New Guy in Western Washington

[Rick Tyler]

Redmond, to be precise.

Hello everyone. Don't have a trailer yet, but I'm looking. I am not sure sure if I want to build or buy, but I hear the siren call of construction. I have a pretty-well-equipped woodshop, and have built 3 small stitch-and-glue boats of my own, plus led a group of Boy Scouts building a fleet of 6 more S&G canoes. I've also done by own kitchen project, including scratch-built cabinets. Nothing about building a Teardrop is particulary intimidating.

My only real issue is that, although I've been seeing Teardrops my whole life, I've never camped in one. Does anyone know of rental Teardrops in the East side of King County? The complicating factor is that I'm 75 inches tall, and tend to stretch out when sleeping, so any trailer with less than 80" is just too short, and 84" would be better.

If we do a few rental nights and it works for us, we would probably end buying or building 5x9 or 5x10 Teardrop so that we have room for me, my trophy wife (married 38 years next week), and our stuff. No pets, though. Plan B might be a home-made A-Frame popup, which would probably still fit in the tiny trailer world.

Looking forward to learning, and getting to know you.

Likes: craftsmanship, light weight, clever solutions, good plywood, tight joints, waterproof camping accommodations.
Dislikes: cheap plywood, cheap tools, bad fasteners, mean people, bad beds.

Knows about: I know a fair amount about ply/glass/epoxy composites. I hope to use something like Sketchup to develop curved plywood panels to design a S&G trailer.

Wants to learn: welding.

Rick

[halfdome, Danny]

Welcome to the forum Rick.
I'm not aware of anyone who will rent a teardrop in Western Washington but do know the owners of http://vacations-in-a-can.com/teardrop-rentals/
Maybe you could plan a trip to Northern California, like maybe Yosemite, and pick up the rental on your way down.
As far as size to fit you, I sold my first teardrop to a 6' 8" gentleman and the bed was a 80" queen, he seemed to do okay.
Maybe you could come out to one of Teardroppers Of Washington & Oregon gatherings and get a feel of what you might want, either purchased or home built.
Teardrop wanabees with tents are welcome to some of the gatherings.
Danny

[Vedette]

Yes Rick, there is a Gathering sponsored by the Tear Jerkers just up the road from you about 6 hrs July 14th-17th.......The Farm Gathering.
We would love to have you come up and camp with us to meet other "Teardrop Enthusiasts" and see what Teardrop Camping is all about.
That is the beauty of organizations like the "Tear Jerkers" they welcome all types of campers.
You will find though, that "Teardrop Campers" are a very special breed, unlike any other camping groups you may have encountered in the past.
Hope you can make your way up to the Sunny Okanagan for our Gathering.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[aflaude]

Try this link:

http://www.basecampadventurerentals.com ... AknU8P8HAQ

[Rick Tyler]

Try this link:

http://www.basecampadventurerentals.com ... AknU8P8HAQ

Thanks for the link!

Rick

[Rick Tyler]

We are off on our first teardrop camping adventure tomorrow. Should be fun, it's supposed to be a beautiful weekend here in the Great Northwet.

We rented this TC Teardrop 5x9 from Basecamp Adventure Rentals. Dan is a great guy, if you need to rent a TD in western Washington, look him up: http://www.basecampadventurerentals.com/



Rick

[Vedette]

Well ......what did you think??
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi
PS
We are just back from 23 nights out in Miss Piggy on the PNW Fall Crawl.

[joyofweaving]

Greetings from Gig Harbor, neighbor!

[Rick Tyler]

First trip report:

We did our TD trip a few weeks ago to Lake Wenatchee State Park, and it was entirely uneventful (in terms of problems). The Mazda pulled the trailer without any drama, and I managed to back into a tent space in the pitch-black darkness without too much fuss. We hiked, bird-watched, made camp fires, cooked a couple of meals, and slept really well. We learned a lot about TD camping, which is pretty much the same as tent camping without, you know, the hassle of a tent. It hardly even rained!

We are in the process of a pretty big home remodeling job right now, but when that's done I think a TD might be in our future. I'm not sure I would rather spend 3 months building a trailer than spend 3 months traveling.

The TC Teardrop was great, by the way. The 5x9 we rented is pretty basic, and I think that is how I would go. The fewer installed systems in an RV, the less there is to fix, and I want to camp, not work on the camper. I would consider buying one, but there are no dealers here and the rental company told me that shipping costs to Seattle were really high. I might ask if they are thinking of selling their "old" trailers.