A new Teardrop Build

...ask your questions in the appropriate forums BUT document your build here...preferably in a single thread...dates for updates, are appreciated....

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:37 pm

rmclarke wrote:Very nice build....would love to see more pictures...interior especially! :thumbsup:



Why thank you.
The interior is fully bare. We have a folding sofa bed, a pair of reading lamps, and a dome light. Nothing else yet.
The folks around here advise living with it a while and camping a few times before finishing out the cabinets and shelves, that makes sense to us.
Here's a shot in the door. The interior walls are pre-finished maple plywood.

Image

One weekend was enough to crave a small shelf for glasses, wallet and keys.
We'll probably add a small cabinet or two, maybe a couple coat hooks, some nice under bed storage boxes for linens.

Here's the galley. Same approach, we're waiting to decide what we want for upper cabinets.
At the very start of the build we made upper cabinets, but we don't like them now so we didn't install them.

Image

The lower cabinet face frames and door frames are scraps of 1/2 inch baltic birch plywood with polyurethane, the door panels are 1/8 inch baltic birch.
The odd slots in the small door are functional. We have very little space left under the counter, with the air conditioner under the left end and the oven taking most of the rest. A full 20 lb propane bottle would take up the only remaining cabinet space so we decided to use little 1 pound propane bottles instead. They fit nicely in that little cabinet on the right, and when we're using the stove we put the little bottle on the ground outside and pass the propane hose through one slot. There's a 120VAC outlet inside that cabinet and the other slot is for an extension cord to exit. The tail end of the galley hatch was not finished in that picture, you can see some wires dangling and some raw framing from an open panel. We do now have pulls on the cabinet doors.
The wife gave formal approval for the galley as it stands, says the counter space and range are good.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby S. Heisley » Mon Jun 03, 2019 9:29 pm

8) Just added your beautiful lifting roof teardrop to Teardrops & Tiny Trailers with Lifting Roofs.
You can see it here (about 3 or 4 scrolls down)...: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=50969&p=943454#p943454
User avatar
S. Heisley
Super Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 8769
Images: 495
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:02 am
Location: No. California

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Tue Jun 04, 2019 5:30 pm

S. Heisley wrote:8) Just added your beautiful lifting roof teardrop to Teardrops & Tiny Trailers with Lifting Roofs.
You can see it here (about 3 or 4 scrolls down)...: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=50969&p=943454#p943454

Why thank you very much.
That set of lifting roof teardrops was my most valuable design reference at the beginning. I tried to examine every one of them, including yours. After dozens of hours of study I got a good understanding of the interplay between the various trade offs, so I could pick my own approach inside the boundaries of the solutions that work.

So please accept our deep gratitude for putting that collection together and keeping it well curated.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:43 pm

rmclarke wrote:Very nice build....would love to see more pictures...interior especially! :thumbsup:


So here's a few more shots of the interior. First is looking in the door. The sofa bed is made into a sofa, and the side windows stow at that spot like that when traveling.
There is a good amount of empty floor space this way, we use it to pile up tote boxes and gear when traveling. If you just want to go straight to bed without lifting the roof, those windows can stay against the wall when you pull out the bed and you can sleep with the roof closed down.

Image
Last edited by Aguyfromohio on Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:46 pm

This shot has the roof raised and the windows installed. When you sit on the sofa you see this view.

Image....Image ....Image
Last edited by Aguyfromohio on Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:56 pm

When the sofa is folded down into a bed the interior looks like this.
Image....................Image
.
.
.
Here's the foot of the bed
Image
Last edited by Aguyfromohio on Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:02 pm

The actuator that lifts the main roof attaches to the back window at the top and at the floor on the bottom.

Image ..............Image

Notice the foot in the one shot. The open floor at the foot of the bed is just big enough that you can turn around while standing up straight so you can put on your jeans or your shoes, and the little gap along the other wall lets you shuffle out standing up with your feet on the floor. You can get in and out of bed with muddy shoes and keep the sheets clean.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:45 pm

Here's how the back window looks with the roof closed. We have a hardwood strip across the bottom that rides inside hardwood guide rails. The window is only an inch away from the aft bulkhead, it takes up negligible space. The top edge of the back window is permanently attached to the roof with a full-length piano hinge. It is free to swing either way like a saloon door.

This first photo shows the back window above the air-conditioner when the roof is closed, and shows both side windows in the stowed location

Image
.
.
This one shows the curb side. You can see the vertical guide rail on the wall that keeps the window bottom captured when it moves up and down. Across the bottom of the window you can see the strip of walnut. That strip has a round nose and it does two things. It stiffens the window frame's long bottom edge, and it is a crude bearing for the window to slide on, a round surface of walnut against the flat surface of the oak guide rail. It only makes line-contact, and both surfaces are pretty hard and slick. The fit is loose, it needs to be because all the angles and clearances change as the roof goes up.
Image

Below is a closer view of the street side guide rail and window bottom. You may notice that the plywood window frame has a second piece of plywood lapped right on top, when it could have been just one bigger piece of plywood. We did that so the glazing bumps out to shed rain water. When the roof is up that keeps the rain from running down the outside face of the glass in one big sheet of water right into the cabin. We've camped in a strong rain a couple times now, it does not leak when the roof is up.

Notice that the nose of the walnut strip is about a half inch away from the guide rail. If you look at the posts above at how the actuator attaches, you'll see it's on a little crank arm mount at the top. The forces from the actuator put a rotational moment on the window because of that crank arm. When the roof moves through all of its travel, that moment rotates the window out tight against the guide rail even though the fit is loose. Right at the bottom of the travel, the roof weight gets supported on the sidewalls. The force of the actuator changes from pushing (to hold up the weight of the roof), and now the actuator is pulling downward (adding to the roof weight agains the wall seals). So the rotational moment reverses, and the window swings away from the guide rails back against the wall as tight as possible.

We worked things out so just at the moment the roof is down tight against the wall seals, the actuator turns itself off, holding the roof down tight against the wall seals. The actuator is pretty strong, 250 lb of force. If it doesn't automatically stop at each end of the travel at the right instant, you'll break something important for sure. Maybe pull the actuator off the window or floor. Maybe pull the window piano hinge off the roof. Something bad. The actuator has no backlash and you can't move it without running it, so we use it as the only roof hold-down latch.

Image
Last edited by Aguyfromohio on Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Sat Jul 27, 2019 10:06 am

Camping
Image




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby kscmpr54 » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:36 pm

Great thread, thanks for sharing your build journey.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
kscmpr54
Teardrop Builder
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon May 13, 2019 4:41 pm
Location: Wichita, KS
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Thu Aug 01, 2019 8:32 am

kscmpr54 wrote:Great thread, thanks for sharing your build journey.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks for the kind words.
We could never have gotten these trailers completed without reading through the many excellent build threads here.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Mon May 04, 2020 7:21 pm

So we made a radical change. We took out the Ikea sofa bed.
It turns out that sitting on a couch is not worth the trouble of folding up the bed.
Instead we have a nice tall air bed. Built in blower to inflate. Automatic pressure keeping, if it gets soft it runs for 10 seconds to regain firmness

That's the air bed in it's bag where the sofa bed used to be.

Image
Last edited by Aguyfromohio on Mon May 04, 2020 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Mon May 04, 2020 7:23 pm

Here's the bed inflated.
Notice I built a little cabinet by the door. It helps keep the airbed against the wall. Still need to build the cabinet doors.
The top makes a nice shelf.

Image
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Mon May 04, 2020 7:29 pm

The sofa bed had a few shortcomings. It looked good on paper but not so much in real life.
It wasn't very comfortable. The shape of the thing had a problem too. When it was a sofa, and the back was tight against the wall, that's where we fastened it to the floor. But when it folded out, the bed ended up about 8 inches from the wall. That movement reduced the standing room at the foot of the bed.

The air bed is tight against the front wall so it gives us back about 8 inches of standing room at the foot of the bed.

Image
Last edited by Aguyfromohio on Mon May 04, 2020 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

Re: A new Teardrop Build

Postby Aguyfromohio » Mon May 04, 2020 7:36 pm

The sofa blocked the door when loading in gear.
Now the door is wide open to put something like a big cooler straight in.
We used to lift the bins and cooler up over the corner of the couch to get them in and out

ImageImage
User avatar
Aguyfromohio
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 392
Images: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:02 am
Top

PreviousNext

Return to Build Journals

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests