Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
This is a build thread I'm starting on our little homebuilt teardrop trailer, nicknamed "bubbles" (thanks to some of the good folks here on ExPo for the name!)
[EDITED 06/24/13 to add "DONE"
]
Some of you have probably seen my other posts, but for the benefit of those who might not, I'll start at the beginning:
Part 1: The beginning:
Back in January of 2012, my wife and I were talking about what we wanted to accomplish in the upcoming year, what we wanted to do differently, etc. I mentioned that I'd like us to go camping together. We had last "camped out" together at a KOA, staying in a cabin, in 2009. And the last time we went camping at a primitive campsite was in 2007 using the truck I owned then, a 2004 Tacoma.
I had continued to camp after 2009 but Liz didn't come with me because she didn't really feel comfortable sleeping in the small confines of the bed of my truck. And when I sold the truck and got a 4runner in the Summer of 2009, that made camping for two even more restricted (although it works fine for one person.)
The real issue is that at our age (50) we don't really like sleeping on the ground in a tent, and we don't need/want a big camper.
So we started exploring ways that we might be able to camp out. We thought about getting a tent trailer, but the ones that were within our sub-$2000 budget were in pretty bad shape. Also we wondered about how unpleasant it might be to set up/take down in the middle of a rainstorm or heavy wind, and finally there was the issue of wind causing the sides of the tent to flap and generally make noise.
So then Liz suggested a Teardrop Trailer. I had seen pictures of teardrops but didn't know much about them. Liz, however, knew someone at a previous job who was very much into teardrops.
I started scanning Craigslist and we immediately found a couple of factory built trailers that were tow-able, but needed a little interior TLC from the pics, and both were in our budget. Unfortunately, they were also located several hundred miles away in New Mexico.
But then, by chance, I just happened to see a listing for a home built teardrop in Glenwood Springs, CO, just 3 hours away. Although I was somewhat skeptical of getting someone else's home built, the builder sent us links to YouTube videos he'd posted of the build. So we thought it looked decent. His price was a tad high, at $1800, but we also noticed he had been listing it since November, so we figured we could dicker him down a bit.
On a weekend in mid-January, we loaded up the 4runner and headed up the mountains to Glenwood. We met with the builder, a very nice young guy who is an amazing woodcraftsman. He builds electric guitars, gorgeous ones, and had several half-finished guitars on the wall of his shop. We checked out the Trailer and Liz was immediately smitten - the trailer was an absolutely gorgeous work of art.
I was mainly interested in making sure it was structurally sound, and it certainly appeared to be. So we negotiated a bit and finally settled on a price of $1450, which we thought was fair. Got her hooked up to my 4runner and headed down the mountain.
Here she is at a rest area off of I-70.
We got her home and started figuring out how we were going to use her.
We were impressed by a lot of things: The workmanship that was put into the wood work, the fact that it had nice amenities like an air conditioner and a music system we could attach an iPod to, an exterior (shore) power connection, and so on.
After we named her "Bubbles", Liz and I immediately set out to decorating it, and since Liz is an avid fly fisher, she went with a "fish" theme. We also wanted lots of colors and textures in it, to make it fun inside and out.
We took 6 trips with Bubbles in 2012, and I won't re-iterate them since I already posted other threads on those subjects.
However, as much fun as Bubbles was, we came to the realization that she was badly in need of some modification and repair.
The specific problems were:
1. Watertightness. She leaked from her hatch into the sleeping compartment, due to the placement of a hole for the power cord to the stereo, that allowed water to drip from inside the galley (kitchen area on the back of the trailer) directly onto Liz's sleeping bag! The leaking was caused by inadequate weatherstripping on the galley hatch, as well as the cheap Home-Depot type piano hinges used for the galley hatch itself. This was temporarily fixed with additional weatherstripping but the problem of the drain hole into the sleeping compartment still exists.
2. Ventilation: Bubbles has two round portholes with screens that open up, but no other ventilation. Of course, she has an air conditioner, but to our surprise, the air conditioner didn't work. It would power up just fine, but the fan never blew. We didn't know if this was due to inadequate power at the campsite or a defective AC but without the AC it simply got too stuffy in there with two people sleeping. Not only that, the portholes are about halfway down the height of the body meaning that moist air that gets trapped at the top of the sleeping compartment has nowhere to go and this leads to condensation forming on the ceiling.
3. Height: The builder used a thick Dayton (mobile home) axle and put it in a spring-over-axle design. As a result, the "galley" platform is nearly unusable as it sits nearly 4' off the ground. Basically it's chest-height to me and almost neck-height to my wife, making it rather useless as a cooking platform (look at the picture above, the deck of the galley is at her shoulder height!) The height also requires me to run a raised trailer hitch and even so, the trailer leans downward.
4. Wheels: While the Dayton axle is rugged and robust, it requires oddball wheels that have no hub. The wheel mounts directly to the axle hub with wedges. According to some on the TNTTT.com website, these wedges are prone to loosening, and so require a lot of attention keeping them tight. Not only that, with no hub, there's no practical way to mount the spare tire, so I ended up carrying that on the roof rack of my tow vehicle.
5. Weight: Most factory built Teardrops weigh in at between 600 and 800lbs dry. Bubbles weighs 1115 lbs dry with a tongue weight of 205 lbs (18%.) For this reason alone, I decided to sell my 1999 4runner and get a 2007 instead for its more powerful engine and better towing ability. Much of the weight, IMO, is due to the very heavy Dayton axle.
6. Electric power: The shore power connection causes water to leak into the body of the trailer (and subsequently into the passenger compartment as described above) and is difficult to access. Also, all it does is allow 120v power when we are at a developed campsite - there is no provision for battery power.
With all that in mind, we have finally begun the work on the New! Improved! version of our trailer, which I am calling Bubbles v. 2.0! :elkgrin:
To be continued...
[EDITED 06/24/13 to add "DONE"
]Some of you have probably seen my other posts, but for the benefit of those who might not, I'll start at the beginning:
Part 1: The beginning:
Back in January of 2012, my wife and I were talking about what we wanted to accomplish in the upcoming year, what we wanted to do differently, etc. I mentioned that I'd like us to go camping together. We had last "camped out" together at a KOA, staying in a cabin, in 2009. And the last time we went camping at a primitive campsite was in 2007 using the truck I owned then, a 2004 Tacoma.
I had continued to camp after 2009 but Liz didn't come with me because she didn't really feel comfortable sleeping in the small confines of the bed of my truck. And when I sold the truck and got a 4runner in the Summer of 2009, that made camping for two even more restricted (although it works fine for one person.)
The real issue is that at our age (50) we don't really like sleeping on the ground in a tent, and we don't need/want a big camper.
So we started exploring ways that we might be able to camp out. We thought about getting a tent trailer, but the ones that were within our sub-$2000 budget were in pretty bad shape. Also we wondered about how unpleasant it might be to set up/take down in the middle of a rainstorm or heavy wind, and finally there was the issue of wind causing the sides of the tent to flap and generally make noise.
So then Liz suggested a Teardrop Trailer. I had seen pictures of teardrops but didn't know much about them. Liz, however, knew someone at a previous job who was very much into teardrops.
I started scanning Craigslist and we immediately found a couple of factory built trailers that were tow-able, but needed a little interior TLC from the pics, and both were in our budget. Unfortunately, they were also located several hundred miles away in New Mexico.
But then, by chance, I just happened to see a listing for a home built teardrop in Glenwood Springs, CO, just 3 hours away. Although I was somewhat skeptical of getting someone else's home built, the builder sent us links to YouTube videos he'd posted of the build. So we thought it looked decent. His price was a tad high, at $1800, but we also noticed he had been listing it since November, so we figured we could dicker him down a bit.
On a weekend in mid-January, we loaded up the 4runner and headed up the mountains to Glenwood. We met with the builder, a very nice young guy who is an amazing woodcraftsman. He builds electric guitars, gorgeous ones, and had several half-finished guitars on the wall of his shop. We checked out the Trailer and Liz was immediately smitten - the trailer was an absolutely gorgeous work of art.
I was mainly interested in making sure it was structurally sound, and it certainly appeared to be. So we negotiated a bit and finally settled on a price of $1450, which we thought was fair. Got her hooked up to my 4runner and headed down the mountain.
Here she is at a rest area off of I-70.
We got her home and started figuring out how we were going to use her.
We were impressed by a lot of things: The workmanship that was put into the wood work, the fact that it had nice amenities like an air conditioner and a music system we could attach an iPod to, an exterior (shore) power connection, and so on.
After we named her "Bubbles", Liz and I immediately set out to decorating it, and since Liz is an avid fly fisher, she went with a "fish" theme. We also wanted lots of colors and textures in it, to make it fun inside and out.
We took 6 trips with Bubbles in 2012, and I won't re-iterate them since I already posted other threads on those subjects.
However, as much fun as Bubbles was, we came to the realization that she was badly in need of some modification and repair.
The specific problems were:
1. Watertightness. She leaked from her hatch into the sleeping compartment, due to the placement of a hole for the power cord to the stereo, that allowed water to drip from inside the galley (kitchen area on the back of the trailer) directly onto Liz's sleeping bag! The leaking was caused by inadequate weatherstripping on the galley hatch, as well as the cheap Home-Depot type piano hinges used for the galley hatch itself. This was temporarily fixed with additional weatherstripping but the problem of the drain hole into the sleeping compartment still exists.
2. Ventilation: Bubbles has two round portholes with screens that open up, but no other ventilation. Of course, she has an air conditioner, but to our surprise, the air conditioner didn't work. It would power up just fine, but the fan never blew. We didn't know if this was due to inadequate power at the campsite or a defective AC but without the AC it simply got too stuffy in there with two people sleeping. Not only that, the portholes are about halfway down the height of the body meaning that moist air that gets trapped at the top of the sleeping compartment has nowhere to go and this leads to condensation forming on the ceiling.
3. Height: The builder used a thick Dayton (mobile home) axle and put it in a spring-over-axle design. As a result, the "galley" platform is nearly unusable as it sits nearly 4' off the ground. Basically it's chest-height to me and almost neck-height to my wife, making it rather useless as a cooking platform (look at the picture above, the deck of the galley is at her shoulder height!) The height also requires me to run a raised trailer hitch and even so, the trailer leans downward.
4. Wheels: While the Dayton axle is rugged and robust, it requires oddball wheels that have no hub. The wheel mounts directly to the axle hub with wedges. According to some on the TNTTT.com website, these wedges are prone to loosening, and so require a lot of attention keeping them tight. Not only that, with no hub, there's no practical way to mount the spare tire, so I ended up carrying that on the roof rack of my tow vehicle.
5. Weight: Most factory built Teardrops weigh in at between 600 and 800lbs dry. Bubbles weighs 1115 lbs dry with a tongue weight of 205 lbs (18%.) For this reason alone, I decided to sell my 1999 4runner and get a 2007 instead for its more powerful engine and better towing ability. Much of the weight, IMO, is due to the very heavy Dayton axle.
6. Electric power: The shore power connection causes water to leak into the body of the trailer (and subsequently into the passenger compartment as described above) and is difficult to access. Also, all it does is allow 120v power when we are at a developed campsite - there is no provision for battery power.
With all that in mind, we have finally begun the work on the New! Improved! version of our trailer, which I am calling Bubbles v. 2.0! :elkgrin:
To be continued...
Last edited:
