G&M's 'Drop

[tony.latham]

I'm sure that was quite the camp with your new baby.

Condensation occurs when warm moist air is exposed to a cold surface. The trailer cooled off and as the air warmed up, that's when the condensation started.

At least that's what my cousin's buddy told him.


Tony

[GarthB]

Thanks everyone! We're excited to pack as many trips in as we can with the fair weather that we've got left.

Thank you all for the condensation insight as well. I hadn't taken the time to research what surfaces/air temps cause condensation, but now that I think about it, the cold surface/warm air makes sense. It brings my mind some peace knowing that this roof style is pretty much the teardrop standard, and you don't hear of roofs rotting out everyday from some morning dew. Michigan has been exceptionally humid lately. Typically 85% or higher where we're at.

[GarthB]

My wife and I successfully completed our first multi-nighter, long distance trip. We spent several nights in Ossineke State Forest Campground, which is the only first come, first serve state forest campground with Great Lake frontage in Michigan's lower peninsula. Located on Lake Huron, we had some incredible sunrise views and spent lots of time on the beach. There are three "signature" sites that the campground is known for that are closest to the Lake, approximately 50 yards from shore. Given that we showed up early on a Thursday morning, we had the blessing of getting to have our pick of the three. Within an hour of unhooking the trailer, the other two were taken.

One of the many teardrop trailer perks is that you can maneuver your trailer in ways that larger RV's can't and you can park and level it in areas that would leave tent goers rolling downhill in their sleep. We were able to park the trailer so that the galley overlooked the lake while still being able to see the sunrise when looking through one of the windows each morning.




The beach and lake bed along this stretch of shoreline was very nice and sandy, which can be tough to find on Lake Huron.



Both nights that we were out offered clear skies and the best views of the stars that we had seen all summer.

Despite each site having a fairly nice fire ring, we opted to use our solo stove fire pit instead. This thing just might be our favorite camping gadget. We have the smallest model, which is just right for being able to travel with it. The fires really are nearly smokeless like they advertise and burn extremely efficiently. Definitely not a paid advertisement, but we would recommend it to just about anybody that is considering getting one.




As for the best camp food we had, my wife spoiled us with some dutch oven cinnamon rolls. She had never made them without a conventional oven before, but they turned out great.



All in all, we were very happy with the turnout of our first camping weekend. It wasn't the UP, like we had planned, but it was where we were meant to be. The spot that we had originally planned on going to on Lake Superior got rain all weekend.

We gave three teardrop tours of and saw one other home-built over the course of the weekend.

[western traveler]

Garth, that is awesome! Reaping the rewards of your hard work in a perfect setting! The Dutch oven cinnamon rolls look great too. There is something special about sitting in camp and cooking with one. I hope I can experience that soon with mine.
Ralph

[noseoil]

Congratulations on the trip! Looks like it's time to enjoy a little more camping, at least until winter gets going & it's too cold to enjoy the camping in the frozen north.

Cinnamon rolls & coffee are great for camping any time of the year & a dutch oven works great for that type of cooking. We use parchment paper in ours to make cleanup easy, there's no sticking & simple cooking is the best for camping. The food always tastes great when it's in a camp.

The best part of camping with a teardrop is the people you will meet from all walks of life, interesting people & so many stories to enjoy while sitting in a camp. Everyone has a story & sharing it is a great way to connect.

[pchast]

You had a great site in a beautiful location.
Glad you had good weather too.
Thanks for the pictures

[GarthB]

Spent the weekend camping at a great spot along a river in the middle of nowhere. The pucker factor was real when we got to a deep puddle and water made it all the way up to the bottom of the hatch. Thankfully, everything on the inside remained bone dry. A minor lift may be a future upgrade that we consider if occurrences like this become more frequent.

[GarthB]

After our first couple of 2022 nights in the teardrop, my wife and I decided it was worth trading the Orca cooler for a portable fridge. We were able to sell the Orca for $50 less than we paid for it last year, so I was pretty happy. We replaced it with an Iceco VL45.

Unfortunately, this forced me to rebuild the cooler tray since the Iceco was slightly taller and longer than the Orca. In order to maximize space efficiency and provide as much clearance as possible, I welded up a new tray using 1.5” steel angle and attached it to the locking drawer slides using machine screws and lock nuts. This allows for maximum ventilation on all six sides of the fridge when it is tucked away in the galley.



Since we were now eating up additional electricity with the fridge (and my wife got a 12V heated mattress pad for Christmas) we also decided to take the plunge into the world of solar. Based on my calcs, we could only get away with being away from a charger for about two days if both the fridge and the mattress pad were drawing from our 100AH battery, so I opted to get the Renogy 200 watt suitcase solar kit. 200 watts seemed like it might be overkill but I would rather lug around the extra weight in panels than run out of juice.

Rather than leaving the charge controller attached to the panels, I mounted it in the galley to get it closer to the battery and installed a zamp wall connector per the recommendations of others on this forum. It killed me to take a hole saw to a perfectly good section of our wall, but oh well. I made sure the exposed wood within the hole was coated in epoxy and then installed the zamp connector with butyl tape, stainless screws, and proflex sealant.

For wiring, I used 10AWG throughout, both inside the camper from the connector, to the controller, to the battery, as well as outside the camper for the extension. The extension cable outside the camper is around 12’ long, which allows us to have the panels sitting on the tonneau cover of the truck while it is attached to the trailer when we are parked places.



We spent the weekend testing out both of our new gadgets at Leelanau State Park and couldn’t have been happier with our investment. It was great not dealing with ice and having the ability to take twice the amount of refrigerated goods with roughly the same amount of internal volume as the regular cooler. It was a lot more energy efficient than I anticipated as well. It averaged around 0.6 amps per hour over the course of the weekend. On the second morning, despite the heavily wooded site, we managed to completely recharge the battery within 3 hours of hooking up the panels and even managed to reach their maximum rated output.




If anyone has any recommendations for a good wire loom/sleeve to house our extension cables in, I’d greatly appreciate the input. I’m considering giving the PET expandable braided sleeving a try so that it won’t trap moisture if the wires get rained on.

The only other major addition that our ‘Drop has gotten since finishing the build last fall has been an 85 pound, 9 month old furry friend named Scout. His favorite camping hobbies are digging holes to nap in under the galley end of the trailer, getting marshmallows stuck in his tail, and waking us up in the mornings by growling at squirrels that he can see out the windows. So far the deal we’ve brokered with him is that he gets half the bed and my wife and I get the other half. I’m still scratching my head wondering if he might ever be willing to renegotiate.

[orourkmw]

Garth: Looks good! What size Iceco did you go with? Only consuming an avg of 0.6 a/h is amazing,..must have been able to actually cycle. I’m guessing it wasn’t too hot there?
Mike

[GarthB]

Garth: Looks good! What size Iceco did you go with? Only consuming an avg of 0.6 a/h is amazing,..must have been able to actually cycle. I’m guessing it wasn’t too hot there?
Mike

I went with the VL45, which they advertise as having 47.6 quarts of capacity. Outside temperature and direct sunlight were pretty mild all weekend. Low 60s during the day and mid 40s at night. Fridge was set to 38F.

Another person online did a review of it, linked here: http://rvbprecision.com/rv-projects/iceco-vl45-portable-refrigerator-freezer-review.html

I ran the numbers on his "August 2020 Update" and, as long as my math is right, it looks like he averaged around 0.53 amps per hour over a 72 hour period.