Granite State Newbie

[nhstt]

Hi all,
My names is Karen. My boys Will(12) and Dan(10) and I will be building this Teardrop, with a little help from my husband, Gordon. I've started a handwritten journal containing useful info to me and been looking at lots of postings for a while now. A little personal history, I'm a kitchen designer at Lowe's with lots of camping experience. I've never had a teardrop before but have had 2 Westfalia's, a cox tent trailer and a wonderful 1950's era blue and silver Shasta which I left in California when I moved here permanently in 2001. Design wise I've always loved the teardrop form. Plus it will be just what we need to pull behind my 2003 Subaru Forester. My husband is a reluctant camper and I hope this will be better than tent's for him. Because
I'd like to get this finished to use this summer I've decided to keep the design as simple as possible. The boys and I have christened this project the K.I.S.S. teardrop-keep it small and simple!!!!!!! I've been sketching out design's for a while now, and hope to move on to sketchup in the next week. I'm also going to make a mockup out of fridge boxes with the boys. No garage so will be doing some work in the basement, then on hold til spring. somethings already decided. 1) no aluminum 2) simple galley 3) Harbor trailer 4x8 folding trailer as base 4) 3/4" plywood sides with insulation only in the roof 5) need to keep the weight down!!!! 6) painted finish with Rhinohide or similar product under everything 7)roof rack for at least one kayak 2 doors with windows for ventilation 9) marine solar roof vent 10) eyebrows over doors 11) boxy design with straight hatch to speed things up. and last but not least I will model it after a 1958 Scotty teardrop I saw in a tearjerker gallery, License plate AW-63810. Wish me Luck!

[Roly Nelson]

Hi Karen, welcome to the board. Wow, it looks like you have already touched a bunch of bases, with all that info. I agree with most of what you have written, but in my humble opinion, in order to keep is light, I feel that 3/4 inch sides is a bit overkill. Others may not agree, but mine are all made out of 1/4 inch. I suggest you down-scale to 1/2 inch. I see that Harbor Freight has a 4 x 8 foldable trailer on sale, marked down from $320 to $270 and it has a 950 lb capacity, which should be more than enough. Go to Harborfreight.com and check it out. Good luck on your build, and good for you, making a cardboard model first.
Roly, the li'l ol' So Calif woody guy.

[Greg M]

I'll second Roly here. My first trailer had 3/4" ply sides, and it's much heavier than it needs to be. Number 2 has 1/2" sides and it is much lighter and just as rigid. The curve of the roof and the bulkhead to the galley make for an amazingly strong structure.
Welcome aboard, and have fun.

-Greg

[Vedette]

Hi Karen
Welcome to the Forum.
Glad to here you have a plan.
My first advice is always to "Stick to the plan"....BUT, please consider a 5' wide you won't regret it.
There is lots of information here to help you complete your project and make it a fun piece of camping equipment.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[Mary C]

Welcome to the forums!!! I am new somewhat. I have a very little car as a tow vehicle and I plan to make a foamie in order to keep the weight down. I probably wont have everything to put it together till May but thats ok I am patient. Good luck with yours and I hope to be reading about your kiss build!!

Mary C.

[nhstt]

Roly, Thanks so much for your incites, Your trailers are beautiful. I love the stack able tear! How many have you completed? Some questions please, based on a thinner 1/2 inch build and keeping in mind simple, is there a do-it yourself plan you recommend . Thanks for the Harbor update -that's next on my list after the propane get's paid-first thinks first! I wanted to do a simple varnish on ply when I first started researching but was afraid I would not get a neat finished waterproof seal at the seams. It looks like your pine trim on the 1/2 Nelson is decorative and that everything was sealed first. If so, I'd love to go back to this if possible. Any good posts on seams you can direct me to? I would love to see the early posts on the Nelson, can only find 4 on. Karen

[nhstt]

Thanks Greg,
I guess it's 1/2" Any other tips? Karen

[nhstt]

Thanks Greg,
I guess it's 1/2" Any other tips? Karen


So long and thanks for all the fish-Douglas Adams

[nhstt]

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[nhstt]

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[nhstt]

Thanks Brian, Sandi And Mary C posting.php?mode=reply&f=40&t=54287#for the welcome. Karen

[Greg M]

Karen,
If you haven't looked at it yet, check out the Generic Benroy plans on the homepage, they're great. As mentioned above, you might want to think about going 5' wide. The ability to have a queen bed is luxurious if there's two of you.

-Greg

Remember; the trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

[Roly Nelson]

Hi Karen, if I remember correctly, the Granite State is where the Barre quarry is, right? Well I believe you get a bit more wet weather there than we get here in So Calif. I want to caution you, if you plan to build a woody that is to be protected with varnish, it's kind of like owning an old wooden boat. I sand and re-varnish my tear every spring, and so far it has 15 coats of spar varnish brushed on. (They don't last, since moisture and sunlight seem to wear the finish away). I have driven in hard rain for hours, with no problems. I'm sure many on this board prefer fiberglass and epoxy protection.

The pine trim on my 1/2 Nelson, is not just decorative. It covers all of the exposed ends of the cheap 1/4 inch lauan plywood that Lowes sells. None of it is sealed prior to installation, since I feel it is better to glue wood to wood, rather than gluing varnished wood to varnished wood, which fail to adhear each to the other. My tears are both kept within an enclosed building when not in use, which is why they are not adversely affected by sun and dew, (and ocasional rain).
No, I have only built 2 real teardrops, but have another on the drawing board. Do take the suggestion, that you review the complete plans that are available on this board. You can alter them to suit your design and likes.

By the way, one of the pluses of bulding 4 ft wide, is that it is cheaper, you waste less wood, is easier to park in a confined area, is probably lighter, and it forces 2 night-time users, to cuddle closer. For me, that is not a problem, since I do all my camping alone, dispite the fact that a teardrop is a real chick-magnet. Problem is, the supply of chicks over 80 years old, is rather slim. :-) I lost my camping companion, who was my sweet wife of 56 years, about 4 years ago, so most of my teardropping is done in my 6 ft long, 40 inch wide Stacker, which fits me just fine.

Now, get that propane bill paid, have that Harbor Freight trailer delivered and get on with the build.
Roly, the li'l ol' So Cal woody TD guy

[nhstt]

Hi Karen, welcome to the board. Wow, it looks like you have already touched a bunch of bases, with all that info. I agree with most of what you have written, but in my humble opinion, in order to keep is light, I feel that 3/4 inch sides is a bit overkill. Others may not agree, but mine are all made out of 1/4 inch. I suggest you down-scale to 1/2 inch. I see that Harbor Freight has a 4 x 8 foldable trailer on sale, marked down from $320 to $270 and it has a 950 lb capacity, which should be more than enough. Go to Harborfreight.com and check it out. Good luck on your build, and good for you, making a cardboard model first.
Roly, the li'l ol' So Calif woody guy.

Hi Roly, got a few more questions for you. I was looking at some of your photo of the under belly before you finished waterproofing and it looked like you had quite a bit of an over hang of the back of the frame. Did you use the smaller 4x4 trailer from harbor. If so I like to know how you liked it. I'm hoping to keep my weight down to the same 500 you've listed. Also if your using 1/4" is it birch or marine ply? With the folding trailer did you modify it? I've seen posts that talk about making it fixed and moving the axle . I need to keep this first attempt simple so we can use it this spring. Thanks for the patience and feed back. It's snowing again here, and I'm off to work, hope to go looking at trailers at the nearest H.F. on Tuesday. I'll call first to make sure their dug out.
Karen

[Roly Nelson]

Hi Karen, I'll try to answer your questions, so here goes. First, I beleive the 4x4 trailer HF has on sale is only 40 inches wide, and that is the one I used for my Stacker. However, my woody is built on the longer, 48 inch wide foldable trailer. The reason you see a bit more overhang past the rear of the trailer, is that I was told that the wheels should be 1/3 of the distance from the rear of the trailer, which worked out just great for me. I altered it to make it fixed, which was fairly simple to do, but didn't move the axle, just moved the trailer frame farther forward, which worked out fine. I have the silly notion that it is the ridgid wooden trailer unit that gives the teardrop it's strength, not a flimsy metal trailer.

Now in regards to the size and quality plywood, very few agree with my contention that 1/4 inch would work just fine, since many builders want a more substantial side wall and roof. To each his own. Regarding the quality, if I remember, the 1/4 inch lauan plywood I picked up from Lowes, was about 12 bucks a sheet at that time, 10 years ago. It is a bit more now, but not anywhere near what quality marine plywood costs. That plywood is very expensive and has higher inner core construction than ordinary, cheap lauan. I've been told that all plywood is laminated with waterproof glue, and there must be some truth to that, since I show no de-lamination of my ultra-cheap wooden sides or roof. However, my tears are well protected from the elements, and if yours is destined to be exposed to sun, snow, rain, etc, you better plan on a more substantial quality, not necessarilly top-quality marine plywood.
Roly ~~ Good luck, and keep in touch.