demountable teardrop design

[okiekajun]

How 'bout adding a galley type hatch to the rear with canvas tent type material to increase headroom in the rear. The kitchen can be running down the drivers side of the bed and beside the door. Then you'd have full height front to back with overhead sleeper above cab!

[mikeschn]

Welcome to the forum Mcnab.

I like that idea... but look at the Escape Hatch or Winter warrior. You could turn your concept into a hard sided camper instead of a tent.

Mike...

[Mauleskinner]

I've been thinking along the lines of a slide-in as well, but with the possibility later on of putting it onto a trailer chassis as a more "standard" tear.

With that in mind, this episode of DIY's "Wasted Spaces" http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_dwsp/episode/0,3110,DIY_28376_51554,00.html
has a truck storage box that goes up to the height of the wheel wells, and a standard teardrop body (5 ft wide x whatever length?) could sit on top of it. The middle drawer of the storage box would be widened to the width of the entry, and used for storage of the entry stairs, and the drawers would be shortened to allow a footwell through the floor of the tear itself.

The length would run to the end of the tailgate, rather than being able to close it in with the tailgate, and could probably hang over a little if necessary.

It would end up with a more Benroy-looking profile, and would solve the problem of making either a narrower body to fit between the wheel wells, or requiring a complex structure to wing out over the wheel wells.

It would also regain a lot of the storage area lost (if not actually more) when putting the entry through the galley area.

Any thoughts, good, bad, or otherwise, on that idea?

David

[deserthawk]

I also am working on a similar design/plan for a narrow cab-over camper to match my aluminum teardrop. I want to be able to see past it in the side mirrors. Luckily my tow vehicle is a diesel Silverado crew cab so I have enough room on top for a bed running forward and aft. It also has so much power that even with the cab-over and a large teardrop I'll have power to spare without feeling the strain. I need the extra room for a large family. Any ideas on materials for the counter balancing over the cab? The truck has a 6 1/2' bed. Are most cab-overs built with a steel inner frame or can this be accomplished using wood?

[mcnab]

OK guys, After a break due to an illness and death in the family, I'm back on the case and took delivery of 2 sheets of 10 x 5 plywood for the inner skin of the sides today.

I haven't got my head around how to transfer those curves, full size onto the ply yet, but my plan is to cut out one side and stand it in place on the truck and see how it looks!

Watch this space!

[whippeteer]

You may want to piece cardboard together first and use that for a template. Prevents possible mistakes in cutting the plywood and gives room for cheap experimentation for angles and arcs.

[the dog]

..... could you make full size drawings by printing off one a4 page at a time and joining them together i wonder?

I do RC airplanes that way. It's tiling. I scan a plan in a magazine, run it as a pdf in a tile program you can get at www.blackflight.com ($12), print to whatever scale I want, clear packing tape it and cut my patterns out. It doesn't have to be a model plane, wood working projects, birdhouses, it's endless... Not saying it's the way to do a tear but you asked and yes tiling works

Welcome to the forum. Dog