Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I've been thinking about building a foamie cargo trailer on top of my 4x8 HF trailer. I'd really like to build a td, but with a family of 4 we can't all sleep inside, and my kids aren't old enough to tent it on their own. So I'd really like to make a trailer that just stores our camping stuff full time so it would be easier to scootch off for the weekend.

So far, I'm having a hard time figuring out a few things. The rear door, interior sheathing, and how to put a roof rack on top that could carry my canoe, pod....whatever (preferably homemade to save a few bucks).


I remember that there was a cargo trailer thread on here a year or so ago, but I can't seem to find it for the life of me.

We’re looking for you . Here’s something that would be easy, and with a minimum of wood framing inside that should support a roof rack ...

Thanks for the reply. I like that look of that one. I've looked around the forums but I haven't seen very many instances of homemade racks. I know that e-trailers has some cargo trailer racks, but I'd like to save a few bucks by making something out of electrical conduit. I just can't seem to be able to come up with homemade roof brackets to attach the conduit to the roof.

For the doors do you think 1x lumber frames with canvas covered foam would work. Any ideas on hardware? Again, I've seen commercial trailer hardware but since this is low weight I'd love to save some money by using Home Depot stuff.

The biggest thing to prioritize in my mind is to make sure you maintain a border (partial wall) around the rear doors, like GPW shows in his sketch. This border is basically equivalent to the shear wall, the same as a TD bulkhead, that provides all of the strength at the rear end that keeps the walls and roof from racking, especially from the weight of the side swinging barn style doors when they are open (no matter how light you build them). Consider that little panel frame around the back is the only gusseting you will get in a true (empty) CT, but a 4 or 6 inch gusset is way better than no gusset at all. This will keep your doors from sagging, keep them sealing well and latching properly with typical hardware store hardware.

If you look at a tractor trailer "van" trailer or box truck you will note that they don't have this feature. It allows for a bigger opening and avoids the potential of having a fork truck wipe out the wing walls. However, these trailers can be quite floppy when the doors are open. If you look at the way the door latch works, they have cams (or toggles) that lock the tops and bottoms of the outer flap door in rigidly (at the opening edges) so that the doors register together in the jambs and become the shear wall when underway.

Even enclosed car hauler trailers with folding ramp doors and not much of a door flange will usually use the same style of top and bottom bar latch (can't remember the trade name for it ATM). Here's an example. You can't really make out the cam latches at the ends of the pipe, but they are there inside of the aluminum sockets that get mounted to the box.

Interesting, I was thinking the same thing. How wide do you think the rear walls should be, and what material would be best to construct them from? Thanks for the picture of the door hardware too. It seems like that would work well with some wood blocking also.

I didn't necessarily mean to imply that you should use the bar style clamps, just that there is a reason that they use that style on commercial trucks. Though, aside from the weight that they would add, they wouldn't be a bad choice. Like I said in the above post, by keeping the flange wall you should be able to use any type of hardware you prefer.

On a 4 or 5 wide box my TLAR radar says that 4 to 6 inches would be a good perimeter, and I would skin at least one side of the "panel" in 5mm (1/4 nom, 3/16 actual) ply with the ply fully glued to the foam and (at least) 1x perimeter frame. Extra blocking where hinges and latches need to be. Some may opine that PMF alone would be enough of a skin, and it may be, but I am quite happy with the added structure I get from skinning one side with ply, so I think it would be justified in this high shear load situation.

Also, should be noted that in another recent thread (IIRC it was the "A more durable foamie?" thread) someone commented about using the same schedule of materials on both sides of a SIP style panel to avoid thermal/moisture swelling warping. I haven't experienced that problem, at least not that I've noticed in my build area (more or less unheated, been thru several seasonal cycles, one side receives more exposure to sunlight than the other, albeit thru thermal pane windows).