Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

When I lived in SoCal, I wanted to take my son on a train ride. There was an Amtrak line, called the San Diegan, that I could pick up in San Clemente and take it to San Diego. Sea World had an Amtrak stop right in the grounds. We drove to the station, and found out it was $35 each, each way, for a 50 mile trip. Well, for $140, I decided I could live a long life without ever experiencing a train ride.

Cliff, That probably is an accurate figure if you buy tickets last minute ...
I remember for a past birthday , the wife bought me a ride on a real Steam engine ... I did what I always do on a train and fell fast asleep for most of the ride ...

I didn't remember any pricing options, but probably didn't know enough to ask. The San Diegan is a commuter route. Who can afford to commute at those prices?

I just checked Amtrak current pricing. You can't even go South on that run in the morning anymore. The commute is North in the morning, South at night!

yay!!!!! get that foamie started. cant wait for those pics to start.


no about flying....once i retired from the navy, i know longer "have" to fly and i will never fly again. i hated that so much. a car, a train is the only way i will travel.

After my Navy flying experiences I don't fly anymore .... no cruise ships either ... I don't even much care for elevators ..
The only flying I do is Foamies ... with a small example here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qROxDRjYgvo which is how I got the idea for Foamie trailers in the first place ...

Hey GPW,

Watched your plane vids. Cool stuff Is that an expensive hobby?

Pat G

Hi GPW,

I came across this unit done as a dwelling for a Multiple-Chemical-
Sensitive person. It's not as elegant as your design but at least there is
a pic of the interior. The exterior is coated with Magnesium Cement ! - so
she says it weighs 3700lbs! Sort of defeats one of our purposes but
it was done to suit her's. Anyway it's a foamie.

http://reshelter.org/housing/nebraska-trailer/

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

Pat, It's pretty inexpensive using Foam ... and you can see the stresses the 1/4" un-skinned foam goes through , so no worries on a trailer ...

Cement over foam ??? 3700 lbs... No wonder as he says , it didn't work out ...

Over at my consulting job today (NOGC) ... was talking about the ribs and how to make them ... Vinney came up with another idea ... Use a pair of cutout ribs (ply ) and put blocking in between ... Then he proceeded to figure a way to "nest" them so we could cut out all the ribs on his CNC machine ... Very interesting!!! ...

Here's the rib idea !!! The blocking between them could be used as attachment points for the horizontal stringers ...

GPW wrote:Here's the rib idea !!! The blocking between them could be used as attachment points for the horizontal stringers ...

Those wood blocks could be foam. I've seen pretty strong mini pallets made with foam between 2 sheets of ply. Strength and a bit of cushion.

Cliff , good idea , but then I wouldn't be able to use them for attachment points ... figured placing the blocks where the stringers fell out giving many many places to attach things ...

just some simple 2"X2" X 4" blocks ... Cut a bunch on the chop saw with a stop, easy !!! ... This way I could assemble the whole inner framework Before I add the foam and canvas over it ... All stained and finished before hand , except for the areas where the wood meets (glues) the foam ...

2x2x4 blocks...

You could make your blocks out of 1/2" ply, or even chip board, and save some weight, and they would be much less prone to splitting.

That's not a bad idea ... plenty of that hanging around ...