Hello from Colorado

[t3jem]

Hello!

My name is John, and I'm a project/hobby addict.

I've been wanting to build a small camper/van conversion/tiny house for a long time now and finally convinced my wife to let me build a teardrop for camping after a very cold and rainy tent camping trip this weekend.

I'm planning on building a 5 x 10 (possibly 6 x 10 if I can easily widen the footprint on my 5 x 8 trailer) tear drop.

The biggest question in my mind right now as I begin is whether it is feasible to install a stargazing window. I saw a thread on here discussing some options, but I didn't see anything that laid out how to build a large (4' x 2') window that was sure to stay waterproof for years to come. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

looking forward to learning from you all!

[tony.latham]

And hello back at you.



The commercially built star gazing windows are notorious for leaking. And I don't have any experience with rolling my own.

I started out with a commercially made 4-wide and then built a 5-wide. I miss towing the old 4-wide. I think a 6-wide would be like pulling a pig down the road. I don't know what we would do with another foot. There's just a point...



How wide is your tow vehicle?



Tony

[KennethW]

6 wide, You may need extend mirrors.

[t3jem]

I didn't think about extended mirrors for a 6 wide.

I'm going to be towing with a Volvo XC90 which is just under 80" wide.

My main desire was to fit a king bed for extra dog/kid space, but as I look more into the work involved it's more likely to end up being 5' wide instead to keep things simpler for my first build.

[KennethW]

I think you may be over looking that in teardrops you can lay against the walls (you can't fall out) So a queen is almost like a king.

[lee senn]

John I don't know how big/heavy your dog is but one of the guys at the Walk the Winds gathering a couple of years ago brought a teardrop with a fold out area for his dog . It looked and worked great. If I can find a picture on the old gathering site I'll reference it for you. Lee and Norma