Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

My wife and I have been reading the forum for months now and have settled upon our base and the general shape of the teardrop we are building. Base/trailer/floor is built with Timbren axle-less suspension and full size tires. We have bought the plywood for the sides and know what kind of doors we want to use. We need help for designing and building the interior cabinetry and galley. There are so many ideas on the forum that we like and are trying to settle in to our final decision on what we want. Our trailer is a 5 X 8. Can anyone suggest plans that they had good luck with? Many of the links to plans on the Design Resources page are broken.

I bought several plans on the internet, ebay, etc. and most were not worth the $20-30 I paid for them. The one that was worth the money was Steve Fredericks shop manual that Halfdome Pointed you to. Its more like how to build inside out than actual plans but he tells you a way to build that will only require a basic idea. I drew my ideas up on paper, no cad program used, determined basic dimensions for length and width and then used Steve's method (a flexible stick and the eye ball) for all of the curves etc.

I highly recommend buying and reading it a couple times. If you don't understand something in the manaul Steve will respond to emails. I had a couple areas I was trying to figure out (I couldn't tell from the pictures in his build manual) so I checked out his web site and his builds ( he has built at least 7) where he has lots more pictures and was able to figure things out. I also emailed Steve (mostly on tools) twice and he responded with helpful answers. After I figured it all out I used his methods and built my teardrop.

His hatch method is real easy and seals very well.

Good luck with your build
Dan

Thanks so much Dan and Danny. Will definitely check those plans out!

Dennis

Hi Dennis, I am planning a 5x5x10 with a drop floor. With the advise from members applied to my needs, I designed my next and posted my drawings on the drop floor tab of the trailer and chassis secrets thing. Its free and if it yield one good idea then the price is right. Pictures of my 4x4x8 are in the members gallery under "C" page 25 and is the basis for the next build. If I were to do it over I would have added an inch to the lower space depth in the galley as there is plenty of sleeping leg room in the cabin and the galley space is cutting it close. Making your galley fit your ice chest plus one inch is kind of like having the cart haul the donkey but somehow works.
Enjoy, Chris

Try measuring all of your gear and deciding what needs to go where.

A CampChef oven/stove unit and a Coleman camp sink dictated a large number of the features in my galley. The height from the countertop to the storage shelf above it was dictated by the height of a bottle of wine plus some extra space, the storage cabinet was determined by the size of our 2-gallon pot. For the interior cabinetry, I measured things around the house that we'd want on the headboard (tablets, phones, CPAPs, etc), toiletry bags for the shelves above, and suitcases to get ideas on storage volumes for the cabinets below. The foot cabinets were simply enough clearance for our feet (which probably I could have given a wider margin for, I only gave 12" above the mattress), and then ending 25" from the door to allow a crosswise bunk.

I'm a little slow to answer, but in all reality the Generic Benroy Plans really do give an excellent overview of the basics for any teardrop style trailer.