Every Miles A Memory
Expedition Leader
WOW!! You guys are putting some serious love into this build! It looks awesome
The CrowsWing - Offroad Teardrop Trailer
- Thread starter jim65wagon
- Start date
givemethewillys
Jonathan Chouinard
It's looking great guys!!!! :Wow1: Keep up the good work!
jim65wagon
Well-known member
I'm sure California has a regulatory commission on burning trailer trash, and it might be nigh on impossible to rid yourself of yours.....good luck.
Thanks for the compliments guys!
Thanks for the compliments guys!
jim65wagon
Well-known member
Well, let's see, in reverse order to you:
3)Thanks, my wife discovered her woodworking skills when we rebuilt our farmhouse in PA a few years ago.
2)Thanks, again. We are trying to build the nicest teardrop we can. We are Glampers in heart and have a reputation to keep
.1)Well, yes, we really are planning to take it offroad....maybe not Rubicon offroad, but offroad nonetheless. Our idea was to design the trailer with more capabilty than our Tundra has. This way, in our travels, when we see something shiny on the map, we can fly over to it without the trailer being a limiting factor. It also had to have high quality marine grade hardware and finishes.....it should see as much beach time as it does mountain time.....Now before anyone forgets, yes we still are building. The last two weekends have been staining and varnishing of the cabinets, face frames and doors. It's a lot of sanding, cleaning, tack clothing, etc. It's a ton of work and we have a lot done, but it translates to not so great photographs.Beth staining the cabinet face frames.
.
All the frames stained
.
This is the roof and drawers getting their share of polyurethane....
.
.
The cat doesn't like all the noise and smell in the garage lately....so she's not much help anymore......she just kinda stays in her bed/box and sleeps while we work..
Last edited:
jim65wagon
Well-known member
We did get one coolio deluxe and luxurious item done last, last weekend. We built a headboard for the bed! If you look inside most teardrops they almost never have a headboard.....I don't know why.
This is another of my wifes nice designs and she learned the execution on Mr Gore's internet....
One large piece of foam, you add the layout for the buttons
.
Drill holes according to the well thought out plan.
.
Apply glue
.....
.
Add a layer of batting to soften things up
.
.
The fabric we picked had a tricky pattern to it and Beth had to do a little match up on the sewing machine to get it to fit the headboard correctly
.
The fabric gets draped over the board, then you push/pull the buttons into the holes you drilled in the foam. This forces the fabric to pleat into a diamond pattern. A little difficult, and the string cuts into your fingers somethin fierce! Yeah, that's my big backside you see. I'm trying to pull a button string tight enough to get the job done.
.
Staple down all your edges! You can also see the string patterns.
.
Flip it over and TaDa! If you look close you can see the diamond tucked pattern.
.
As it will sit in the teardrop.
.
That's all for now!
This is another of my wifes nice designs and she learned the execution on Mr Gore's internet....
One large piece of foam, you add the layout for the buttons
.
Drill holes according to the well thought out plan.
.
Apply glue
.
Add a layer of batting to soften things up
.
.
The fabric we picked had a tricky pattern to it and Beth had to do a little match up on the sewing machine to get it to fit the headboard correctly
.
The fabric gets draped over the board, then you push/pull the buttons into the holes you drilled in the foam. This forces the fabric to pleat into a diamond pattern. A little difficult, and the string cuts into your fingers somethin fierce! Yeah, that's my big backside you see. I'm trying to pull a button string tight enough to get the job done.
.
Staple down all your edges! You can also see the string patterns.
.
Flip it over and TaDa! If you look close you can see the diamond tucked pattern.
.
As it will sit in the teardrop.
.
That's all for now!
GroupSe7en
Adventurer
WOW, and WOW again!
You're taking glamping to a whole new level...
Can't wait to see the rest.
Cheers,
Mark
You're taking glamping to a whole new level...
Can't wait to see the rest.
Cheers,
Mark
VanIsle_Greg
I think I need a bigger truck!
Looking good folks... really good.
jim65wagon
Well-known member
Last edited:
jim65wagon
Well-known member
Time for more! We've got two more weekends to catch up on, and a lot has been done!
.
Beth started off routing out the doors and frames for insetting the hinges
.....
.
and we got the doors all fitted precisely to their matching frame
.
all the doors had to be stained....
.
After all the staing dried sufficiently, all the doors and frames got hung up (note the high tech ladder system) and received a couple of coats of polyurethane.
.
Poly is one of those fun to do projects, that combines horrible smells with long waits in between coats.....at least your lungs can revive in between
.
After the poly, everything got another couple of coats of Epifanes marine varnish, this deepened the color and smoothed the finish to an incredible level. You'll get to see the results in the next couple of posts, but pictures really don't do it justice.
..
Just an FYI, Epifanes is extremely bad for your lungs and head, and a good respirator is a must. Do not think you can apply this without one or with a dust mask!
.
In the meantime.....it was awning time! Originally we were going to just purchase a Fiamma or ARB or similar awning and hang it off the side. The more we thought about it the more we didn't like the looks of the when closed (it would ruin the lines - and look out of place on the traditional style of our trailer).
What to do, what to do?
Build our own of course!
A little Sunbrella fabric, some Sunbrella awning thread, a little Keder welt, a few tent pole repair kits,and some awning rail and voila! Awnings! Well, not quite that easy, but it all came together quite well. Did I mention that my wife is a genius, superb designer, and she sews too?
This shows the roll of Sunbrella fabric, thread, Keder welt, grommets, nylon strapping and tent pole kit
.
Closeup (sample)of the awning rail.
.
and this is an example of the Keder welt. Sewn to your fabric of choice this allows you to slide the awning into the rail with ease.
.
While I won't say it was simple, I was amazed at how simple Beth made it look. The awning was sized to fit squarely over each door to provide us with some sort of shelter as we ingress and egress (um, that's enter and exit - or climb in and out as the case may be). The tent poles were cut so they were slightly long and formed a nice arched rainfly, exactly like the ones on our Cabelas tents we've camped in for years. A tie was sewn in the center to hold the poles in place, and the nylon webbing was used to make the pockets for the pole ends to catch into - otherwise they'd bust through the awning doncha know!
.
Closeup of the nylon pocket, and the rubber grommet - which captures the upright pole, without which the awning is just an interesting door hanging on the side of the trailer
.
The end of the upright is a nice fancy hook, which hooks through the grommet. This should keep the wind from blowing the awning off the upright.
.
This shot is a nice example of how it slides together. You can see the awning, with attached Keder welt, and how the welt slides into the awning rail.
.
This is the finished product. You'll have to imagine that the uprights are actually connected to the running boards on the trailer with some Bimini hardware.
When not attached the awning and poles will live in a duffel bag in the basement (EDIT! This proved to be a bad idea - the tubing held water from rain and it was enough to make anything fabric in the basement wet. We have since installed pvc tubing to store all the poles in keeping everything else in the basement dry), and all you will see on the trailer is the awning rail above the doors. The clamps will be replaced with screws, so you won't see those either!
.
Beth started off routing out the doors and frames for insetting the hinges
.
and we got the doors all fitted precisely to their matching frame
.
all the doors had to be stained....
.
After all the staing dried sufficiently, all the doors and frames got hung up (note the high tech ladder system) and received a couple of coats of polyurethane.
.
Poly is one of those fun to do projects, that combines horrible smells with long waits in between coats.....at least your lungs can revive in between
.
After the poly, everything got another couple of coats of Epifanes marine varnish, this deepened the color and smoothed the finish to an incredible level. You'll get to see the results in the next couple of posts, but pictures really don't do it justice.
..
Just an FYI, Epifanes is extremely bad for your lungs and head, and a good respirator is a must. Do not think you can apply this without one or with a dust mask!
.
In the meantime.....it was awning time! Originally we were going to just purchase a Fiamma or ARB or similar awning and hang it off the side. The more we thought about it the more we didn't like the looks of the when closed (it would ruin the lines - and look out of place on the traditional style of our trailer).
What to do, what to do?
Build our own of course!
A little Sunbrella fabric, some Sunbrella awning thread, a little Keder welt, a few tent pole repair kits,and some awning rail and voila! Awnings! Well, not quite that easy, but it all came together quite well. Did I mention that my wife is a genius, superb designer, and she sews too?
This shows the roll of Sunbrella fabric, thread, Keder welt, grommets, nylon strapping and tent pole kit
.
Closeup (sample)of the awning rail.
.
and this is an example of the Keder welt. Sewn to your fabric of choice this allows you to slide the awning into the rail with ease.
.
While I won't say it was simple, I was amazed at how simple Beth made it look. The awning was sized to fit squarely over each door to provide us with some sort of shelter as we ingress and egress (um, that's enter and exit - or climb in and out as the case may be). The tent poles were cut so they were slightly long and formed a nice arched rainfly, exactly like the ones on our Cabelas tents we've camped in for years. A tie was sewn in the center to hold the poles in place, and the nylon webbing was used to make the pockets for the pole ends to catch into - otherwise they'd bust through the awning doncha know!
.
Closeup of the nylon pocket, and the rubber grommet - which captures the upright pole, without which the awning is just an interesting door hanging on the side of the trailer
.
The end of the upright is a nice fancy hook, which hooks through the grommet. This should keep the wind from blowing the awning off the upright.
.
This shot is a nice example of how it slides together. You can see the awning, with attached Keder welt, and how the welt slides into the awning rail.
.
This is the finished product. You'll have to imagine that the uprights are actually connected to the running boards on the trailer with some Bimini hardware.
When not attached the awning and poles will live in a duffel bag in the basement (EDIT! This proved to be a bad idea - the tubing held water from rain and it was enough to make anything fabric in the basement wet. We have since installed pvc tubing to store all the poles in keeping everything else in the basement dry), and all you will see on the trailer is the awning rail above the doors. The clamps will be replaced with screws, so you won't see those either!
Last edited: