the answers through and make your best judgment for your needs based on your tools/ experience and budget. Most importantly...have fun!

There's also a group of "gas heads" in the vintage camping section, some you already know. Welcome aboard. Doug

[3822sean]

welcome to the forum

[StanDahl]

Thanks everyone, I'm looking forward to getting started, but I can't seem to find the time to get over to the trailer guy, and other stuff keeps getting in the way. My momentum has faded, but I've got winter break coming up, and that'll give me some time to obsess properly. I'm hoping to be started well before the March event, but that sounds like a "can't miss" opportunity.

I guess when I signed on, I didn't check some box that lets me know when there's a response to a post, so I forgot about this post until just a few minutes ago. (Okay, there it is, I see it below - I guess "notify" is not the default.)