Project Choose Your Own Adventure

[ScottyB]

this is my escape pod. there are many like it, but this one (will be) mine.




a teardrop camper has been on the "some day" list for a good long time. i love how they look, you can pull them with anything, they're great for camping, and i think they'd make a pretty kickass little utility space/paddock sleeper unit for track events. most importantly...you can even afford to build one with your bare-ass hands and a little masochistic overconfidence, of which i am equipped with an abundance.

the semi-short, boring story that led up to this:
we took a couple trips last year into the north GA mountains and it was awesome...we're hill people at heart, anyway, so big surprise. my son has grown some big long legs and totally wants to start exploring, so we're trying to get him involved as much as possible too. after a couple weekend trips it became really clear that (A) we want to start doing a lot of this, (B) lodging adds up super fast in the long term, and © hotel rooms are boring....we want to be out around a campfire instead of in a room that smells like wet socks and stale butt.

but not so fast - the wife is a picky sleeper. laying on the ground, possibly getting wet, minimal cushion and plenty of night-time noise from the woods....it was a hard sell and a recipe for a Bad Time. but, for whatever reason, I ran the teardrop idea past her last year thinking she'd give it the old "yeah cool....so anyway you gonna help me with dinner or what" but she was super enthusiastic. we ran some measurements, did a little budgeting, and realized this was actually a real option if i built it myself. the final push were a few events within our friends/family circle that, i guess you could say, rekindled our respect for how much (or little) time we're given in this world. it pretty much confirmed that we wanted to get out as our little family and go as hard as we can, while we can, and this was a good way to get us into roadtrips and national parks that we previously only daydreamed about.

so up to this point, the plan was:
• get spousal approval
• acquire moneys
• ????
• tow to all the places

phase 2 of this thing actually happening is me fixing the fact that i have no idea what i'm doing. i'm a weekend woodworker at best...i mean i'm very enthusiastic about it, i've built up a very manly pile of tools, and i can make some simple, if ambitious stuff. basically, i know enough to be pretty dangerous. in 2015 i built my wife a gardening bench that didn't suck, and last year i just finished a loft bed w/stairs for my son that hasn't collapsed/killed him yet. each project got a little more complex and i strayed a bit further from established plans. its been enough of a learning experience that i feel pretty good about how to get the most out of my tools....but i came to find out that these campers are a whole new world of weird, even though they're still really simple.

i started researching construction techniques and plans in earnest around January of last year. its taken a full year to feel pretty good about stepping into the deep end of actual building. turns out these little things share as much with boat building as they do with house construction and trailer engineering....so i've had to familiarize myself with a LOT of different construction disciplines and products. i also got to find out that basically nobody builds these things the same way twice, and every "old sage" builder has a different idea of what works and what's a disaster in their mind. so it was really tough to nail down a game-plan based on a proven path.

in September i found a plan i liked for a very "classic" teardrop profile on a widely available trailer, and since then i've been amassing a list of parts and trying to build something that is sort-of accurate as an estimate so i don't nuke the budget in the first month (spoiler: it'll probably happen in the third month)

BASIC GOALS
• ~1000 lbs. total once assembled so either of my cars can tow it
• 5x8 trailer platform to allow for a queen mattress inside
• must stay simple. no TV's, fancy cabinetry, refrigerators, AC units, etc
• can hold 2 adults and 1 kid if necessary
• has to look the business (not like a can of Spam on roller skate wheels)
• $2,700 upfront budget, up to $3,500 total by the end
• tagged and roadworthy by September

the hope is to end up with a scene like this, coming to a campground/paddock near you (but not looking this nice, probably)


so join me, won't you, as I crash face first into an attempt to put one of these things together in my garage!

[ScottyB]

trailer and misc trailer bits (chocks, tongue jack) were purchased last week from Northern Tool. i'm going with their Ironton 5x8 trailer kit. its basic - no brakes, simple single axle 1700lb. max capacity with 12in. wheels and a light kit. from what i can tell, its pretty well engineered and should do just fine holding somewhere around half the weight it can actually carry.



to save some shipping $$$ i'm driving out to Columbia SC to pick it up. hopefully i'll have it this weekend, but NT told me it hasn't shipped from the warehouse yet so who the hell knows. probably for the best, i haven't cleared out the garage yet.

there will be some changes during assembly:
• axle is getting flipped to ride above the leaf springs to drop ride height
• shackles are getting moved about 4" back on the rails to balance the weight better...most of the weight is in the galley kitchen at the back, the front is just a hollow space with a mattress
• the wee fenders and little bird-fart Chinese wheel/tire setup is getting dumped for something else

aside from those changes, i'm going to be sure to take care in loctite'ing all the bolts, grinding down to bare metal for good grounds, and the hubs are getting yanked and packed with good grease.

[Apoc]

Bad. Ass.

[JPolen01]

This will be a fun project to follow. I'm with your wife and not a fan of camping. How do you plan to fit all 3 if you in there?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Awesome! Please build it out of straight carbon :p

Wife and I love camping too but the last two times we did we had ticks everywhere including the dogs and decided we were done. It's a lot more common up here than where you are.


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[ScottyB]

This will be a fun project to follow. I'm with your wife and not a fan of camping. How do you plan to fit all 3 if you in there?

thanks man! so, she really does like the outdoors and being in a camp - just not sleeping in tents. the inside of the teardrop will have a queen size 8-in thick memory foam mattress, will be insulated with 3/4 foam, and will be weather tight. that will do a whole lot to help, and she seems to agree which is what has spurred me on with this.

i plan to tent-camp alongside the teardrop from time to time because i dig tents quite a bit, and as for our kiddo Sam, I'm building a loft width-wise across our feet where he'll sleep. he's about 40" tall, so he's got another 20" to go until he's too tall to sleep in the loft. at that point i guess i'll be permanently in the tent so he can sleep with mom i can deal.

Awesome! Please build it out of straight carbon :p

Wife and I love camping too but the last two times we did we had ticks everywhere including the dogs and decided we were done. It's a lot more common up here than where you are.


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holy crap that would be awesome. ultimate bragging rights at the next big race tailgate.

i'm all too familiar with ticks i'm afraid. my mom suffered through Lymes Disease for about 10 years when i used to live in PA, and got it back in the 90's when they didn't know what it was or really how to treat it. i abhor those little bastards and check myself constantly when i'm out. i'm hoping the added weathertightness of the camper helps keep us out of some of that too. no dogs right now either. down here in the SE, the tick problem hasn't gotten out of hand nearly the way it has in the NE, particularly new england, so whenever we've been out over the past years, we just stay out of tall grass and check ourselves a lot.

we won't always be in the thick of the woods - the plan is that this will also give us a way to crash at any campgrounds we want during roadtrips or on the parkway, without having to pay so much for hotels and eating out.

i totally get why you guys had enough though...that's not a great way to make memories.

[CaptainHenreh]

[Apoc]

What, you mean your wife doesn't like this? This was my wife's first camping trip, ever, two years ago. It rained like a mofo all weekend and we were in a 15 year old tent that leaked. Somehow, she managed to agree to go again. Of course, I did upgrade... welll... everything. Our plan is to go a little bigger than a teardrop at some point. The wife says we should have a real bed and the kid can sleep in a tent with a friend.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

[Senor_Taylor]

This is great! I love camping. I sometimes dream about getting an offroad trailer with a roof top tent on top. I hope this project goes smoothly!

[ScottyB]

BEFORE / AFTER

"From Shantytown to Wilderness Mansion: Campground Remodeling with Chris Derecola" :lol:

dude that tent looks kickass. i mean, maybe after this i can ween her into more tent camping.

This is great! I love camping. I sometimes dream about getting an offroad trailer with a roof top tent on top. I hope this project goes smoothly!

thanks broski. the offroaders are sooooo pimp, but man, they are NOT cheap. i've checked out a couple builds and they are every bit as technologically impressive as the trucks that pull them around.

[*insertusernamehere*]

You write really well. I'm looking forward to reading more of your hacking and cussing and tool throwing in the coming months haha. And don't forget to hire your wife as the photographer to capture the finest moments!

[Jake]

Exciting stuff, can't wait to see how it turns out! Very very cool idea for a project that the whole family can enjoy.

[ScottyB]

thanks gents. i'm excited to bring it to track events too...would make a sweet cook-out station.

[JPolen01]

thanks gents. i'm excited to bring it to track events too...would make a sweet cook-out station.

You would just have to watch out for someone drunkenly deciding your bed was a good place to pass out!

[ScottyB]

so a couple things going on in the picture here.



Craigslist smiled favorably upon my mortal soul last week and blessed my quest with 125 sq ft. of 5/8" Berg & Berg red oak engineered flooring for $4-tay bucks. hells to the yes, definitely getting used as the galley floor, possibly galley counter, and probably the side wall interior. not worried about the cabin floor since that will have a matress completely covering it full-time. the veneer is a beefy 1/8", so plenty of meat to sand down and restain a different color if the mood strikes. some of the planks saw a lot of traffic and need sanded and recoated, but some were up against a wall and look brand new.



if i did both entire side walls, and the whole floor front to back, i'd still have ~20 sq ft. left over, so imma be super picky and just sell whatever's left. i can't go too crazy though, because that oak ain't light and i have to mind my tongue weight/balance.

second thing, the tape marks. that is the "maximum" footprint of this thing when shoved into the corner of my garage, after moving all the other junk out of the way. the "box" on the taped area is where the tire and fender would be. so in actuality, the body of the trailer will be in about 9" in from the sides of the box, and of course at the front end the trailer frame "vees down" to the hitch point so its not very wide there. here's the thing though...you'll notice my subaru is up past the line in the meat of the trailer body. this will be a game of inches when done. i'll be parking the subaru on the trailer-side bay of the garage, and if i place the nose of the car just ahead (toward the hitch) of the trailer wheels, the nose will poke in a few inches inside the trailer track width enough that i can get the ass of the car inside the garage door. it'll be that tight (THASWHASHESAIDYEAAAHHHH). i'll be hanging some marker strings from the ceiling to touch my windshield when i pull in to get the placement just right. either way it'll be entertaining.

[.RJ]

Scotty, let me know when you want to knock out a long work weekend and I'll come down and help. this is relevant to my interest.

[ScottyB]

Scotty, let me know when you want to knock out a long work weekend and I'll come down and help. this is relevant to my interest.

holla. if you want to go down the rabbit hole, i'm gonna have a LOT of very particular tools left over that i won't be using again for a while, that you might want to borrow.

[ScottyB]

rolly bits showed up today. the stock 5.3x12 tires aren't called "China bombs" by accident. they're going straight to a shelf for use as emergency spares.

i decided on 15x5, GM 60's-era "Gennie" steelies from Wheel Vintiques and a 175/65-15 Kumho Ecsta PA31 radial. The steelies definitely have "the look", come nicely primered, and will allow me to plug on some "Moon" chrome hubcaps and matching trim rings later.


aw wook at da widd'l ty-aww iss just a baybay


a couple other really major things that a wheel upgrade will do for me besides just not exploding:
• stock tires are rated to 55mph, and that won't work for me with all the interstate travel we'll do
• the bigger tires will slow down the wheel bearings, extending their life span
• the radials, while having less payload capacity, still have a ton of overhead for my weight and will ride MUCH softer which will beat up my cabin less
• the bigger wheels will really fill up the fender which looks awesome

the only complication, which caused considerable headaches in planning, was trying to find moon-hubcap-compatible steelie with as close to a zero offset as possible. i'm gaining an inch of width over the stock wheels, but i have to be sure i leave a bunch of room next to the frame for the side wall to come down and not hit the tire. in the end i'm going to run a 3/4" spacer on each hub, which i'm not crazy about, but its the best i can do and should not affect me in the long term since i'm running the trailer pretty light. if i did my math right, i might even be able to bump down to a 1/2" spacer...we'll see. other guys have logged 15k+ miles on 1 inch spacers with heavier campers with no drama, so i'm hoping the hear-say works out for me.

[BLINGMW]

When you first mentioned the HF trailer complete with 12" wheels I was like oh my god they still make that Scotty's gonna get himself killed! hock: :lol:
Looks like fun. Makes me want a little aluminum (prebuilt lazy style) one.

[Senor_Taylor]

When you first mentioned the HF trailer complete with 12" wheels I was like oh my god they still make that Scotty's gonna get himself killed! hock: :lol:
Looks like fun. Makes me want a little aluminum (prebuilt lazy style) one.

Northern Tool is like a minor step above Harbor Freight. He wont' kill himself with the trailer, just gravely injure.