Louisd75
Adventurer
Here's my setup:
We took that picture during a lunch break/awning dry out break after a night of thunderstorms. We built our trailer for trips as a family of four. Our longest trip so far has been three weeks on the road. So far we've got a few months worth of camping in it. Our maiden voyage saw four days and nights of torrential rain at a beachside campground with kids (SAND!!!). There is definitely a bit of a learning curve to teardrop camping, there are also definitely pluses and minuses. Prior to the trailer (and kids) my wife and I traveled an average of five months a year camping out of the back of a Tacoma Xtracab with a regular Leer canopy. We almost exclusively travel solo, which does play into our decision making as to where we go and what we do. I tend to be err on the conservative side of things. Some things that I've learned in our trips:
At freeway speeds, we take a bigger MPG hit from the canoe than the trailer. In the mountains, we take a bigger hit from the trailer than the canoe.
We also have approached the trailer as a hard sided tent, not a camper. I read somewhere once that "the trailer is the bedroom, the world is your living room" and that's really how we approach travel with our trailer. We've had to hunker down overnight due to weather. If we had to hunker down for a long stretch of time then we'd just mosey down the road or go a different route. Why hang out in a spot for days if the weather is too foul to enjoy it? I never understood that mentality.
We've got awnings and an awning room. We use the awnings all of the time in all sorts of weather. Be sure to anchor them if it gets windy. The awning room has been set up three times now. Each time was in the driveway while getting familiar with it. We haven't felt the need for it yet, but we bring it "just in case." In reality, I'll probably start leaving it at home before much longer.
One thing that I really don't like about most teardrops is that the wheels are wider than the tow vehicle. We built our trailer to match the track width of our Tacoma. It pretty much follows in our tracks, though slow speed in the trees we do have to be careful. It's narrow enough that I can see behind without tow mirrors but still sports a queen size bed and two bunk beds for the kiddos, along with room for all of our clothes.
Shoe management is frequently blown out of proportion. It doesn't have to be complicated. I made water resistant pouches that hang under the trailer doors when in camp. I've seen people use plastic shoe boxes that slide onto rails under the trailer. I've set mine on the fenders in nice weather, on the roof under the awning in foul weather, and on the ground in places that don't have much in the way of creepy crawlies.
The bathroom seems to be another hangup. We use a PETT folding toilet that goes into our "basement" under the queen bed when there aren't handy facilities. We've had to do the emergency #2 deployment on the side of the road. It's easy and simple to set up and folds down compactly when not in use. The only gripe I have is that I wish it had four legs instead of three.
I built the galley of the trailer to allow flexibility. The cooking stuff is in a chuck box that I can remove and take somewhere else if I'm camping with friends or for better shelter from wind/weather. I skipped out on plumbing any sort of water system in and can't say that we really miss it when camping.
Turning around hasn't yet been an issue for me, likely through a combination of luck and planning. The tongue of the trailer sits slightly below the bumper and I designed it to have enough room to more than jackknife the trailer. I set the wheels further back on the trailer body than most commercial builds seem to do, which does hurt my breakover angle at the benefit of making it easier to back up.
When we're not camping, the trailer goes into the garage and is completely ready to go for our next adventure, just add clothes. We do keep food/water etc in the truck and not the trailer. If for some reason we have to leave the trailer behind, we won't go hungry.
There's a build thread with lots of pictures in my signature line below. You might have to turn a mobile device sideways for it to show up. I'm not going to argue that the trailer is perfect for everyone, but we love ours and it has greatly improved our travels.
We took that picture during a lunch break/awning dry out break after a night of thunderstorms. We built our trailer for trips as a family of four. Our longest trip so far has been three weeks on the road. So far we've got a few months worth of camping in it. Our maiden voyage saw four days and nights of torrential rain at a beachside campground with kids (SAND!!!). There is definitely a bit of a learning curve to teardrop camping, there are also definitely pluses and minuses. Prior to the trailer (and kids) my wife and I traveled an average of five months a year camping out of the back of a Tacoma Xtracab with a regular Leer canopy. We almost exclusively travel solo, which does play into our decision making as to where we go and what we do. I tend to be err on the conservative side of things. Some things that I've learned in our trips:
At freeway speeds, we take a bigger MPG hit from the canoe than the trailer. In the mountains, we take a bigger hit from the trailer than the canoe.
We also have approached the trailer as a hard sided tent, not a camper. I read somewhere once that "the trailer is the bedroom, the world is your living room" and that's really how we approach travel with our trailer. We've had to hunker down overnight due to weather. If we had to hunker down for a long stretch of time then we'd just mosey down the road or go a different route. Why hang out in a spot for days if the weather is too foul to enjoy it? I never understood that mentality.
We've got awnings and an awning room. We use the awnings all of the time in all sorts of weather. Be sure to anchor them if it gets windy. The awning room has been set up three times now. Each time was in the driveway while getting familiar with it. We haven't felt the need for it yet, but we bring it "just in case." In reality, I'll probably start leaving it at home before much longer.
One thing that I really don't like about most teardrops is that the wheels are wider than the tow vehicle. We built our trailer to match the track width of our Tacoma. It pretty much follows in our tracks, though slow speed in the trees we do have to be careful. It's narrow enough that I can see behind without tow mirrors but still sports a queen size bed and two bunk beds for the kiddos, along with room for all of our clothes.
Shoe management is frequently blown out of proportion. It doesn't have to be complicated. I made water resistant pouches that hang under the trailer doors when in camp. I've seen people use plastic shoe boxes that slide onto rails under the trailer. I've set mine on the fenders in nice weather, on the roof under the awning in foul weather, and on the ground in places that don't have much in the way of creepy crawlies.
The bathroom seems to be another hangup. We use a PETT folding toilet that goes into our "basement" under the queen bed when there aren't handy facilities. We've had to do the emergency #2 deployment on the side of the road. It's easy and simple to set up and folds down compactly when not in use. The only gripe I have is that I wish it had four legs instead of three.
I built the galley of the trailer to allow flexibility. The cooking stuff is in a chuck box that I can remove and take somewhere else if I'm camping with friends or for better shelter from wind/weather. I skipped out on plumbing any sort of water system in and can't say that we really miss it when camping.
Turning around hasn't yet been an issue for me, likely through a combination of luck and planning. The tongue of the trailer sits slightly below the bumper and I designed it to have enough room to more than jackknife the trailer. I set the wheels further back on the trailer body than most commercial builds seem to do, which does hurt my breakover angle at the benefit of making it easier to back up.
When we're not camping, the trailer goes into the garage and is completely ready to go for our next adventure, just add clothes. We do keep food/water etc in the truck and not the trailer. If for some reason we have to leave the trailer behind, we won't go hungry.
There's a build thread with lots of pictures in my signature line below. You might have to turn a mobile device sideways for it to show up. I'm not going to argue that the trailer is perfect for everyone, but we love ours and it has greatly improved our travels.
