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.