So, back in early July we had friends over for dinner and got to talking about plans to go west next summer. They were having the same issues that I was which is staying in hotels and lodges every night at ridiculous rates. I'd been looking into teardrops for some time as its about the largest thing I care to tow 5-7k miles at a time but couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger even though my wife said to do it. We looked at little guy trailers and Moby1, both are nice but either one is a big chunk to swallow without even knowing if they're right for us. My wife is afraid it'll feel coffin like and I'm huge at 6'6" and about 260lbs. Plus, we have two girls ages 5 and ten to deal with too so a RTT will be needed also. I'm not sure that that can even be done on a little guy and the Moby probably couldn't even be had by next summer so I brought up the idea of building our own teardrops.
When I brought up the teardrop idea to my friends I think it flipped a switch in his head as he had sketch up drawings to me within 3 days. Now I can do the metal work but don't care to work with wood and he can make anything out of wood so we decided to make a pair of 5x9 Benroy styled teardrops on off-road frames. A few weeks later the fun had just begun..
Frame number one started taking shape. It's 2x2 11ga with a 1/4" walled tongue. Fenders are 1x1 11ga tube framed and will probably be skinned with aluminum diamond plate.
The axles are timbren 3500lb setups. They are nice in that although they're rated at 3500lbs, they use a 5000lb spindle and bearings and accept 12" brakes vs 10" like a standard 3500lb axle would. 3500lbs would be just fine as our target weight is about 1600 so the 5000lb spindles and bearings are way overkill. This does not mean that the springs are way overrated however. I'm not sure exactly what the specs are but for this specific model they are softer to be able to handle off road abuse without rattling the trailer itself apart. The only negative is that you can only use 6 or 8 lug wheels so that means they won't match my JK's spare. I'll get a 6 to 5 lug adapter to still be able to have a common spare in a pinch.
Meanwhile, the bodies are taking place over at my friends house. I don't have many pics to put up for those yet though, just one or two.
This is where we're at currently. Next step is to get the one frame painted so that the body can be set up on it to continue with it. Then I can start on frame #2.
When I brought up the teardrop idea to my friends I think it flipped a switch in his head as he had sketch up drawings to me within 3 days. Now I can do the metal work but don't care to work with wood and he can make anything out of wood so we decided to make a pair of 5x9 Benroy styled teardrops on off-road frames. A few weeks later the fun had just begun..
Frame number one started taking shape. It's 2x2 11ga with a 1/4" walled tongue. Fenders are 1x1 11ga tube framed and will probably be skinned with aluminum diamond plate.
The axles are timbren 3500lb setups. They are nice in that although they're rated at 3500lbs, they use a 5000lb spindle and bearings and accept 12" brakes vs 10" like a standard 3500lb axle would. 3500lbs would be just fine as our target weight is about 1600 so the 5000lb spindles and bearings are way overkill. This does not mean that the springs are way overrated however. I'm not sure exactly what the specs are but for this specific model they are softer to be able to handle off road abuse without rattling the trailer itself apart. The only negative is that you can only use 6 or 8 lug wheels so that means they won't match my JK's spare. I'll get a 6 to 5 lug adapter to still be able to have a common spare in a pinch.
Meanwhile, the bodies are taking place over at my friends house. I don't have many pics to put up for those yet though, just one or two.
This is where we're at currently. Next step is to get the one frame painted so that the body can be set up on it to continue with it. Then I can start on frame #2.
