Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Andrew,

The widget is a very nice design. I'm afraid you've outdone yourself!!!

That optional WC is pretty useless at night though.

A design I started sketching out last night has a small bathroom in the front corner, like the queens throne. And the bed starts at the bathroom wall.

The trailer is 6' wide. If the bathroom uses up 2 1/2 to 3 feet of that, that leaves 3 feet or so for the kitchen counter.

I end up with two options to choose from... a 10' long midget with a short bed, or an 11' midget, with a queen sized bed.

Mike...

P.S. I had a brain storm this morning... I'm not sure if it would work... let me sketch it up... I'll post it in this thread later...

Hmmm,

I've not had much luck sketching this morning. I'll show you what I did, only cause I said I would. But with that, it's back to the drawing board!!!



Mike...

beverlyt wrote:Widget.....I really like that name...I'd have to have it painted on the trailer somewhere

We can get too obsessed with trailer design, so:

Everyone knows that a widget is a little thingummyjig - one on-line dictionary says it is the same as a gadget and that the word dates from 1926. Of course economists also use the word to represent any small (manufactured) item offered for sale.

I was taught that the word originated in the US and was the trade name of one of the first give-away toys put in the bottom of breakfast cereal packets. The trade name quickly became the generic word for small toys in cereal packets. Anyone add to that?

Hey, not just trailer design, but edderkayshun too.

Andrew

Both of these words sounds very much like a "GEEGAAW" . gegaws are much more practical and can be used in more situations,,,

ok

chip

As several people apart from Bev seem to be looking at the Winter Midget designs I'm doing for her, I'll post them here:

Widget 2 is the 'standard' Midget body with a (partially) fixed longitudinal double berth. The berth has to be extended to be even 6 feet long - not very attractive, in my view.

Widget 3 is the Midget body widened to 6" 6' so that a transverse double berth/dinette can be used. In case anyone thinks this is like a Tab (sorry, T@b), it's a similar layout but much smaller.

Widget 4 is the Midget body lengthened to 10 feet (keeping the original 6 foot width) to fit in two separate longitudinal berths, like the Raven Argonette. It's a bit of tight squeeze, with the end of one berth overlapping the door.

All of these pdf files have the body shape pages removed to save bandwidth - if anyone wants the full versions, contact me with an e-mail address and I'll send them to you.

Andrew

My my my... Andrew, you've been the busy one! I've been out spending money on materials, and you, well you've been designing circles around me.

I looked over all your designs hopefull that I could stand in one of them, but sigh... no standing allowed (unless you are a gorilla or a Morlock!)

I've started with the T@B design, and am playing the take away game... How much can I take away and still be comfortable? It seems that I am going to end up with a 5'9" clearance near the center.

No it's not a teardrop any more... it's a TTT. But can I make the TTT under 1000 # with a tongue weight less than 115#?

Building it will be my biggest challenge. My Baja Benroy ended up being 1540# with a tongue weight of about 350#. My GMC Jimmy could hardly handle it.

The materials I bought today for the next project were 3/4" foamular, 1/4" luan, 2 sheets of 3/4" t&g plywood for the floor, and 3/4" pine for the spars or joists.

If I can't build a lightweight TTT, then there's no point in continuing. Since I bought the materials, I'm obviously optimistic that I can achieve my goals...

Mike...

angib wrote:Widget 2
Widget 3
Widget 4
Andrew

Hey Mike,

mikeschn wrote:But can I make the TTT under 1000 # with a tongue weight less than 115#?

If you can't, then do what I did - buy a Scotty!

Seriously, I looked at what I spent on my teardrop and realized I couldn't build a lightweight TTT for less than what the seller of my Scotty was asking. True, I'd much rather have a beautiful birchwood interior than robin's egg blue, but it's ready to roll and I can certainly live with it.

Joseph

Andrew,
The Widget 4 looks like the one for me. The one extra foot in length is fine. Anything over 6' wide is a no go for me.
We could actually shorten the beds just a little. We're short people and anyway....after being squished in the 45" wide teardrop with spouse, even if my feet hung over the edge a little... it would feel like freedom!
(I really must rectify something here...since I'm always complaining about the 4' wide trailer) Bob thinks the width is fine...my problem is I "toss" too much. I just have to learn to sleep more like a...well...mummy)

The height is fine for me.
Thank you for all your work! Now we'll just have to piece it together someday...sort of like the old Johnny Cash song "One piece at a time".

Mike: Why do you put 3/4 inch plywood in anything? Couldn't you do 1/2" ply on the floor? It would sure save some weight.

beverlyt wrote:Mike: Why do you put 3/4 inch plywood in anything? Couldn't you do 1/2" ply on the floor? It would sure save some weight.

Hey Bev,

My plan was to give up 300# of trailer weight... to do so I had to add an extra 50# into the floor. I thought that was a good trade off.

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:P.S. There's even room in this one for a 42" Plasma Wide Screen TV

Mike that is SO wrong on SO many levels that I LOVE it!!!!!!!!

angib wrote:This is going to get complicated as I've been communicating with Bev off list and I'm gonna get confused about what's been said where.....

So here is the first version of the Widget (Winter Midget, geddit?) for Bev:

Widget

Link's dead, as you prolly already know, Andrew. Any possibility of emailing me the pdf?

Thanxx.

So Flonker,

Are you going to build it?

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:So Flonker,

Are you going to build it?

Mike...

It's definitely going thru the internal design steps as we speak, i.e., I'm thinkin RILLY hard about it.

Looking like final design stages should hit mid January, materials scavaging thru February and March, chassis build March or April (once I settle on the final design), shell build throughout May & June...

This was a pretty good old thread from 6 years ago that goes well with the new thread of the same title.