Been a long time since I posted, so I figured I'd dredge up this thread instead of starting a new one.
I have done a lot of research over the past couple of years and I finally have a teardrop in my garage right now.
I had looked pretty heavily into doing a build, and found that to get it how I wanted, it wasn't going to cost me substantially less than buying one, and it would have taken a lot of time and required learning skills that I lacked. So I shifted gears to look at options for teardrops I could buy.
About a year ago, a friend of mine wrote a Covet article for Outside Magazine about Hiker Trailer, and pointed out that they have a location in Indiana, also.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2087366/s ... re-vehicleI was looking at them, and noticed they offered rentals. So in October, I rented one for the Brown County Epic mtb festival.
Hiker Trailer Brown County Epic by
Nate, on Flickr
That sold us. We took about a month picking options and setting up our build list with Wes (Indiana builder in Noblesville) and placed our order. His build time jumped after he attended Overland East the same weekend we attended the Epic, so we knew we'd have to wait a bit. His build time when we picked up our rental was 3mo. It jumped to 4-5mo by the time we placed our order. It's now at 5-6mo.
On Friday, I picked up my own 5x10 Hiker Trailer, and my wife and I depart on Tuesday morning for the Sedona MTB Festival in Sedona, Arizona.
20170224_152509 by
Nate, on Flickr
20170224_145414 by
Nate, on Flickr
20170224_182144 by
Nate, on Flickr
Let's see if I can remember the build list.
The trailer itself is a 5x10 Deluxe model
Major Options:
large tongue box
Fox Wing awning
Large side swing rear door (required with Fox Wing)
Electric brakes (didn't research the car side of this one enough before including the option - it's going to take a little time to get the brake controller part figured out, because the Crosstrek is not exactly an easy car to install a brake controller on)
Electrical package 1 (12v AGM battery, 40 watt solar panel, interior lighting, and associated controllers and fuses and whatnot)
Diamond plate trim (pretty much purely for appearance)
Maxx Fan
Undermount spare tire
vents for a portable A/C if I want to add one later
Stuff I added after the purchase:
Milliard tri-fold 6" thick memory foam mattress
1upUSA roof rack bike trays
Locks (ball, coupler, boot-style wheel lock)
Harbor Freight trailer dolley (for at home, but still important)
Wheel chocks and leveling blocks
Coleman Fyremajor stove (has its own stand, but can also be used on a tabletop)
Still to do (will happen after the inaugural road trip):
Sew up some curtains
Slide-out tray for a cooler. My current cooler is too tall for the galley space (which are just shelves on the Hiker, with some of the interior electrical bits like the fuses tucked in there), but I'm planning to use an RTIC 45qt cooler for the Hiker.
Some vinyl cutout graphics for the sides. I'm going to be putting my business logo on it.