Hello All
My son planted the seed for a teardrop last fall after a camping trip we had taken. The idea grew from nice idea to I need one. After looking at many of the many of the designs out there, I started to design one for my wife and myself. The only problem is that I noticed Paralysis by Analysis. Yes, I was playing with ideas but having never been in one and having no idea as to what is a good idea or a bad idea it was going nowhere. To get moving forward, I found a couple designs and picked one of those. Some of you may be familiar with a book titled "Building a Teardrop Trailer, Plans and Methods for Crafting an Heirloom Trailer." That is the one I selected after weighing my options. I have bought doors rather than build them and I am making some other minor changes to accommodate some things that I think I want but that is basically the plan.
I have been at this about a month although my progress has not been as rapid as I would have liked. Teardrop Build Tip One - make sure your yard sprinkler is in good working order. 30 year old systems take time to repair, especially when the pipes are brittle and the and the isolation valves leak.
I put my template together and traced the profile and cut it out. As you will notice, when you don't have much space, any flat surface becomes storage
In my spare time, I put the skeleton boards about 3/4 inch plywood. I say that because, for what ever reason, sheet wood does not come in even dimensions. Because of this, I was unable to make the spline attachment in the book. I would have loved to cut a 1/4" slot and place stacked 1/8" baltic birch in the slot but my 1/8 baltic birch is 3mm and my 1/4 inch piece of board that I bought for the batten is 5 mm. After pondering the question of where now, the skeleton boards are put together using 8 Biscuits each. Sorry, no pictures of that. A 10 foot piece of plywood is just not that interesting.
After a little time passed I marked the critical things on to the template. A dimensional bust I found was in the location of the front storage area (Headboard Dados). To fit an 80 inch queen mattress, locate the inside/cabin edge of the rail at 11 inches as shown on page 20 and not 10 inches from the ceiling as shown on page 64. I am pointing this out for the next guy that tries this. I work in the construction industry and have seen it happen many times, including designs I have created so i was no big deal to me. Anyhow, onward. Apparently there is a limit to pictures so I will continue on a second post.