SoCal Tear Drop Owners! Post up!

[rlynch356]

Chris - how much does your 510xs weight...?
2500#'s?
i just sold my m101 topper thing b/c it sucked to tow behind the 90 with it's glorious 180hp new... just need some info to start eliminating options for the next trailer.
while i would love to go tear drop i don't think its going to work..

thanks

 

[MtnToSea]

My trailer has started:

 

[Sikocycles]

What place is building it?

 

[MtnToSea]

The Upland California shop.

 

[jim65wagon]

That is a beautiful looking frame. Great work

 

[Keith Starr]

Took a little overnight trip to the Lincoln National Forest in SE New Mexico.

Heading out.

Nice to be able to see the fender in tight spots.

Now we're getting somewhere.

Sorry to interrupt your lunch, guys.

Wonder what's up that way?

At 9,000' it was WINDY and briefly snow-rained (good ol' NM weather) so I found a spot and called it a day. Got a fire going the next morning, always nice.

Max, my Border Heeler puppy, was eager to go exploring.

Vehicles less than 50" wide? I'm only 84". I'm not the best at math but I don't see a problem here.

No problem for the 510. The 33" Coopers don't seem to care what's in their path so width was never a real concern, whoever wrote that sign was drunk.

Stopped to let Max run around and take in the smells.

Time for a cold one. The locking fridge slide comes in handy.

That's all for now. Looking forward to Overland Expo.

 

[Doug E]

Thank you! We're looking forward to the end of snow season here in Northern NM (6" so far today) so that we can head out with ours. And yes, we're wimps!

 

[Chris Cordes]

Hey Chris! Or course. I ask Chris Ramm about you all the time. He is priceless to me. He helps me so much in outfitting my jeep and he has helped me tremendously with the trailer. I was jealous when you all did the Alpine Loop last year. I wanted to know how you did with the trailer so I could follow! You are the reason I have my trailer, which is a good thing. The dogs and I have been out in it and doing fabulous. I love it. I'm doing the Great Divide trail from bottom of New Mexico up to Banff Canada in July. Can't wait! I hope we can all get together sometime. Thanks Chris, your articles really do help and inspire.

Glad to hear you are enjoying it! And no kidding! We will be running that same route and then continuing to alaska, prudhoe bay, then down to cabo. We will be in colorado around july 6th

Chris - how much does your 510xs weight...?
2500#'s?
i just sold my m101 topper thing b/c it sucked to tow behind the 90 with it's glorious 180hp new... just need some info to start eliminating options for the next trailer.
while i would love to go tear drop i don't think its going to work..

thanks

So mine was a bit of an odd bird since it had so many changes to the frame. The stock dry weight is 1400lbs from the factory, but loaded with camp gear, fridge, bedding, etc, mine weighed about 1900. She was fat

 

[Luckytibbs]

Glad to hear you are enjoying it! And no kidding! We will be running that same route and then continuing to alaska, prudhoe bay, then down to cabo. We will be in colorado around july 6th.

So mine was a bit of an odd bird since it had so many changes to the frame. The stock dry weight is 1400lbs from the factory, but loaded with camp gear, fridge, bedding, etc, mine weighed about 1900. She was fat

Wow. What a trip. How long are you taking? I'll be anxious to see your route.

 

[MtnToSea]

It's starting to look like a tear drop. SoCal Tear Drop does great work!

 

[Phxdsrtrat]

Lookin' good. Love those rims and the BFGs. Sharp combination.

-Curtiss

 

[Doug E]

A few mods

Last fall we had a few things we wanted to change prior to heading out this spring. Since our first trip is next weekend, it's time to begin.

1. Because we didn't have a jerry can holder, we just stood the jerry cans on the kitchen "floor". Despite bungee cords, they slid around and wore through the colored layer of the formica on the kitchen floor. I tore out the formica on the right side of the kitchen floor and replaced it with commercial grade linoleum flooring.


2. We had a flood in the kitchen from the front runner jerry can, so I built a kitchen jerry can holder. Even if the the jerry can leaks around the hose outlet, it shouldn't flood since the cans now rest on their sides. The downside is that the active jerry can will need to be removed from the TD when we are in camp.


3. Because I'm messing around, remodeling the kitchen area by trial and error, I bolted a piece of 3/4 inch plywood to the floor. It's visible under the jerry can holder in the previous photo. This way, rather than drilling multiple holes in the teardrop floor, I get to drill those in the plywood sheet. And the slide out drawer for my cooler had to be modified because of the additional height, but oh well.

4. Having the jerry cans on their sides leaves room for a largeish drawer above the jerry cans. Will do this later, but I did incorporate a vertical panel to support the drawer.


More mods/additions are in the works. Not sure what I'll get done before we head out next Friday since I am also rebuilding the "dog containment system" in our tow vehicle, but I'll post a photo of the TD kitchen before we leave.

 

[Doug E]

And more mods

We originally purchased a table that mounts on the passenger side, which is great. Had I the experience I have now, I would have also purchased a table on the driver's side for the stove. This lowers the stove and creates additional work space, both on the shelf where the stove stores as well as on the table. But I didn't, so I made one.



However, one issue with the table from SoCal is that the maximum leg length is 31.5". If you have an off-road setup so the table mounting bracket is at, say, 30", and if you are sideways on a grade on over 1.5%, and if you level the trailer, and if the table is on the down hill side, you run out of leg extension and need to look around for a rock to put under the leg! And we've had to do this. So I bought a second leg and used it to make an extension.
.

Factory table is on the right, and home-made table with the extension is on the left. Max leg length is now 35.5". Yes, this is only good for a 5% grade ( the wheel on the downhill side is raised 3.5" relative to the wheel on the uphill side), but that's only because I cut the extension piece in half so I could also modify the leg on the factory table. If I weren't so cheap, I could have bought a yet another leg and accommodated an 8% grade.

The next photo shows the detail of the extension attachment.



More later.

 

[MtnToSea]

Nice job! It looks like it will work well.

 

[Keith Starr]