Teardrop Build: Day 2

The next day that we had off we headed straight outside to finish the frame.

The biggest change we made was to leave off the part that the trailer stands on when it gets folded up for storage. We certainly won't be folding it and it was an easy accommodation to make as it didn't affect the plans in any real way.

The second half of the frame was pretty easy since we had just done the first half and it didn't have a weird tongue thing to have to figure out when the angles didn't all line up.

The wheels were a totally different kind of hell though. And probably the most terrifying part since one blow out or busted axle can potentially ruin the whole thing, but that might just be my own paranoia. The best piece of advice I can give here is to heed everyone else's warnings and go ahead and repack the wheel bearings while you can easily take it all apart. It definitely won't hurt.

Putting on the axle

Close-up of the wheel assembly

This is probably the best photo to show where we left the standing support for the folded trailer off. To the left of the axle you can see a flat attachment point. Normally you would attach a long bar that has small wheels on it there. We clearly didn't need it and it was easy to just leave off without impacting anything else that was vital to the structural integrity of the trailer.

 

The finished product!

There's the finish product. We're planning on building out over the wheel wells 12" so that we will have a 6' wide trailer. 4' is certainly enough, but it will maximize comfort to just build it up and over. That and we already have a mattress that will fit that space and we won't have to buy a new one.

I'm pretty happy with this trailer as far as ease of building and everything working together goes. In all it took a solid four hours to get the whole thing together from start to finish. Not bad for a couple of amateurs.

Now the fun part begins!

Teardrop Build: Day 1

We did a bit of research for the base of the trailer. After taking several factors into consideration we went ahead and purchased the 1195 lbs. capacity heavy duty 8' x 4' HaulMaster folding trailer from Harbor Freight. We scored it on sale with a coupon for about $300 bucks.

While I wasn't too keen on purchasing the folding variety, there was no option for a non-folding style as they apparently have clearanced them all out, at least at every store in the Pacific Northwest. I consulted quite a few blogs from other builders who have seemed to do just fine with the folding variety that helped to calm my fears.

There is a 1700 lbs. capacity trailer but we didn't go with that one for a couple of reasons. The main one being that the vehicle that we will be towing this trailer with can only handle about 1300 pounds. Since we will be placing so much emphasis on making this as light as possible, we agreed that it was useless to go with the overkill option and saved ourselves about $50 bucks while we were at it.

The trailer came in two boxes that were easily transported in the back of our Mazda 5. Once we got it home we unboxed it and got to work.

So there it is, let me tell you, at first glance all I could think was "what have we done." The instructions were clear as mud.

You better get comfy with not one but two of these guys in various sizes.

We spent about two hours on the trailer on day one, and built the front half of the trailer without too many snags along the way. Once we stopped and really took a look at the directions it wasn't too terrible.

We took the directions in and made a better game plan for the next build day especially since we decided that there were a couple of changes that we would be making since the frame would never be folded.

We ran out of time so stopped after TJ finished attaching the tongue to the frame. All in all it wasn't too awful and the stopping point was a pretty logical one.

Teardrop Project Intro

While my husband TJ and I have three kids between the both of us and a fourth planned to be added in the near future, we definitely embrace small living.

Our Crazy Awesome Growing Family

We currently live in a house of about 950 square feet and utilize our outdoor space as living space as much as possible with the concept that "bedrooms are for sleeping." We keep the number of personal belongings small and live for experiences instead of stuff. 

It works out really well for us and the kids seem to not be ruined forever from it, so I'd call it winning at this point. The kids get far more enjoyment out of an annual pass to the zoo and aquarium than a toy they forget about in a month. I'd also like to think that it's teaching them important life lessons along the way, but that might just be wishful thinking on my part. 

We do a lot of camping and would like to make that experience more comfortable without going out and buying a huge RV with a payment the size of a small mortgage. Camping in the Pacific Northwest is gorgeous, but the number of times we have been rained out or have woken up with a tent in cold puddles is too many for my liking. With TJ's work holidays few and far between and many occurring when the weather is on the more temperamental side, we decided to find a more durable solution while still enabling tent camping.

The Tent

TJ and I are both rather handy and up for challenges so after much searching and, really let's face it, scouring on Pinterest, we decided to tackle a teardrop build. 

We decided on this for a couple of reasons. 1) we needed something very lightweight. Careful planning will allow us to top out at about 700-800 pounds, just over half the towing capacity of our vehicle. 2) while I would LOVE to restore a vintage canned ham, around these parts that's the trendy thing to do and so they sell at a premium that you didn't see several years ago. 3) the family will still have much of the tent camping experience, but as I get older my back needs a little more love than the ground can give me.  4) it will provide something that the entire family can work on and take some pride in.

I am super excited to jump into this build and hopefully finish it in time to use it by the end of summer.