Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Steve Cox,
Are you happy with your stove/oven combo? Does the oven work well?
Where did you buy it?

Thanks,
Italia

I have a cooler with a split lid. My intention is to have it under the counter longways on a slide-out that will give me access to one half of the lid. I think I can come up with some way to slide it out further when necessary to access the full length of the cooler.

We will probably keep all food stuffs in the truck, the galley yet to be decorated is a minimalist galley , probably storage for the dry goods , utensils and the bar stuff

Several people mentioned bears playing a factor in where they located their cooler and I'm curious. I was planning on putting the cooler in the galley assumming the hatch would keep the bears out. I visit glacier NP alot and they are very strict about keeping coolers locked up but I thought this would be ok with a locking galley hatch. I know a teardrop hatch wouldn't stop a grizzly from getting to the cooler is he really wanted it but the fact is a locked car can't stop a grizzly if he really wants it and is given enough time. Does anyone have experience with this and what have the park rangers had to say about this?

I have 2 coolers in the galley.


I take them out when I need them, put them back when I'm done.

Decided against putting it in the galley, although it was in the original plans, and glad we did. We use two coolers, one for food, one for drinks. Both wouldn't fit. Decided I would much rather have room for the stuff we don't take in and out of the tear, and for dry food that doesn't care about temperature. That way we can move the ice chest to cooler areas (we live in the desert) with the movement of the sun. Also we can take it with us for day trips. So we are making a shelf that inserts on the side of the tear to raise up the food ice chest to an easier on old backs height when in camp, and removes for traveling. We also sometimes camp in bear country, and the ice chest has to go in the car anyway.

decided I would rather have the slide out water bottle (didn't want a sink) than an ice chest and I love it.

Can't remember who it was....but another teardropper had his door torn off the tear by a black bear that smelled some coffee...They weren't sleeping in it at the time, I'm thinking it was over on the eastern side of the Sierras. If you're in bear country, I'd avoid any food stuffs/beverage or whatever in the tear.

I put out small bowls of ammonia at the hatch and doors when I know there are bears around and at the tongue box. It looks too much like a cooler to them. They don't like ammonia...at least my experience has been that they don't, and at 4th of July last summer, others had a bear at/near their tear...I had no Ursine action. I'd much rather a "serious" bear tear up the back of the pickup rather than where I'm sleeping. Doug

doug hodder wrote: They don't like ammonia...at least my experience has been that they don't, and at 4th of July last summer, others had a bear at/near their tear...I had no Ursine action. I'd much rather a "serious" bear tear up the back of the pickup rather than where I'm sleeping. Doug

Doug, you sent me to the dictionary with that one!

I've never camped where there are bears, but I have ridden mountain bikes where they are and seen fresh scat. Good idea to make a lot of noise!

I put out small bowls of ammonia at the hatch and doors when I know there are bears around and at the tongue box

.

Bleach also works. I live in bear country, and a couple years back the bears would visit my garbage cans on a nightly basis. I started dumping bleach in each can and within a week the bear gave up even checking my cans.

Bears are exactly why my build will not have a full Galley, just a shelf. All food stuffs will be stored in TV and all food prep will be done elsewhere.

My wife and I spent a couple of decades hiking; backpacking; kayak camping, and car camping throughout the North East (i.e. Adirondaks Mtn's, Green Mtn's, White Mtn's and the very remote mountains of Maine).
We had more Black Bear encounters than I wish to remember both deep in the woods and at campgrounds.
I have witnessed the destruction these bruins can do to a camper, tent or vehicle. Luckily I have only had to hear them trying to get my hung in tree "bear bag"
One site I saw still sticks in my head. We were car camping with our touring kayaks. We drove into a campground in NY's Adirondaks. The attendant warned us that bears were especially destructive that summer.

He proceeded to warn me that our wood strip kayaks looked like a rooftop carrier (rocket box) that a lot of people use to carry gear.
He then showed us the remains of such a box with the roof rack still attached laying in a twisted pile next to a dumpster.

Appparently the owner had stored food in the box to keep it "out of reach" of bears. Well....... a Black Bear climbed onto the van with the box on top and proceeded to tear the box and the roof rack (Thule) right off the vehicle and onto the ground. He then ripped it open and found what he was looking for. The Rocket box was folded in half, the rack bars were bent almost 90* The rack towers were broken. It was a pile of junk waiting for trash pickup. Also the vehicle was damaged.
Needless to say, we didn't sleep well that night with 2 wood strip kayaks on our trucks roof.

From my experience, I feel it's imperative to keep ALL food away from where you sleep when camping in bear country. NO FULL GALLEY FOR ME!

$.02

Larry


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And I grumble about raccoons



But back on topic We keep the coolers in the tow vehicle
at night to keep them little masked bandits from getting
too curious. As there is little threat during the day they
reside under the counter or in the shade of the teardrop
trying to keep them out of the direct sun.

I know how destructive bears are, thanks everyone for reminding me. I just had visions of a really cool built in cooler in the counter top of my galley and needed a reality check. We've had bears chew through stainless steel clad wire cables where I work. They would make short work of a teardrop hatch. Since glacier is thick with grizzlies I'll just go with a full galley but keep the coolers in the car (keep all dry food out of galley and keep everything in galley spotless and sanitized with bleach). By the way, if you haven't visited glacier NP I recommend it to everyone. I've been to many NP's and glacier is easily my favorite.

mmmm... Does ice chest on your front platform count?
Scott G.

Sorry I couldn,t resist .....................

Actually the ice chest on the platform would get you a ticket the first time the rangers saw this unattended. I've had a ranger almost give me a ticket for having a cooler in the back of my pickup while I walked to register my campsite (about 5 minutes).