TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby woodi » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:33 pm

Glad others are getting inspiration from the design and thinking of other ways to use it. A couple caveats I might note after getting well into building it.

1) Don't plan on having 4 doors unless you really need them all. Building that many doors and having them all work properly and fit well has been a real PIA for me. At least with my construction methods
2) Be careful about how much weight you plan on putting in the front cabinet. Bikes are light (relatively) compared to the amount of space they take up. In order to get the doors for the sleeping quarters in a decent location I had to push the axle way back. So if you start putting lots of weight in the front cabinet she is going to get very tongue heavy.
3) that front radius is really tight. I was able to get my plywood to bend to it but It was not easy and I greatly undersized and underspaced my spars in that area. I'd say they should be at least 2x2 and be spaced every 6-8 inches. It wouldn't hurt to have a little more meat in the walls up there too because I can tell when I look at them next to the doors that they have flexed the sidewalls a bit so everything doesn't line up quite properly. Go for a wider radius and you'll probably avoid all these problems.
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby S. Heisley » Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:56 pm

...Add a vent and a window for a dog. (Dogs get hot and claustrophobic, too!)
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby Junkboy999 » Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:43 pm

Woodi

Ya Hindsight is always brighter than foresight. Now you see why a lot of the forum member have built two or more teardrops. I never noticed until you pointed it out, you're right about the front could use some more meat around the front radius. Too late now, But on your next one :lol: . Maybe only one door up front and big enough just to get the back bike out first, then get out the forward bike. This way you would not have to extend the front any more.

I have to say there is a lot of possibility for a build like this. As stated in the past post. It would be a nice size Kennel for a service dog, or just for people who like their dogs with them but don't like them sleeping in the bed with them. It would work for a bed on the ground level as the master bed and one bunk up for kids too young to sleep in a tent. I think you can even use it for a place for the mother-in-law.

Most of the teardrops profile have been named by the builder like Benroy and Kinskill ( I think ), or for their appearance like slouchy or chubby. I think there profile is different enough that it deserves its own name. Have you thought up any. The bike rack. K9-Kondo. The baby bunks. Mother-in-law place. The possibility are almost endless. Ok so they are not endless because I can't think of any more good ones.

How the covering going?
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby Forrest747 » Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:45 pm

Junkboy999 wrote:Woodi

Mother-in-law place. The possibility are almost endless. Ok so they are not endless because I can't think of any more good ones.

How the covering going?


NO MOTHER IN LAWS, just saying
"All the success on the trail can not compensate for having square headlights"

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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby Bogo » Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:55 pm

Forrest747 wrote:
Junkboy999 wrote:Woodi

Mother-in-law place. The possibility are almost endless. Ok so they are not endless because I can't think of any more good ones.

How the covering going?


NO MOTHER IN LAWS, just saying

MIL gets the tent... ;)
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby woodi » Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:46 pm

Well it's been a very long time since my last post, I apologize. Life has been crazy busy so this if the first chance I've had to post but Ramblin' Rose is serving us well. We left our jobs in mid July and spent the last 2 weeks of July crazily finishing up our camper and moving all our belongings we weren't taking with us into storage. After that we flew to Alaska for a week with family then upon returning home hit the road in our new camper. We christened her Ramblin' Rose a nod to my wife's middle name and stolen from the Grateful Dead song. So far she has traveled from Buffalo, NY to Glacier National park with many stops along the way. She's been down rough dirt roads, up to 12,000ft, through hail storms, and as of yesterday covered in cow manure. it's so sad to see our hard work getting beat up but she's also been a fantastic place to come home to every night for the past month. Sure there are a few things we'd do different and we'll see how she holds up over the long run but overall we are very happy with how everything has worked out.

I know someone suggested earlier in the post that we come up for a name for this design style, we personally like to call it "The Lifestyler" since it allowed us to accommodate for our mountain biking lifestyle but could also be adapted to whatever is important to bring along in others "Lifestyle."

But anyways without further ado the finished product...

Glamour Shots on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park
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Some Interior Shots
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You can see the handlebar loft in this one. It ended up being a convenient place for reading lights and switches inside the cabin and really made the whole design work. Thanks so much to JunkBoy for the idea. The change trickled down through so many aspects of the camper that gave us a lot more space to work with.
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A happy camper
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The Kitchen
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And what it usually looks like when it's open...
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The bikes in their new home..
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby iregan » Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:53 pm

Looks fantastic!!!!
Glad you spent the summer enjoying the TD, it looks sooo functional as well as beautiful!
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby PKCSPT » Sun Sep 15, 2013 2:16 am

Looks just wonderful.
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby Junkboy999 » Wed Sep 25, 2013 7:18 pm

Looks like it is working out well. Having that little extra room on the side of the bed come in handy. Most people have to sit on the side of the door frame or the side of the mattress to take off shoes or to reach inside and get things out.
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby S. Heisley » Wed Sep 25, 2013 8:05 pm

Looks good! ...very nice use of space for the bikes, helmets, etc. Lovely "model", too! :lol: How come she didn't take a pic of you?!!!
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby webpager » Tue Sep 16, 2014 6:47 pm

I guess sort of late to be a consideration for this design, but maybe as I am putting ideas, etc together for my own, I can get more info.

As I was looking at this, thinking of weight, etc, I was wondering if it wouldn't be better to mount a battery and water tank closer to the front. A 10 gallon tank is 88 lbs of water + the weight of the tank and hardware. The battery is what? About 40 pounds or so? Wouldn't that weight, in a design like this, be better in front of the axle?

I'm not an engineer and I haven't built my first one yet. Just seeking ideas from real examples.

Thanks,
Marc, Webpager
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby woodi » Fri Sep 19, 2014 12:38 am

Marc, I put my battery and water tank back there on purpose to take some weight off the tongue. In order to squeeze both the bike closet and cabin doors in front of the wheels I had to push the axle way back. By doing that I put a lot more weight on the tongue. While designing I was shooting for around 100lbs of tongue weight so I located the various parts to try and accomplish that. Fully loaded and traveling a truck scale read 1400# for my axle and while I haven't actually weighed the tongue separately, picking the camper up and moving it around if say the tongue is 100-150# which is in the desirable 10% range.
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby webpager » Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:38 pm

I have been looking at this on a phone so hadn't really noticed how far back the axle was located. It's also heavier than I thought (I was guessing total to be about 750-900#.) but I forget to add bed, bikes, and fixtures, etc.
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Re: TD for 2 with a garage for bikes

Postby woodi » Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:05 pm

Yeah... I was shooting for #1000 with the design from the start but by the time she was built and filled with stuff she gained #500. I'm Glad I went with the HD trailer frame and ended up reinforcing it. After 20,000 miles and some terrible roads everything seems to be holding up fine other than I've gone through a set of tires and a few sets of wheel bearings, but I partly blame that on my shoddy bearing services.
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