Newbie question about wider teardrop

[tpstorey]

Have read quite a bit of the forum, but have not seen the answer to a question I have.

My wife suddenly became enamored with teardrops watching the show "Home Free". The contestants are living in teardrops while working on houses. I've been trying to get her interested in camping forever, but after one time in a tent she said, "Never again!" After seeing the teardrop, she suddenly is interested. I'm interested in keeping it inexpensive and not having to buy a new tow vehicle for something heavier. Looks like her Saturn Aura wouldn't even have trouble pulling one.

I like the the idea of a foamy for all the mentioned good reasons. I also like the idea of the HF 4x8 trailer for the cost. Looked around for a used wider trailer, but no luck without a big increase in cost.

So the question is, can you raise the floor of the teardrop to get it above the wheels, and thus build it wider? 48 inches minus the loss due to the thicker foam walls would be too small for the wifey and me. We're used to a queen size bed, and although we could go smaller, that much smaller would definetly be too much. Anyone done this or have ideas about the feasibility or "how to" ideas?

Thanks in advance for the help, and I'm sure glad I found this forum!

[kayakdlk]

A wider and longer teardrop on a 4x8 frame has been done many times. Here are a few links to checkout

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=55140
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=60713&p=1090556
http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52160&start=15
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=15542&p=203646
http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=35811

Dan

[tony.latham]

I really like the way Lucy25 did hers. Note the slide out bottom storage:



Tony

[ghcoe]

my build is on a 4x8 HF trailer with the wheels moved back. Sleeping quarters is the nearly the same size as a queen, just 2 inches shorter. I am going to try to just have the mattress between the wheel wells for now and see how that works.

[Mary C]

Where do you live not the address but what part of what state? you can read my grits build or Listen, the easy way is to use 1x4s on the side or use 2x4s on their sides then , put ply wood on top then you can measure over the wheel wells should be sticking up about an inch or less now put your sides of foam on and put foam on the bottom of the trailer to fill in the difference. I suggest you do a lot of reading on how they are built I could pull mine with my mitsubishi before it was stolen. It is very light. I didn't move my axle. But the answer is yes, you can build out further than the wheels, no problem. Good luck

Mary C.

[daveesl77]

Mine is 5'8" outside wall to outside wall on a 4x8 HF frame. I did not move my axle back because I knew I would be extending the tongue, adding in a tongue box plus building in cabinets in the front of the cabin. In addition, my galley moves, so the riding weight is shifted forward. To build your floor and size it, determine the maximum vertical travel of the axle to the frame ( about 2-3"), then run a straight edge across the top of the frame and over the top of the tire. Measure from straight edge to tire top and subtract or add (if necessary) to the axle movement distance. I also added in an additional 2" to account for things such as different size tires in the future. This gives you your total wheel well height. My floor is way overbuilt, so it is 2" thick. So my wheel well inset in the cabin is about another 1.5".

It is very easy to do and makes a ton of difference. Changing tire is no real problem and I have trim hanging below the frame level. My build journal is listed at the bottom. With all of that said, mine is not of any standard dimensions, anywhere and that did add a bit of difficulty into the build and a small amount to the cost. It just took a lot more planning to determine how to structure things so as to not have a lot of waste material.

dave