My Teardrop Trailer Build

longbowdave1

Senior Member
I decided that I needed a small towable sleeping quarters to use at my hunting lease. I started to look into buying a Teardrop trailer, but found out that they are expensive. I decided to build one instead. That's when the fun started on Labor Day weekend.

I did some research and bought a set of plans for a wood sided teardrop off of the big auction site for twenty bucks. It was a good guide but I modified plans as went along. I quickly decided against the wood sided, homemade wooden door version in the plans. I wanted to spend more time using it, and less time maintaining the exterior. I chose to use store bought doors, and fiberglass siding to make it more to my liking. More cost but worth it in the long run.

I built a 5 x8 foot floor and painted the underside, then used under body coating. Sealed the top with 6 coats of lacquer. I decided to go with an aluminum trailer to build the teardrop on. I bought a trailer kit from Northern tool, free shipping and came in 3 manageable boxes.td1.jpgtd2.jpgtd3.jpgtd4.jpgtd5.jpg
 
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longbowdave1

Senior Member
Just a lot of pictures to load and resize but I'll keep at it the next couple days.


It was time to plywood the top curtd10.jpgtd11.jpgved surfaces with the 1/4" plywood. It was really starting to take shape!
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
I bought Filon white fiberglass off of an auction site with a smile. It comes in 9 foot widths on a roll. You order it by the linear foot. It was pricey so I didn't want to goof it up. I would up spreading silicon based caulk om the ply and clamping it, rollimg it iut smooth with a rolling pi. Then, trimming with a flush router bit. td14.jpgtd16.jpgtd17.jpgtd18.jpgtd19.jpgtd19.jpgtd19.jpgtd15.jpg
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
So, it took about 5 1/2 weeks to complete the build working nights and weekends. Weekends I wasn't hunting that is. It was hot when I started, then a few rainy weeks slowed things down, and then it got cold. But I kept chugging along.

Now the thing was that everybody in family, and my friends new what I was attempting to build, except for my brother Tim. We hunt together, and I wanted to surprise him. My goal was to have him think it was store bought and not home built. It was not easy keeping the secret, but some how I did.

By now, I had a mountain of parts piled up in the house for the trailer, and permanent grooves in my driveway from the Fedex and UPS boys stopping off nightly.
 
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longbowdave1

Senior Member
So now it was time to start the fun stuff and put my mountain of parts in place. First it was the roof vent with 12 volt fan. Fresh air is a must inside the tiny space. Then, I put on 5 amber bullet lights on the roof, going to light this little camper up like a Christmas tree when towing behind the Jeep. Got to have porch lights too.td20.jpgtd31.jpgtd32.jpg
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
The doors went on a bit later as well as the tool box to houses all the batteries, and the power supply, etc. More about that stuff later.

Put some teardrop turn signals on the roof in back too. Then it was time to wire the interior. 12 volt LED lights, 120 volt outlets, Marine stereo with bluetooth of cousre, TV antenns cable, rear light in galley as well as stereo speakers and power for coffee maker and microwave.td27.jpgtd28.jpgtd29.jpgtd30.jpg
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
I had to customize the fender brackets so the fender cleared the door, and make a 1/4 inch steel plate to mount the receiver hitch on back. Also had to move the axle back earlier to clear the doors. And some deck plate to dress it up.td25.jpgtd26.jpgtd24.jpgtd23.jpg
 

walkinboss01

Senior Member
Very nice work. It's looking better than a store bought camper. You should easily fool your brother.
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
It was time to work on the interior. I wanted a wood look, but needed to lighten it up due to the very small size in the sleeping area. I went with sheets of white FRP on the ceiling, and paneling on the walls, and pine trim boards. Paneling was an issue. The 15$ a sheet stuff looked cheap, the good stuff was 44$ a sheet. Neither option was good for me. I bought 1/4" sheets of sub floor plywood, and rolled on 4 coats of lacquertd33.jpgtd34.jpgtd35.jpgtd36.jpg. Bam! home made paneling at 10$ a sheet. I was really happy with the resultstd37.jpg
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
She was about 90 percent complete after weeks of work, and we were already 3 weeks into the bow season. It was time to work past dark, again, and get her ready for the maiden voyage in the morning. I told my brother we were staying in a tent, bring you sleeping bag. I scrambled to get ready, and took it for a 20 minute test drive on the highway. td39.jpgtd40.jpgtd41.jpgtd42.jpgtd43.jpgShe was hitched up, lit up, and looking good after a lot of hard work!
 

longbowdave1

Senior Member
The sleeping area is the size of a queen mattress, 58" wide x 6' 5" long. I bought a 3" thick memory foam mattress, and a heated mattress pad to sleep on, nice! Sleeping bag, wool blankets, all the comforts of home. I even had time to put up the man cave decor inside.td45.jpgtd46.jpgtd47.jpgtd52.jpg
 
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