Home built "Grasshopper" campers. Help me find.

[tgreening]

Best description I could come up with. I've seen acouple here and there and they have me interested. Not the typical tear drop version, but same basic idea, wth a more interesting exterior shape. There was one here called Sawtooth I believe. That style.

Anyway I have no idea how to search for them other than chasing random "expedition trailer" links and I'd rather not do that. I have a few projects to finish up but I'm getting it in my head I wouldnt mind having a small " 1 guy and a dog" size off roadable camper, and building it might be fun.

I've done the RTT thing, both vehicle based (cool but pain in the ********) and trailer based, and I'm not interested in repeating that. Besides, as smart as my mutt is I dont really want him trying his hand, or paws in this case, at scaling a ladder.

 

[Titanpat57]

You could also try this site..www.tnttt.com and look in the "Build Journal" section or "Off Road Secrets" section. StomperXJ's camper in the Off Road section I believe.

 

[mhiscox]

The Gizmag website likes to include relatively frequent articles about tiny housing concepts, towable or not. A couple of recent articles:

http://www.gizmag.com/wide-path-camper/34644/

http://www.gizmag.com/hutte-hut-tiny-trailer-two/35990/

will give you a clue as to the coverage.

Not saying anything will be to your taste, but if you were to search on, say, "tiny towables," you'll see things that might give you useful ideas. It may be a better starting point than general Googling.

 

[Heifer Boy]

What you are looking for is a 'Grasshopper' style of teardrop. These are often used for more offroad types of camper (coz they look a bit tougher than a teardrop) but are based on a late '70s design. See http://www.nicksteardrop.com/grasshopper.htm for the history.

Jesse's Sawtooth XL is one of the best examples http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/18142-Offroad-Teardrop-SawTooth-XL as it Steve F's one http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=516.0

Here in Oz we can buy a Tvan which is one of the few commercial campers this shape I know of but it in a whole other league offroad. I should know... I own one https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...&ei=Lc7lVMbsDNKF8gXQsYG4Cg&ved=0CDoQsAQ&dpr=1

Hope this helps :drool:

HB

 

[tgreening]

Thanks fellas. The links were definitely helpful. The sawtooth is one of my favorites. The Aussie campers are awesome, but most of them use a tent in some fashion for living space and I really want to avoid that. It's ok as separate outdoor space, but I don't want it as part of the interior space. Also, most US built campers would be headed to the scrap pile after some of the obstacles those Aussie campers went through. Stuff here is junk, period.

 

[skersfan]

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...Pod-Trailer-Build?highlight=skersfan+trailers

This maybe what you are looking for. The last build gave specific instructions and regular development pictures. I am no longer building them. Too much work!

 

[stomperxj]

Heifer Boy is correct. I based my shape on the old Grasshopper trailer from the 70's. If you have any questions let me know. I'd be happy to give advice

 

[tgreening]

skersfan: That is one bomb-proof looking design. Finished ( I think) going through the build logs last night. Between yours and stomperxj there is so much info to process it's hard to keep it straight in my head. If you don't mind, what was the floor dimension of yours?

stomperxj: Yours is my favorite profile. Whatever "it" is, for me yours has it. Being in the metal industry I'm kind of partial to the framing skersfan used. Exterior design wise I like the looks of yours. They both have features I like and I will admit, if I get around to building one I will probably shamelessly swipe every good idea you guys had. And probably every bad idea as well because they're likely to be better than mine anyway.

stomper did you happen to publish your sketchup files to their database? If you did I'd kind of like to see how they're put together. I've tried getting the hang of that program on a couple different occasions but I must be a complete idiot for cad-ish design because it seems to always get the best of me. Then I get discouraged and walk away for awhile. By the time I get back to it I've forgotten every little bit I may have learned and I'm back to square one.

skersfan: I hear ya on the work, and can totally relate to part of the reason you gave it up. When my oldest girl was born 9 yrs ago I retired myself. In July of 2001 my business partner found out he was ill and by Sept. of the same year he was in the ground. I decided that wasn't going to be me and there was way more to life than the inside of an office. I was there when my girls took their first steps and said their first words, instead of hearing about it when I got home from work. Unfortunately though it seems like retirement is actually more work than work was! It appears my wife thinks that when I retired she gained her own personal assistant. Sheesh...

 

[stomperxj]

stomperxj: stomper did you happen to publish your sketchup files to their database? If you did I'd kind of like to see how they're put together.

I never posted a Sketchup file for the Sawtooth XL. It was an imported model from Autocad and was not easily editable at all. Sketchup isn't the easiest to use for me either after using Autocad for 17+ years. I spent a lot of time refining the shape. I think the overall final design had about 300hrs into it. I spent the good part of 2 years on the computer in the evenings designing and tweaking it.

My build thread has a ton of pics in it for your reference. If you have a specific question let me know-

 

[tgreening]

I never posted a Sketchup file for the Sawtooth XL.

My build thread has a ton of pics in it for your reference. If you have a specific question let me know-

No biggee. I was hoping it was sketchup so I could dig into it and see how it was all put together. The file itself, not the trailer. Layers, components, etc. I started mucking about with sketchup (again) last night and got a basic shell, which in reality is more or less a copy-cat of yours. Differing mostly in dimension, and amateur level of construction. I have a hard time with this program for some reason. I got just on the fair side of not completely incompetent with autocad a few years back when I got it into my head to build a hardware store cnc router, and to cnc a little Sherline mill I had. It seems to me that was easier for me to get a handle on than sketchup is. The problem is I never got "good" with autocad, and then I got caught up in other things and have forgotten everything I taught myself back then. Seems to be a cycle with me and cad anything.

 

[indiedog]

Sketchup is great for overall layouts etc and working out how various large pieces will go together. I wouldn't rate it for heaps of small details all added together to form one large file, makes it all very slow to load etc. Use it for the big picture and selected small parts. Use layers, lots of them and make sure you have a good format for the names. So for all the doors on a camper box I have each on different layers. As soon as you make a "piece" such as a door, select it all, right click, and make it a group. That way it won't start mixing with other parts. I also cheat by drawing things in the open position on one layer and the same thing in the closed position on a different layer, lot easier than grabbing it and rotating.

Persist with it, it's a great design and doc' tool.