Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

When I taped my seams, I had an occasional air bubble with the 2" tape but none with the 4" width. The 4" wide tape was much easier to deal with and doesn't seem to slip around as much.

On vertical seams, I tacked the tape with a temporary wire-sized nail at the top to help hold it in place until it was almost dry and holding well. I used a cheap plastic spatula to even out the tape and scrape out the air bubbles.

The other thing I did was I lightly wet down the seam area with epoxy just before I applied each piece of fiberglass tape. Other than the tacking, I think that may have helped me the most.

It will be interesting to learn what others did with their tape applications.

PS. CPES epoxy is not recommended for the tape. I used Doc Rot's Layup and Laminate epoxy for my fiberglass tape, which is a mutually responsive product. Please consult the manufacturer of your product to know what is best to use.

My absense from the forum is mostly a casualty of "Teardrop-time" as well as oppressive Fayetteville summer heat, and now compounded by a move to Tennessee.

So... The Nest'r maiden voyage will a bit ignoble but definitely a 'shakedown' as far as trailerablity issues are concerned. The indignity that befalls her? She will be used in lieu of a U-Haul trailer.

No pretty scenery, no smoke from campfires, no cozy mattress to sleep upon. She's stuffed with gear and bicycles and hitched up for duty; 300 miles to Northeast Tennessee.

In preparation for the journey every bolt was re-tightened, and the wheel bearings re-packed. All the bolt-ons, well, were bolted on. Windows added, door mounted, vent bolted down, and all the lights wired and functioning.

So here she is ready for a hard-day's drive:


Hopefully she'll still look as good upon arrivall!

That is a very nice unit you have there. Let us know how the Hyundai does as a TV with the trailer fully loaded.

Well I tried not to get carried away with loading her up. I figured maybe 300 or so pounds of stuff. My guess is gross weight was probably not more than 1200 lbs.

The hyuandai - now with 138,000 miles pulled her just fine. From about 150ft elevation up and over "Fancy Gap" at over 2200ft. The cruise did like 4th gear if the grade got even a little steep. But using the manual mode I could force the car to stay in 5th longer, or make a smoother down shift manually.

The other hit was mileage; from an typical 28 on this trip down to about 16!

The most irritating part of the whole trip though was how much the trailer 'bucked' when the road was less than smooth. Something my sailboat does not do. The boat trailer though, is probably 16ft to th axle and 25ft overall, where the Nest'r is just 9 to the axle and less than 15ft overall. (The HF trailer is fairly 'stubby', exspecially the tongue).

The TV with its other burden:

Hi Lester,

Glad to see the "first outing" went well. As you are, we all are waiting to see updates after you get settled in your new home.

Don't worry about time. I'm coming up on the 3-year mark of my build soon.

Take care,
Tom

Tom graciously linked to your build when someone asked about garage capable standy designs (http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=1038256#p1038256).

I, too, am building a TD, but have been 2nd guessing myself that maybe I should have looked closer at a standy or slouchie.

Great build you have going on; the curved rockers are an inspiration!

Any recent progress?

Lester, looking at your new trailer (nice work, by the way!) it seems as if the axle is pretty far forward.

You may be able to tame a lot of the "bucking" just by loading your gear to add weight to the front of the trailer. More tongue weight often tames an unruly towing trailer.

Well, teardrop time seems to have collided with a procrastination event resulting in a time warp/dilation of years instead of weeks!

Update: The Tow Vehicle (the Hyundai Snot-a) reached 193,000 miles without incident; and well, I wasn't really sure that trend was going to continue indefinitely. Sooo... Tow vehicle replacement time!

The New vehicle is rated at 3500lbs so I do not think towing the Nest'r will be any problem.

Speaking of which... I have resumed work...

And work it is! Let this be a reminder kiddies... DO NOT NEGLECT undercoating the whole sha-bang when you have the chance. Doing it later is a bear. I did use the Fence Post paint "Black Beauty" from Tractor Supply; inexpensive and effective. I have everyone here to thank for their trials, and input in helping to select an appropriate bottom coat.

How's she look right now?

She doesn't look much different -- but she's approaching usefulness at the speed of smell.

We have color.
That is definitely progress.

That's going to look really nice!

Love the color combo.

It's cute!

Second coat of paint and the masking tape comes off...


Now it's time to begin reassembly.

The color combination looks really good.

RandyG (IIRC) and I have both been planning some sort of gray tone theme for our builds. I like the way you tied it together with the lighter color for the roof.

jstrubberg wrote:Lester, looking at your new trailer (nice work, by the way!) it seems as if the axle is pretty far forward.

You may be able to tame a lot of the "bucking" just by loading your gear to add weight to the front of the trailer. More tongue weight often tames an unruly towing trailer.

Nice looking Tear. I wanted to second this post and comment about the trailer handling.

Check your tongue weight. It should be 10% to 15% of your total trailer weight. IE. a 1000 lb trailer should have a 100 lb to 150 lb tongue weight. Less than that may buck! More than that just puts excessive weight on your TV. With the axle in the middle of your tear, it will be very easy to have the tongue weight too light.

My teardrop is the opposite. I am 1750 lb and I think about 250 lb tongue weight. I tried to lift it once... Big mistake! It didn't budge. In fact, I think my tongue jack looks a little stressed... I stuck an 50 lb air conditioner and big tongue box right on the front of my tear. Last time I had my teardrop out, my TV was sitting a little low in the rear... I had a 20 lb propane bottle in the tongue box and a bunch of other camp gear... That is it! I am weighing my tongue tomorrow. I gotta see what it really weighs.