South Florida Family Looking To Travel

[amandastevenisbet]

Hello everyone. I have recently been searching for the best way to travel around North America. I own a 33 foot Class C camper, but do not want to take it that far. It's not that its in bad shape (only 25,000 miles) its just not practical for such a long journey. Plus I can't stand driving, or backing up the beast. So I started to look at other options. Finally finding this great website.
A little background for everyone. I am 30 years old, married, and have 2 small children (4 and 7). My parents took my sister and I on a camping trip across America and back when I was 6 and my sister was 8. I would like to recreate the journey with my kids in the summer of 2008. My son would be the age I was when my father took me. The trip would take 45 days and we would travel 11,000 miles. Exclusivley camping at or near most of America's National Parks.
I want to travel as light and comfortable as possible. I understand that there might not be room for all of us to be comfortable in a teardrop. We could use the teardrop as a camping equipment hauler, and kitchen. With the benifit of sleeping in when the weather is bad. I also like the idea of being able to set up at a camp ground, leaving the trailer and going to navigate the National Parks without hauling anything behind me. This to me seems like the most logical way to travel.
Now the fun part. I have a little less than 2 years to come up with a plan that fits my family and to build one. I love the idea of building one myself, but my skills with woodworking is close to none. I have seen a few sites that offer kits for under 2k plus the purchase of a trailer. Are these kits good options for someone like me? Or are they way to small? Could someone with very minimum woodworking skills pull a teardrop off as a first project? How much does a basic design normaly cost to produce? Anyone with good advice on a first builder would be great.
Thanks for this great site. I can't wait to get started on the project.

Steven

[Nytewyng]

Sell the 33 ft gas guzzler and comission someone to build for your families needs.......just my 2 cents

[Miriam C.]

Welcome Steven,
I believe I fit the first timer and a few you didn't mention. I have made home repairs (paneling, sheet rocking, fixing dressers and a bookshelf) I am also a short, middle age granny. My teardrop is a little more than half way finished. I am doing it!!!

Time and patience will get you there. The one thing I did was spend several months reading builds and looking at pictures, reading wood working books.

Advice. Design your own with help from the forum. There are a couple of great builds for families and Endo has a tent/tear combo that works for his. EZ also has a great deal for two kids.

Cost will depend on what you use for materials. Larger ttt will run you a couple of thousand (EZ's was under a $1000) and up by the time you get all the stuff. The little stuff adds up, so start your collection of wire, lights, and junk now.

Good luck and you have lots of time.

[amandastevenisbet]

I am already selling a car that I have started to restore to finance the project. It was put up for sale last week. It will also free up the space that I will need in the garage. I would much rather build one myself than to buy one. Even if it doesn't have square angles

[Mary K]

Welcome Steven,

To help answer your question about cost, I have started my first build with the Generic Benroy Plans above. I also started a Excel spreadsheet, that breaks down the steps in materials and cost. I don't have all material costs listed but I am close, and it's at about $2,300.

I don't have alot of woodworking skills but thats not stopping me.

Mk

[amandastevenisbet]

What about tools? What would be the basic tools that I would need to construct a teardrop?
I am hitting the Library tomorrow to check out some wood working books.

[Mary K]

This thread has some info for ya.

http://tnttt.com/viewto ... =tool+list

Mk

[madjack]

Welcome to the board...believe me when I say everything you need besides materials/tools are right here on the board...take a nice long breath, pour yourself a cool one and read, read, read. Once you have done enough reading and planning and dreaming, we will be here to help ya out...just remember the pictures, it is what we charge for more advice than you can use...oh, and a healthy sense of humor will help because we are all mostly a bubble or so off....have fun and READ
madjack

[Chip]

welcome to the forum and good luck with which ever way you finally go,,, My humble opinion is ,,,, Make the build a total family project,,, put the kids to work and let them be a part of creating your trailer and then they will enjoy the trip next summer even more,,, Just think when some monster motor home person comes up to take a peek and ask did your daddy build it ??? just watch them poke their chest out when they say well we built it but daddy did help us,,,, The trailer will be something the whole family has pride in not only ownership but building,,,

go for it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

chipper

[Woody]

Another Floridian joins the board we are taking over. Today the board, tommorow the world. We have a gathering planned for Nov 10 -12 at Anastasia State Park by St. Agustine Florida fot the Florida Chapter of the Tear Jerkers. Come on by or camp with us. Where exactly is La Belle, in central Florida I think?. I am by and west of Ft Lauderdale by I-75 and Griffin Road near Weston Florida. Feel free the ask any questions

[amandastevenisbet]

Thanks for the list of tools. That helps me out very much. I had a few people come over today to look at the Camaro I have for sale. One person loved it and offered me some good cash. He will hopefuly pick it up tomorrow afternoon. With the cash I can start the project. Just need to clean out a work space in the garage.
I was noticing that there was a few different size trailers people were building on. I came across a 4x8, and a 5x8 trailer. But how big of a trailer can be used? And still be able to be pulled effortlessly by a v6 SUV? I was looking at www.bigredtrailers.com. Is there any other links to trailers that anyone else has used with success?
I will most likely go with a similar design based on the Benroy. The only difference would be I would swap out the inside cabinets for a child bunk. Having only one door I can strenghten up the other side of the teardrop to hold the bunk. This I'm hoping would be plenty of room to sleep all four of us comfortably.
LaBelle is between Ft. Myers and West Palm Beach on Rt. 80. It sounds like a lot of fun to meet up with the TearJerkers in Nov. But I will be away to Chicago on business about that time. Thanks for the invite. I will need to plan some trips out to met and see some teardrops that are complete.
Steven

[larryl]

Steven:

Go for it.

I have to agree with Chip. Our 5X8 teardrop started out as a father/daughter project. Soon included a father-in-law. Took about 1 year and $3000.00 to build. Time spent with family priceless.

Would not, nor could not have completed the project without the help of the board.

Larry

[Steve_Cox]

Steven,

Teardrops for 4... There are some cool designs drawn by Andrew in the design library at the top of the forum. Here's one I have always admired for the portholes. The kids could have their very own windows to peek out at the wildlife. As for doors, you would be really glad to have two, if you don't think so, push your bed up against the wall and have your wife crawl over you to get out of bed for a few nights and see how you like it.

[amandastevenisbet]

Is the Tear shape cut out of one piece of 4foot X 8foot ply wood? I have a few pieces of plywood that I was taking a look at in my garage. Doesn't seem big enough.

[madjack]

Is the Tear shape cut out of one piece of 4foot X 8foot ply wood? I have a few pieces of plywood that I was taking a look at in my garage. Doesn't seem big enough.

...the first thing to remember is that tears are SMALL and yes an eight foot tear is that size because of ply sizes...to go up in size you will haveta make or find larger ply...which is done on a regular basis(making larger).....
madjack