Gonna build me a teardrop trailer

 If you haven't seen it already, I'm building a teardrop trailer.  One of my friends asked me 'why'?  So here's a short narrative of the why question, and a little on how as well.  

This started from a desire to have a vehicle for camping and riding.  This desire predates COVID-19, and really involves a couple of things.  

- I can't comfortably sleep on the ground any more.  Between various injuries, ailments and conditions, one of which being age, I am in absolute agony by the time two nights have passed.  

- I want to be able to travel both during the ideal times of the year, and also during the less traveled (read not many tourists).  That might mean hitting the desert in the wintertime, or the mountains in the fall.  That also means having heat/AC for creature comfort. 

- And I'm nearing retirement, we want to be able to travel with the fur-kids, and they aren't really adapted to hotels.  (hint: warning us that someone is outside is ok in the house, but isn't really welcome in a Hampton Inn).  Also, most hotels impose a non-refundable pet fee, even for truly well mannered dogs who won't poop on the rug.

I've been researching the costs, pluses and minuses of doing a sprinter van conversion, and had really thought that 2022 would be a good year to buy one and outfit it.  And then COVID upset all our lives.  The price of a reasonable used sprinter went from 15-18K for an eight year old truck with 100K miles, to 24-30K for a 10 year old truck with 150K miles in the course of a year.  That pretty much put it out of reasonable range unless I wanted to sell the Volvo and drive the sprinter as a daily driver (*not* happening).  I also looked at other conversions and build projects, like U-hauls and Airporters.  The chassis for those is a lot less, but there are lots of negatives.  

The next avenue of investigation was a full-blown motorhome.  I'd love to say I had done all the research I should have, and waited for just the right one to come along, but I'll confess that I jumped in a little before I should've.  I bought the proverbial pig-in-a-poke.  And honestly, the price was such that if it had burned up on the side of the road driving home from Phoenix over the 4th of July weekend, I'd have been irritated, but not damaged.  Inside was remodeled, the engine and suspension were strong, but the outside... Lipstick on the pig wasn't going to make this a pageant contestant.

I took care of the odd bits - new radio, fixed the roof leak (*every* older motorhome has these), fixed up a few odds & ends, and we took it on a road trip a month later.  It was an interesting trip.  Aside from stranding us in the Walmart parking lot in southern Iowa with a starter issue, it ran fine.  But my wife did not like the noise, the speed (or lack thereof), the noise, the speed, the lack of mobility, and the speed.  Did I mention the speed?  At 55mph, most small Class A motorhomes get somewhere around 7-8mpg.  At 70, that drops to 5-6.  So you drive at 55-60 and get passed by everything - semis, big motorhomes, school buses, etc, etc.  Yeah - we agreed to flip it.  A couple of months later, it was out of the driveway for about what I paid for it.  Worth the cost of the lesson.  On the way home though, we played 20 questions about what was on her 'list' of requirements.

• 70mph
• SUV or Suburban (she really liked my old Suburbans)
• Small enough to not be in the driveway
• Does not chain us to an 'RV park' 

I have no problems with any of the above.  We talked about a teardrop, and I started to research those.  Like anything that enables independent vacations (bicycles, motorhomes, trailers, camping, etc), COVID has hit the price and availability of Teardrops.  And yet, one of the appeals of a teardrop has been the abilty to DIY your own.  More research.  Assess my abilities as a builder of toys.  Ummm - find a frame.  They don't readily exist, and a professionally built frame would cost nearly what I paid for the stupid motorhome!  So I spent 18.99 on a book - Tony Latham's most excellent ''Building a Teardrop Trailer", started sketching out ideas, and realized that I have access to a full panel CNC machine at TC Maker, plus access to a full welding shop, wood shop, and more.

  

The more I thought about a teardrop, the more I liked it - and the more I thought that our requirements were not met by most of the commercial packages.  Having a comfortable place to sleep, escape rain/heat, and the ability to camp in a civilized manner when off-grid (like BLM lands), plus being able to power up an Insta-pot or campstove and have a refrigerator were definite requirements. Oh, and access to a shower, porta-pottie, were definitely points in favor.  The size decision was pretty easy - a 4x8 is too small.  With two Labs, a queen-size is not 'optional'.  Having a kitchen out back, heat and batteries had to go someplace, so 10 foot was the requirement.   

Did I have all those skills?  Eh, in a word, no...  But I've been drawing in CAD for the past year or so for 3D printing, and CNC is just removing material instead of adding, so I figured the skills would transfer.  Welding?  How hard can it be?  I'll take a class and practice.  The folks on YouTube make it look pretty
easy.  Here's a clue - it's a *lot* harder than the YT pros make it look.  Stack of dimes?  Uhh, how about a jumble of pennies mixed in peanut butter.  Yeah, not smooth.  But with some practice, I actually did get to the point that I am reasonably certain that my welds - if not beautiful, are functional.  And with that, I'll direct you over to the other blog - https://Swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.com.  

(And for those not aware, "Swampwerks" is my 'business' - I design and market bespoke watch holders for paddling, fenders for mountain bikes, and other odds and ends for industry.  I sell enough to pay for my printers, and that's about it.)