Advice on trailer vs teardrop
- Thread starter theboatlife
- Start date
daveh
Adventurer
I use an inexpensive plastic type tarp to cover it when we camp mostly just to keep it cleaner, but with the cover we’ve never had an issue with rain. I doubt there would be any issues though even without a tarp as the material is pretty heavy duty. As for wind, we’ve camped during some pretty windy weather and no problems other than the noise from the tarp.
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honda250xtitan
Active member
Any type of rocky trail mine turns into a 1500LB pogo stick. I still have dreams of bombing through sandy trails with it though. Forest trails are SLOW going lol. Don't wanna make all my beer foamy...I want to add on board air and then just air the tires down to like 12psi.
I spent about a year researching off-road trailers vs off-road teardrops. So many choices out there, wow! In the end, I decided to go with a trailer. We already have an eight-person tent that works well for the three of us (me, my wife and Gus The Wonder Dog and two of us get to sleep on cots) as well as our own camping kitchen setup and shower gear, so I don't really "need" the features of a tear-drop. The trailer will mainly be a camp cargo hauler. I will definitely take it off-road but nothing too crazy. We like to camp by ourselves in the wilderness rather than in formal campgrounds and there's plenty of room to do that out here in Oregon, especially once you get east of the Cascades.
After deciding on a trailer, I still had to work through a myriad of makers, choices and options, all of which quickly effect the bottom line. Some of these "options" are features that one would think would be standard for any off-road trailer, like bigger wheels and tires, a tongue box or an articulating hitch system. One would often be wrong. A lot of manufacturers even consider a spare tire and/or a mount to be options. These "options" add up so fast that looking at base prices is almost a waste of time.
Another major factor to consider was the shipping cost. One maker near the east coast told me it would cost $2,000 to ship his trailer to me. Yikes! That's money much better spent on the trailer itself or not at all, if possible imho.
And of course, I was concerned about weight. Like the OP, I drive a 2017 Jeep Wrangler JK 2-door with an automatic transmission and 3.73 gears. Tow rated to 3,500 pounds, but I don't intend to get anywhere near that. The problem with a JK is that even without the back seat, which I sold to a JKU owner a week after I bought it, there's very little room back there. For camping, I've been using a cargo rack that plugs into my trailer hitch but we were still well over capacity with all our gear. Hence, the need for the trailer.
So I decided to limit my search to the Pacific Northwest area since I live in Portland. It took a fair amount of digging, but I finally found an off-road trailer that I believe will work well for us. It's made by VMI, a small company in Bellingham, Washington, which is about five hours away. That's close enough that I can drive up there and bring the trailer home myself. It's their "most affordable" model, but of course after I added my "options" it came in well above the base price of $7K. Still way cheaper than a teardrop. Probably the best and most important feature is that it's made of marine grade aluminum with a dry weight of only 540 pounds. My options were a Lock n Roll hitch (sigh), a slide tray for my fridge, a dual battery 12V DC power system with an ARC charger (runs off the Jeep's alternator), a mounted spare tire (again, sigh), a receiver hitch on the back, rear stabilizer legs, paint and a roof rack. Should be available for pick up later this summer.
Is it perfect? Ha, I wish. Seems like all of these trailers and teardrops have their pros, cons and compromises unless you're prepared to throw a boat load of money at it (see the Patriot line). But I think it will work well for us, and I know Gus will love spending even more time on the trails than we do now. And who knows, maybe one day after he's passed on to doggie heaven, I might even splurge on a RTT.
After deciding on a trailer, I still had to work through a myriad of makers, choices and options, all of which quickly effect the bottom line. Some of these "options" are features that one would think would be standard for any off-road trailer, like bigger wheels and tires, a tongue box or an articulating hitch system. One would often be wrong. A lot of manufacturers even consider a spare tire and/or a mount to be options. These "options" add up so fast that looking at base prices is almost a waste of time.
Another major factor to consider was the shipping cost. One maker near the east coast told me it would cost $2,000 to ship his trailer to me. Yikes! That's money much better spent on the trailer itself or not at all, if possible imho.
And of course, I was concerned about weight. Like the OP, I drive a 2017 Jeep Wrangler JK 2-door with an automatic transmission and 3.73 gears. Tow rated to 3,500 pounds, but I don't intend to get anywhere near that. The problem with a JK is that even without the back seat, which I sold to a JKU owner a week after I bought it, there's very little room back there. For camping, I've been using a cargo rack that plugs into my trailer hitch but we were still well over capacity with all our gear. Hence, the need for the trailer.
So I decided to limit my search to the Pacific Northwest area since I live in Portland. It took a fair amount of digging, but I finally found an off-road trailer that I believe will work well for us. It's made by VMI, a small company in Bellingham, Washington, which is about five hours away. That's close enough that I can drive up there and bring the trailer home myself. It's their "most affordable" model, but of course after I added my "options" it came in well above the base price of $7K. Still way cheaper than a teardrop. Probably the best and most important feature is that it's made of marine grade aluminum with a dry weight of only 540 pounds. My options were a Lock n Roll hitch (sigh), a slide tray for my fridge, a dual battery 12V DC power system with an ARC charger (runs off the Jeep's alternator), a mounted spare tire (again, sigh), a receiver hitch on the back, rear stabilizer legs, paint and a roof rack. Should be available for pick up later this summer.
Is it perfect? Ha, I wish. Seems like all of these trailers and teardrops have their pros, cons and compromises unless you're prepared to throw a boat load of money at it (see the Patriot line). But I think it will work well for us, and I know Gus will love spending even more time on the trails than we do now. And who knows, maybe one day after he's passed on to doggie heaven, I might even splurge on a RTT.
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Well, Mike at VMI told me prices were about to go up when I ordered my trailer in May. I just took a look at their website and sure enough the Explorer's base price is now $8K as of June 1st. Wow, he wasn't kidding. Glad I ordered in May!
Outback/Intech256
New member
I have an InTech Pursue. Great product so far. I got it without the kitchen to save on weight. The wife prefers her own set up. I use an add-on tent for the kids. I think think it works well and I have a family of 5 with 2 dogs.
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There are also pop up teardops that have hard sides and most of those do have tent tops. I was going to build one but storage is an issue for us. Just going to have a 4x8, 3 foot tall box with a hinged top to tilt up, back to front, drop tent sides and front or place hard panels up.....not complicated and it slides on the utility trailer.
Come check out my shop in Rosenberg. We sell an awesome teardrop trailer and RTT's. We are local to you being in SouthEast TX
Our campers come stock with a awning that can have the awning room added for more space, changing, sleeping others, etc
We also can add an AC (Texas)
https://www.adventureupoverland.com/product-page/boreas-xt
Our campers come stock with a awning that can have the awning room added for more space, changing, sleeping others, etc
We also can add an AC (Texas)
https://www.adventureupoverland.com/product-page/boreas-xt
vintageracer
To Infinity and Beyond!
If DIY is such a great way to go why are there so many Poor Quality, Poorly Designed, Poorly Constructed, Half Finished home built DIY constructed trailers of all types & sizes out there out there on the road today and for sale tomorrow?
EVERY "DIY GUY" is a good builder and fabricator.
If you don't believe it just ask em!!!
Louisd75
Adventurer
I dunno... every vintage racer I know is a curmudgeony old guy who's convinced that his particular niche of interest is the best way. Paint with a broad brush much?
FWIW, EVERY manufacturer has had issues. Flipmachine had water issues on one of his early builds that resulted in return of the trailer for a refund. VMI had a failure where they mounted the Timbren Axleless suspension (I've had negative personal experience with the owner as well). Littleguy and SoCal/AT have had water intrusion issues. SoCal/AT has also had door warpage issues leading to bad seals. Camp Inn has had window leakage issues. InTech and Lead Dog are still fairly new but sooner or later problems will start cropping up.
I can't speak for others, but my main reason for DIY was to learn new skills, make exactly what I want, and have the knowledge to be able to fix the things that are inevitably going to crop up when dragging a trailer around off the beaten path. Trailer building isn't rocket science and I think that most people can build a good quality trailer that suit their needs.
vintageracer
To Infinity and Beyond!
Had to look that one up being an old guy not hip in the way of the world today!
Couldn't find it.
Now I know why.
https://www.spellchecker.net/misspellings/curmudgeony
Couldn't find it.
Now I know why.
https://www.spellchecker.net/misspellings/curmudgeony