Offroad teardrop?

[blue94yj]

Also what is the distance inbetween the wheel wells?

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner but I hadn't worked on the trailer in a while. I did measure between the fender wells last night and it is 44".

As for progress I now have the fenders skinned. And I will start working on the floor and the walls this weekend.

Charlie

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

please post pics thanks!

 

[Joanne]

Hi all,

To be honest, I don't think most of the manufactured trailers are constructed as strong as necessary for off-road travel. That said there have been a lot of home built trailers specifically constructed that are plenty strong for off-roading. If you are looking for something inbetween a real expedition trailer and a small travel trailer, a teardrop might just fit your needs.

If you want to know more about teardrop trailers, the best best spot on the interent is http://www.mikenchell.com/forums Don't forget to look at the Offroad Construction Secrets section of the forum.

Joanne

 

[offroadchef]

If you want to know more about teardrop trailers, the best best spot on the interent is http://www.mikenchell.com/forums Don't forget to look at the Offroad Construction Secrets section of the forum.

Joanne

Found the same site through Camp-cook.com. One guy is texas is making and selling with a slid out section.


Markus

 

[GeoTracker90]

Here is a picture of my first "teardrop" that I built. It was approx 5' wide, 5' tall and 10' long for the body.

Here is a picture of it when I took the boys out during the summer of 2006.

And here is a picture of the second on that I built. It was 5' wide, 4' tall, and 9' long in the body.

These are quite comfortable when built correctly and can be built to take some punishment as well. The first one that I built was rolling on 31" tires that matched the Jeep Cherokee and weighed about 1000 lbs empty. The second one obviously has smaller tires and it weighs closer to 550 - 600 lbs empty. The neat thing is that if you build your own they can be designed for the type of terrain that you anticipate on covering.

Mike

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

very cool.

 

[pete.wilson]

Hey all

I have to admit; I've been looking at them more myself, however storage seems to be a little bit of a weekness given their size, unless one clutters the interior and then remove the stuff when arriving at campsite. Some teardrop have storage locations built into the floor. I would like to see rusty_tlc's plans and how best to strengthen the body for off-road useage. Looks like a cool project.

Pete Wilson

 

[GeoTracker90]

Hey all

I have to admit; I've been looking at them more myself, however storage seems to be a little bit of a weekness given their size, unless one clutters the interior and then remove the stuff when arriving at campsite. Some teardrop have storage locations built into the floor. I would like to see rusty_tlc's plans and how best to strengthen the body for off-road useage. Looks like a cool project.

Pete Wilson

For storage you can get just as creative with a teardrop as you can with any other expedition vehicle. Below are a few construction pictures of what I did with my latest trailer. The first couple show the galley area. Top the right of the cooler there is now a set of three drawers. The open shel above the counter now has a fold down half door, and the other two openings above the counter top also have drawers.

In the interior I have the two smaller cubbie holes and a wider / narrow drawer, and the radio of course. I left the flat wall above the drawer so that I can in the future either add a shelf there or I can also add a 10 - 15" flatscreen and add a 12V DVD player.

Also, there is nothing that says that you can not add a roof rack to the trailer. I added a couple of roof bars to haul all of our bikes from Idaho to Glacier National Park. Worked like a charm. I drew up the inner and outer brackets for the roof rack mounts and had a local company laser cut them out of either 1/4" or 5/16" steel plate. I think that for the 8 brackets that were laser cut it cost me a little less than $60.00 total.

 

[GeoTracker90]

As far as making the body of the trailer strong enough for off-road travel there are a couple of options. One option is to make the body out of a steel skeleton. I did this on my first trailer and I think that it would be pretty sturdy off road. This trailer is approx 5' wide by 5' tall and 10' long in the body. Incidently this one is for sale also.

The other option that I have used is to dado the floor and bulkheads into the side walls. This will in effect make a torsion box and you gain a lot of rigidity in the body from this. Here are a few pictures of the dadoed walls of two different trailers.

If you want the wood trailer body to be stronger still after you have glued and screwed the dadoed walls together with the floor and bulkhead you can always add an epoxy fillet to where they are joined. This is a technique that would be borrowed from wood boat construction.

Hope that this gives everyone some more ideas on what is possible.