Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am not sure how tight you are willing to go with your radius, but if you are willing to go tighter you can run a router along the edges.

That is what I did on my standie.

I built the camper like normal but before fiberglassing the edges I hit them with the largest router bit I had. It softened the edges considerably.

GPW wrote:W, EXACTAMUNDO !!! Guess it would only be practical if you were going to make a Bunch of them ... Now the ideal thing to do is make a mold and include some tabs for attachment coming out the sides/bottom , the whole corner slight raised to accommodate the roof and side material .. Install the corner then sheet over the edges ...

That sounds difficult.... I would be more prone to tape the corner in place on the outside, Use fiberglass tape and epoxy from the underside, once dry, fill the seams outside with microballoons/epoxy then some lightweight 3 or 4 oz cloth over the top of the seams on the outside. It would smooth decently enough to make it seamless and still very strong.

If you really wanted little tabs that should be easy enough to make seperately and just epoxy them to the finished corner piece wherever you want.

W, that would be easier , and just like the Old timers did it ... they worked it all out long ago ... (the pic ^)

john wrote:I am not sure how tight you are willing to go with your radius, but if you are willing to go tighter you can run a router along the edges.

That is what I did on my standie.

I built the camper like normal but before fiberglassing the edges I hit them with the largest router bit I had. It softened the edges considerably.

John,

Your build was what got me to thinking about a standy in the first place. I've had it bookmarked for some time now. I really like your profile and dimensions. Please don't see surprised if what I end up doing looks very similar.

That is a good tip about the router. (I enjoyed your comments in your build about what would life be without routers. I now have four of them.) For the time being though, I am thinking about more-rounded edges - something approximating a 12" radius - or ellipse. Of course, this probably quadruples the construction time, and time is not what I have enough of.

I also like your dropped frame. Being garage-able is a goal, even though I haven't resolved my wife's only request which is to have a shower.

Thank you for sharing your build,
Tom

Tom, I don't know if you came across various sized "trailer ball corners" in your search. They should be readily available from trailer supply houses in various stock sizes. Here's one source for a steel corner:

http://totaltrailerparts.com/store/inde ... ts_id=3177

Sometimes it's a matter of whether you have more $$$ or more time available. If you wanted to make fiberglass corners you could purchase one of the steel corners and make a female mold, then make four home-built corners from your mold. I haven't seen one of these corners in person but I would guess they are fairly correct in terms of radius and having the 90 degree issue down pat. They do not look like they have a flange to screw or rivet to....looks like a weld-in-place type of corner. A flange would not be hard to engineer into a female mold though. Just some food for thought.

Track, that's a Super idea!!! .. one metal mold , make as many fiberglass ones as you need ..

Tom,
Here are the images of a TTT version of a breadloaf I drew to you thoughts, with a Westcraft back end and a American Homecrest Front. I think it looks pretty good, just a shorter loaf of bread...
Enjoy,

Peter

Ooo, pretty design. Where can I find one?

I like it too!


Now, where to buy pre stamped corners...?

Rob

Peter,

Those renderings are stunning! Thank you for putting those together.

I had tried to sketch a profile of a breadloaf with the Westcraft "back end" morphed onto the Homecrest "front end" using graph paper and pencil. I'm not sure my drawing would have an earned a single star in a first-grade art class.

From my crude sketch, the profile looked okay, but I couldn't visualize how it looked with the curves. With your Sketch-up model, I can now see it!

Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Tom

Well done! Doug

Tom, that is a cool idea for your next trailer! I like the ball corners that are available, that makes it easy.

For me...what is tough is to make a pleasing/appropriate radius on the roof line, with a tall enough door, and still make it fit in the garage. I'm thinking a dormer with a raidus on the door will help on the height thing. I will have to swap wheels on it for in and out however. I do that now with the Nomad. I'm sort of reworking a design...not where I want it yet.

The real challenge I believe is to get it all trimmed out in a stained vintage appropriate wood on the interior. May not be important to others, but I'm shooting for a late 30's look. Epoxy, glass, bondo and paint on the exterior will take care of the exterior.

Since I don't build with any real plans...I'm thinking...get the exterior shell done and then figure out how to section the interior skin so it looks good. Then build out the interior. A front and rear full width cabinet could cover up the end upper corners, and the roof sides and end corners could be done up in 1/8" paneling that would do the bend. The galley and any cabinets ought to have some raidius on the corners for a vintage look.

I've had a chat with Andrew regarding the axle-less spindles and have sort of gotten some preliminary frame issues worked out. That will help on the interior height. It won't be an "off-roader" however. Doug

doug hodder wrote:For me...what is tough is to make a pleasing/appropriate radius on the roof line, with a tall enough door, and still make it fit in the garage. I'm thinking a dormer with a raidus on the door will help on the height thing. I will have to swap wheels on it for in and out however. I do that now with the Nomad. I'm sort of reworking a design...not where I want it yet.

Doug,

I've been wrestling the door height issue too. My final design may end up not being garage-able for that reason (and trying to get a standing height shower inside.) The dormer is a good idea. I'm not sure if it was added later, but this Westcraft has a mini-dormer on the right door.



If I don't have a dropped floor (which probably means it won't be garage-able), then at the entrance, I may incorporate a dropped internal footwell.

doug hodder wrote:The real challenge I believe is to get it all trimmed out in a stained vintage appropriate wood on the interior. May not be important to others, but I'm shooting for a late 30's look. Epoxy, glass, bondo and paint on the exterior will take care of the exterior.

Since I don't build with any real plans...I'm thinking...get the exterior shell done and then figure out how to section the interior skin so it looks good. Then build out the interior. A front and rear full width cabinet could cover up the end upper corners, and the roof sides and end corners could be done up in 1/8" paneling that would do the bend. The galley and any cabinets ought to have some raidius on the corners for a vintage look.

I've been thinking along those lines too. External shell first, then interior. While I love the blonde-shellaced birch finish, I'm thinking that a darker wood and/or darker stain would be better. For the wall-celing radius and the rounded cabinet corners, I have thought about using bendy-ply and then coming back with wood veneers (although I've never done anything like this.)

doug hodder wrote:I've had a chat with Andrew regarding the axle-less spindles and have sort of gotten some preliminary frame issues worked out. That will help on the interior height. It won't be an "off-roader" however. Doug

I'll be watching your frame design closely. If I have any chance of making this one garage-able, almost the entire floor will need to be dropped. I've considered using the axle-less spindles. My stumbling block is how to design the frame without cross-members and come up with a way to keep the spindles from rotating/twisting the frame. The other "wild-hair" thought I've had was to use a traditional drop axle, but with link bars and airbag springs, instead of leaf springs, so that I could "slam" the suspension to get the trailer out of the garage.

Take care, Tom

So you will have two trailers in the garage and no cars? Sounds like me LOL