Finally making some progress on my offroad teardrop

Vinman

Vinman

Well-known member
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
989
Messages
243
Loc
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Started this project almost 4 years ago but life/work had other plans for me. I got back at it about a month after it sat untouched for over a year. Got the exterior almost finished then have to move onto the interior.
Building this thing is easy, deciding how and what to build is the hard part.
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Benny said:
Very cool. How tall are you and how much bed space is in there?
Click to expand...
I’m 5’9 and the bed size will be expandable from a 38” wide mattress to a standard double at 54” wide x 75” long. Since I’m building it primarily as a solo camper it will have 38” wide but when time comes to sell it a double mattress will fit and make it easier to sell. The bed platform will be elevated about 13” so it allows room to sit up while getting dressed and being only 38” lots of floor space for footwear. Also provides tons of storage under the bed. Outside dimensions are 60” w x 60” tall by 96” long. If I did it again I would go 9’ long
 
Needs more triangulation :flipoff2:

Looks like you epoxied the bottom, did you epoxy the whole thing before paint?
 
Is it just double layered 3/4" plywood for the shell. or do you have framing/studs of some sort? I've been kicking around building a cabover type camper for some time, seems there are dozens of different ways people frame these things.
 
Finally got this thing 95% completed. A few more items to take care of.
  • fab a bracket to hang the on demand water heater from the upper exterior rail.
  • fab a bracket to mount a side table to the lower side rail.
  • mount propane tank on the tongue
  • and a few misc small items like curtains, interior hooks for keys etc and maybe a small shelf or two.
The trailer has a 15 gallon water tank located inside along with an RV water pump. I have a couple of spigots mounted outside that allows me to connect the water heater and have hot and cold at the sink faucet.
Power is supplied by 200 watts of solar feeding a 100 AH lithium battery.
The diesel heater is mounted in the tongue box with a bulkhead leading to the interior. Installed this way the trailer gets a constant fresh air supply with results in zero condensation inside.
I used the trailer a few weeks ago for a 3 night trip and couldn’t be happier, the diesel heater is beyond ridiculous, overnight temps were negative 12-15C and with the heater on the lowest setting I woke at 3:00 am and it was 28C inside. The following nights I slept with the roof vent wide open and even then temps were around 20 C.
The bed setup allows my current 38” wide tri-fold mattress but can be extended to fit up to a 75” x 54” full size mattress. The bed is also raised enough sit up while getting dressed and also high enough for a Dometic cassette toilet fit underneath.
The goal of this trailer was to be able to pull into a site and be ready to use almost immediately.

Pictures in no particular order



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Oh yeah, target dry weight was 1,600 lbs and I’m only about 25-50 pounds over that. Loaded weight that first trip was 2,096 lbs.
The 6,000LB hubs were cold after a 90 minute highway trip so I don’t expect bearing failure any time soon. It also has brakes so towing with the JL was a pleasure.
 
PAToyota said:
I do like that idea! That is brilliant!
Click to expand...
Thanks.
For anybody doing something similar, the cuts are slightly tapered so as soon you start extending the bed there is no issue whatsoever of it binding. If you make the cuts straight there is a good chance of binding unless its pulled out exactly straight. Basically the further out it goes, the looser it gets. When its collapsed all the way everything is nice and snug. Make sense?
 
It appears to me (no disresepct intended) that you may need a leg under the bed extension when it is extended. Maybe not for you using the 38" config, but for those getting some action on the full size mattress.

Just a thought.
 
71PA_Highboy said:
It appears to me (no disresepct intended) that you may need a leg under the bed extension when it is extended. Maybe not for you using the 38" config, but for those getting some action on the full size mattress.

Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Yes, a bed support in the middle of the doorway is required when the bed is expanded to the widest position, I’ll either do a fold down or removable leg.
 
The independent suspension is sweet. No shock needed on that setup?
 
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