"TrailTop" modular trailer topper building components

[ottsville]

Once you are offering the pieces, it's no big deal to offer a package for a certain design trailer.

Are you licensing the product and getting royalties per piece or are you selling the design? If you are getting royalties per piece then I would consider maximizing your return by letting one licensee do just trailer kits and another do just parts.

A kit is pretty marketable right now, but for me I would prefer individual pieces since I can design and scale what I want, from a 5'x6.5' sleep box to a 6'x9' teardrop.

 

[jscherb]

Once you are offering the pieces, it's no big deal to offer a package for a certain design trailer.

Are you licensing the product and getting royalties per piece or are you selling the design? If you are getting royalties per piece then I would consider maximizing your return by letting one licensee do just trailer kits and another do just parts.

A kit is pretty marketable right now, but for me I would prefer individual pieces since I can design and scale what I want, from a 5'x6.5' sleep box to a 6'x9' teardrop.

Terms are undetermined at this point but they're not important to me - I don't do these projects for the money. I'm much more interested in finding a company that will do a good job with the parts than I am with what I get out of it.

Unless the two companies can cooperate on manufacturing, I don't think it makes sense to have one do parts and one do kits - if both had to invest in their own molds and production the cost would go up for everyone.

 

[john61ct]

I think if doing this for the community, an Open Hardware approach would be best.

Open-source all the design / fab details for DIY makers, then anyone can put whatever they like on the market.

Zero proprietary ownership of the IP makes for a very competitive and dynamic market.

 

[jscherb]

I think if doing this for the community, an Open Hardware approach would be best.

Open-source all the design / fab details for DIY makers, then anyone can put whatever they like on the market.

Zero proprietary ownership of the IP makes for a very competitive and dynamic market.

Seems like I've almost done that by posting so much detail in this thread.

The challenge is making the molds for the parts so everything will fit together accurately, and molding the actual parts in a high quality way and at a reasonable cost.

 

[ITTOG]

Countertop space is always at a premium on the trail or in the campground, so here's something I designed recently to help with that problem. This works with pretty much any trailer or vehicle - it's a table that stores very compactly and sets up on a vehicle or trailer tire. Here it is set up on one of my trailers:

How did you seal the top door? I never saw you mention anything about it.

What clearance do you have from the ground to the bottom of your frame of the trailer?

What size are your wheels?

Great designs and products. You may have inspired me to learn fiberglass and try to repeat your efforts.

 

[jscherb]

How did you seal the top door? I never saw you mention anything about it.

What clearance do you have from the ground to the bottom of your frame of the trailer?

What size are your wheels?

Great designs and products. You may have inspired me to learn fiberglass and try to repeat your efforts.

The trailer rides on 30x9.50 tires, and there's 20" between the bottom of the frame and the ground.

The lid seals exactly the same way a Jeep hardtop seals to the tub. I shaped the top of the camper panels the same as the top of a TJ/YJ/CJ tub so TJ soft top retainer rails could be mounted on top for securing the pop-top canvas the same way a soft top secures to a Jeep tub. There's weatherstrip on the sealing surface on the bottom of the lid that rests on the top of the side panels, just like there is on the sealing surface of a Jeep hardtop.

This photo was taken during construction and shows the shape of the top of the panels and the TJ soft top retainer rails screwed in place:

A closer look at the shape of the top of a finished panel, if you're familiar with the top edge of a TJ/YJ/CJ tub you'll recognize this shape.

The pop-top has a plastic strip sewn in the bottom of the canvas panels, this strip slips underneath the soft top retainer rail on top of the sides so the bottom of the fabric is secured to the camper exactly in the same way a soft top is secured to a Jeep...

 

[ITTOG]

Sorry but I was talking about the door you added above the rear tailgate. In the vertical gap by the hinge and the opposite side. .

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[jscherb]

Sorry but I was talking about the door you added above the rear tailgate. In the vertical gap by the hinge and the opposite side. .

Sorry when you said "top" I thought you meant the pop top.

The rear door closes against a door jamb and and there's weatherstrip between the door and the jamb, nothing special about it. I don't have a photo of that detail, sorry.

 

[jscherb]

I did the long post the other day asking about interest in the kits and parts because I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to continue discussions with the parties that want to bring the TrailTop parts to market - if there isn't much interest or if there's interest but at an impossibly low price then it's not worth anyone's time to go any further. Thanks for your posts over the last few days, I think they indicate interest, but if you don't mind I'd like to see what people think kits and parts should sell for. Since there was interest in the TrailDog design and in individual parts I'll ask about those.

There are a bunch of parts in the two photos below, I'll ask about the longest straight pieces in the left photo and about the 90-degree curve in the right photo, those two are good samples to price. The straight piece is 8' long and can be cut to any length necessary, think of it like buying an 8' board at Home Depot that you're going to cut into pieces the sizes you need. The 90-degree curve can be seen at the front top of the teardrop in the left photos and could be part of any design someone might come up with. A 60-degree curve or a 30-degree would take the same amount of materials and labor to mold, so the 90 is as good as any other to do some price estimating on.

A TrailDog kit would consist of these parts:

• 6 - 60-degree corners
• 2 - 30-degree corners
• 4 - Curved fiberglass panels to match the corners above so the only panels the builder would supply would be flat 1/4" plywood
• Enough straight sections to complete the side frames

What do you suggest a TrailDog kit of all the pieces listed above should sell for?

Any suggestions for what the 8' straight piece and the a 90-degree curve might sell for?

Please try to be realistic, if someone says the TrailDog kit should cost $100 that's obviously not realistic, there is a non-trivial cost involved in molding the parts and covering the operating cost of whatever company produces and sells them. If it works out that your expectations of pricing are in line with what the cost of production plus a company's overhead+profit then I'll continue the conversations with the companies and maybe they'll decide to move forward and get the parts and kits into production.

 

[ITTOG]

These type of questions are always difficult to answer. Everyone wants the best deal possible so it is human nature to low-ball. But I would easily pay $1,000 for the TrailDog kit. Probably even $1,500.

I will think about it some more and see if I can come up with prices for the individual pieces.

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[Matt.H]

Jeff, or anyone, are any of you having problems seeing Jeff's photos? I just checked his "barn door" thread and I see the same little x-in-a-box in both threads.

Thanks.

Matt

ETA 1: Thanks. Cleared my cookies and restarted my computer. Now can see two of the thee last photos. Every other photo is not showing. His videos still show.

ETA 2: 11:35 PM I can see all but the last photo. No idea what happened. Sorry for clogging the thread.

 

[ITTOG]

Jeff, or anyone, are any of you having problems seeing Jeff's photos? I just checked his "barn door" thread and I see the same little x-in-a-box in both threads.

Thanks.

Matt

I can see them.

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[jgaz]

I’ll admit that I really don’t have a clue how much the trail dog kit would sell for.

I’ve never been good at pricing my labor or items I’ve made so I’m sure I would set the amount too low for a company to make money.

 

[screwball48]

I could see the Trail Dog kit being priced in the $2500-3500 range.


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[ITTOG]

I could see the Trail Dog kit being priced in the $2500-3500 range.


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I could see that too but I wouldn't pay that for it. It is just parts and requires a lot of work to make a trailer.

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