Small off road camper?

[Woodhauler]

Been looking for one to tow with my atv. Anyone on here seen one in person? They have several makes on the Internet and am thinking hard about having one built in the tear drop trailer style! Just big enough for a full size mattress.

[dovetails]

Back about 50 -60 years ago, Popular Mechanics,or Pouplar Science had plans for a home made teardrop camper.Should be able to search their web site archives to find them.I have boxes of old plans like that I've saved over the years,thinking one of these days I might want to make this....  lol
If I remember right, it was designed to tow behind a motor cycle.

[Chris Burchfield]

"If I remember right, it was designed to tow behind a motor cycle."

I think Amos from "Amos & Andy" tried that, once.  :D :D :D

[Ironwood]

While the one we are planning is not that small, we are just sketching up some plans to modfiy an Army M105 trailer (with a down sized axle) into a "non-conventional" camper and adventure vehical. It will have a pantry (topside body box with flip down doors for cooking shelf) and an expanded steel roof rack above the tarp to sleep on in fair weather and carry canoes and such. The three boys will be "stacked" US Navy style bunks. We will use some 6-8" PVC to hold on board water (above the pantry) 9' long. The roof rack verticals will have tubing stubs that aluminum poles can slip in and create a canopy of the side tarp panels( like pictured on the truck below). It will likely have a propane tank on the tongue for cooking. The toilet will be a 5 gallon bucket with one of those snap toilet seat lids :D. The conveinence of leaving all the outdoor gear in a trailer ready to go, makes ALOT of sense.

One raw material to consider is the cooragated lexan panels used for modern green houses, light, clear, RIGID, and easy to work with. I landed a bunch from a recycled building material shop in Pittsburgh. The other thing is the corragation provide at least a rudimentry level of "insulation". There are lots of light rigid products out there. Think blue/ pink board insulation with light sheeting (wood or metal) over top. Even cooragated galvanized sheeting is cheap, or better yet recycle a roof!

We would like to "ramp up" to a serious road trip in a few years, perhaps the Al-Can. This is the kind of rig I would want to do it in. We're not exactly the standard RV type, not quite yet anyhow.
Ironwood

[metalspinner]

Woodhauler,

There are plenty of plans and trailers on ebay to look at.

[beenthere]

Problem with eBay plans (I hear) is they are a dime a dozen and many found to be untried plans. Don't find that out until they are rec'd and then it is too late.

[metalspinner]

Beenthere,
I agree.  I did purchase a couple of sets on ebay.  One was a reprint of the above mentioned Popular Science article from years ago. Included in the set of plans were some rather flimsey looking drawings of other trailers and campers.  I have no idea where I placed those plans. :

My idea on building a teardrop trailer this was to find an inexpensive trailer on Craigs List - like a boat trailer, then build a custom teardrop using ideas from the plan. Boat trailers are always popping up on CL here for dirt cheap. But as always, that was a short lived dream.  I got distracted with other projects and that was set aside for a later time. :-\

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Woodhauler

I let a friend use my building two winters ago to build a teardrop shaped trailer and helped him do it as well. It really was quite simple and he put the entire thing together for less than $1200. We had a lot of fun doing it and he got a lot of use out of it last year

He welded up the frame himself and used a 2000 lb axle with springs for a cost of about $350. He saved a fortune by getting the windows and side door from a trailer salvage outfit. He got the door brand new for $20 and two windows brand new for $5 each as discontinued inventory. He went to a local RV manufacturer and was able to get scrap pieces of white fiberglass big enough to do both sides and the back door for less than $50. One of the most expensive purchases was the white rubber for the roof which if I recal cost him about $65. Power vent for roof was another $20. He framed the walls and roof with inexpensive 2 x 2's with plywood exteriors. Inside walls and cabinets were done with sheets of paneling and all walls and roof were insulated.

Kitchen section wall all framed with plywood and covered with marine carpet. Countertop was a scrap piece obtained at home depot for $20. Used a $50 dorm refrigerator and coleman gas stove. Heat for inside of camper was small $40 electric heater mounted on the wall with adjustable thermostat. Small kitchen sink was from rv scap place as well and ran him $15. 10 gallon water tank was nother $10 and grey water tank was another $15. Took a simple electric panel and about 50 feet of wire to do the whole trailer. Brake and runnign lights were less than $40. Was nother $30 for two air cylinders to hold the kitchen door up. Car stero and a few speakers and a small portable DVD player finished out the entertainement package for less than another $125

Hardest part was doing the framing and cutting of the curved section that raises up to give acces to the kitchen. Must be patient with that to get a good seal and tight fit. To make that piece, we cut ribs, similar to how a wing of an aircraft is built and covered both inside and outside with 1/4 inch plywood. On the outside it was then covered with fiberglass and the inside got paneling. Probably took us half a day alone to get that door just perfect.

[Ironwood]

Here is an interesting pic I pulled off the internet for a Scouting class on camping.

Ironwood





And my ideas for our little Army trailer, it is 6' x 9'

[Autocar]

I bought a crank up truck camper for $700.00 and it has a furance,water, frig,two beds and a table. Its nice for travling because I can crank the top down and its about 12 inches high above the cab. I see them in trader magazines all the time around here.

[Ironwood]

Is it a pop up or a High-Low? The Highg Low is a brand name, my nieghbor had one. The is a nice feature (to be low) for transport.

Ironwood