Father and Sons Build Too

[jeeper92]

Ok, so after 8 years of planning and waiting for the right time to build my Teardrop it has finally started. My wife gave the go ahead and we're off and running. I contacted an old High School football team mate through facebook and asked him if he could weld me up a trailer. He does good work and was a good friend, 20 years ago!! Well, tomorrow we are supposed to take delivery of it!! My sons and I are bouncing off the walls. Originally I planned on going 6x8......but it just stuck out too far of the Jeep TJ I am going to be towing it with. So we backed it down to 5x8. We are not going to build a traditional galley as I am 6'5 and my older son is 5'11 in 6th grade and space will be at a premium. We plan on adding a rooftop tent (hoping that my wife enjoys this thing) If she likes it the rooftop tent will be an easy sell to her. I settled on a pretty simple boxy design as I want it to match the boxiness of the Jeep.

We originally were going to do our own door but I chickened out (will do next time) the picture above is the original design. We scored the windows off of craigslist for $120!! I know this design is pretty plain but that's what I like about it. Our next one will be very similar but 5x10 with an angle on the back bottom. We ended up scrapping this as I didn't want to do the doors as far as sealing them.

 

[jeeper92]

More on the forst design

Its crazy I haven't camped one day in this thing and Ive already got a notebook full of ideas and mods for the next one. The picture below is the what the door looked like but I eventually went with a store bought one.....$300......what a waste.


So below is the design I settled on. We are going to go with one door and the other side will just be a giant window



Here's a picture from the inside. Lesson learned next time I will build much lighter.

 

[jeeper92]

Passenger side view and width

Heres a shot of the passenger side and the cabin "together"

 

[jeeper92]

Chasis pictures

 

[Titanpat57]

I'm afraid your tongue design (if your intentions are to cut and weld the steel where it's clamped) is inadequate. I think you'd be much better bridging under the frame, back to near where the front spring hangers would be....even if was just 2"x 2" x 1/4".

I think switching over to the manufactured door was a good idea. Plywood doesn't do well with moisture.

Good progress...keep it up.

 

[wagex]

I'm afraid your tongue design (if your intentions are to cut and weld the steel where it's clamped) is inadequate. I think you'd be much better bridging under the frame, back to near where the front spring hangers would be....even if was just 2"x 2" x 1/4".

I think switching over to the manufactured door was a good idea. Plywood doesn't do well with moisture.

Good progress...keep it up.

i agree 100% on the tongue, i was thinking the same thing myself.

 

[jeeper92]

Got ya

Thanks for the input. The guy doing the welding has been building trailers for 25 years. I guess Ill have to wait and see. Thank you for the input though. I really wish I would have saved the $300 and built my own door. I will do that for the next one.

 

[Mushin_Noshin]

Nice looking so far, I would definitely recommend a door on both sides, pain in the butt to crawl over each other in the middle of the night

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[jeeper92]

Mushin, that's on the docket for the next build. Thanks!!

 

[lacofdfireman]

Looking great. I have to agree on the wood door. While I do like mine and I also like the fact that I made it myself I have noticed it will swell in extreme temp changes and especially when it rains. But it's good enough for me and I like it. My door I'm sure cost me less than $50 max including mounting hardware and door handle latch.

Your build is looking great. I'll be following along. Keep after it. And keep us updated.


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[DanCooper]

Your wooden door looked fine. It would have looked very different by the time you filled the screw heads and put your final finish on it. They are time-consuming, though. I figured about two hours each on mine and I'm over four hours into the first one. I was afraid to tackle them initially and considered buying two. But at $600 the pair, that would represent about 10% of the projected total cost.

I really like the father and son approach, and I love the build.

 

[jeeper92]

So I picked up the trailer this week. Here's a few shots of it and one of it tracking behind my jeep. Good thing I didn't go 6 feet wide it wouldn't have fit in the garage.
Here it is at the place where it was
Welded



Here it is behind my jeep


As soon as o got it home
My youngest son made me see what the sides
Would look like.


And here's what we are treating the bottom of the floor with

 

[Mushin_Noshin]

I'm not a pro, but how is the tongue attached to the frame? Is there any additional bracing in that area?

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[jeeper92]

It's welded. The guy assures me it's ok. I think I'm gonna ask em to reinforce it.

 

[b63215b]

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