This is Dan and Danielle Otto and we created a blog to document our projects! Our recent (and biggest) has been our adventure in building a custom teardrop trailer so we can go camping! I'm (Danielle, and the writer of this blog) is pretty anti-ground sleeping and I felt that this was a way we could haul a bunch of stuff around attached to our Jeep, Sally.
Teardrop campers can run anywhere from $500 for an ultra light cheaper build (if you have all the tools) to upwards of $20,000 if you want a professionally built fancy one. We are looking at $2,000 as our budget for all the parts, tools, and finishing. I'll make a final post at the end with a budget journal and whether or not we stuck to it! I don't want to skimp on parts that are important and a lot of the budget will go towards the wood and our custom doors from Challenger Doors.
When we started the project, we had to make the decision what size we wanted our TD to be. We had the option of doing a 5x8' trailer as it fits a queen bed perfectly but thought that was too big. We decided to go with the Northern Tool 4 foot by 8 foot trailer. but the tow rating for Sally is only 1,000 lbs and it's super easy to overbuild on these projects and be stuck in a sticky situation. I thought that putting together a trailer would be ridiculously easy... Turns out it's not. I don't care to go into the whole specifics on how to build a trailer but here's some pictures ...it sucked.
You have to make the folding trailer NOT folding. This took a bit of research as many tutorials said to cut the cross member and drill new holes and I wasn't about to deal with cutting steel.
By the way, we decided to do this without set plans. We are following about 6 different guides and plans and adapting them as we see fit. Our biggest concern, currently, is having a trailer that is to standard and road safe.
To combat the folding issue, we decided to bolt the cross members together where it would normally have the brackets to allow folding. Normally, there isn't anything holding this part of the trailer sturdy as it's designed to bend in half. I feel better knowing that this trailer is now ultra solid.
Tada! Trailer.
Time spent Days 1-2: 10 hours (Box said 4.. not TOO shabby)
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