My Teardrop Trailer Build

[longbowdave1]

Here are few pics from up at the hunting spot.

 

[longbowdave1]

My brother was really surprised when I pulled up at 0400 at his house with the teardrop lit up like a little tractor trailer rig. first thing he said was were did you buy that, and I said, "Buy?? " He knew right then why I had been AWOL the last month or so. It was all the hard work.

 

[4HAND]

Man that really turned out sweet!
Please update with your brother's reaction.
Sorry, you did while I was typing. ?

 

[Jeff C.]

Man, you killed that build!

Great job, and how you managed to keep your brother from finding out is pretty amazing also.

 

[longbowdave1]

Thanks again. We have been having a blast hunting out of it. My brother even got to throw a deer on the rack.

 

[XIronheadX]

You got skills. I can't imagine the satisfaction you got out of picking your brother up and camping out in that thing the first time. Great job.

 

[longbowdave1]

Each trip I added something needed. I added a 200 watt electric heater on a wall stat to keep an even heat, a wall clock, and a gun rack. Every square inch of this trailer is used some how some way.

 

[longbowdave1]

One of the hardest things to complete was install the pine quarter round molding along the ceiling line on the 24" radius in the sleeping area. I came to the conclusion that I would have to build a steamer and a jig to get it right. The steamer was made out of modified round duct work rolled tight and screwed together, about the same diameter as a vegetable can, with two cans on the ends. I had to steam the 42" long piece of molding for 5 hours on the stove, then quickly clamp it on the jig, and let dry for two days. needed a left and right piece.

 

[longbowdave1]

This is my favorite picture of me and the teardrop.

 

[longbowdave1]

This picture was taken the following week with my friends in Georgia in mind....

 

[longbowdave1]

My power system is complicated, and had me scratching my head a few times wiring it, and getting it to do what I wanted in all the modes of operation. I have a 10 watt solar panel with a solar controller for when I'm off the grid charging two deep cycle batteries. 12 volt lights and stereo run right off the batteries, and 110v stuff runs off of a 900 watt inverter. I also have a RV converter power supply which runs the whole show when connected to shore power. Third source of power is my generator. I found out it takes about 4 hours on generator power to fully recharge my batteries. They don't like cold and little sunlight in the late fall like this. Then I'm best to run the generator. I'll take some pictures tomorrow of the set up inside the tool box. I built a "charge percentage " meter for the camper, it's a big help when running on battery to see the drain, and the amount of recovery from the solar panel. The first couple trips were when the sun was higher in the sky, and longer hours of daylight. Recharging was pretty good then, bad now.

 

[longbowdave1]

Thanks Ironhead, It is really cool to hunt out of. My brother is 61 and I am 56. Funny to see two old guys crawl in and out of it. We refer to it as the space shuttle, now I know why astronauts are young guys.

 

[longbowdave1]

Where we set up camp, is on high ground above a marsh. Did I mention we get 40 digital channels on the big 20" TV, oh yeah. It's great after a day of hunting kicking back and watching football, or listening to music on the stereo. It's getting cold here already, almost the end of teardrop season. I may sneak out bowhunting during my time off at Christmas, or it will be great for spring Turkey season in April.

 

[cohuttahunter]

Great work, that's really impressive!

 

[longbowdave1]

Great work, that's really impressive!

Thank you sir. It took just about every tool I own to complete. I only had to build it once, but I built it every night in my head trying to plan out the next and future steps so I didn't make any expensive mistakes. Researching the internet was very helpful, it's a small niche for teardrop parts out there. Typing in "teardrop RV parts" on the big auction sites brought up a lot of specialty parts. Like the hinge for the Galley, the bendable aluminum trim for the exterior roof line, and the doors., etc.

 

[longbowdave1]

You got skills. I can't imagine the satisfaction you got out of picking your brother up and camping out in that thing the first time. Great job.

After I picked him up that morning, we had about an hour + ride to the hunting spot. He was asking questions all the way, and shaking his head. After the morning bowhunt, he kept circling the teardrop inspecting and trying out things. He was really excited about the project. I wasn't sure how much he would want to sleep in the tiny trailer, but he loved it. At our age, good rest mid day is a priority. LOL

It's a head turner from other folks on the highway as I tow it as well. I get some thumbs up, and some people scratching there head trying to figure it out. Would be better is I could drive down the road with The TV antenna up. Oh, I forgot to mention, the TV antenna has a powered rotor so that I can aim it at the nearest town as well.

 

[longbowdave1]

Using the heated mattress pad with inverter.

During my research I read that using a heated mattress pad was one of the least power draw way to heat off the grid. Only about 20 watts per side of mattress at a setting of #2. So I bought one. I found out the hard way that I didn't read far enough.

The 110 volt mattress pad had digital controls, and they were in a fault mode when I fired it up the first night, 20 degrees out, no heat. The inverter doesn't produce a clean sine wave and the controls recognized that, and prevented the pad from heating.

Perfect Fit makes a mattress pad called "soft heat". It has dual controls also but you plug in each side to the 110 volt outlet, and built in transformers step the controls down to 24 volts. This set up, likes the inverter power, and all is good, we got heat! Thought I'd save some one some grief in the future.

https://perfectfitind.com/collections/mattress-pads/products/soft-heat-microplush-top-warming-pad

If you're running of of shore problem this is not a problem, just the inverter. Probably wouldn't like generator power either, unless you had a top notch inverter/ generator.

 

[Duff]

WOW! You are a very talented individual! Really enjoying this read. Hats off to you sir. Looks Great!

 

[longbowdave1]

I picked up the lowest wattage microwave that I could find, 600 watts. It's a battery killer, strictly off limits unless we are on generator power. It is a great addition for warming up breakfast though. and things.

 

[dwhee87]

Awesome build! Thanks for all the progress pics. That thing turned out sweet!