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Definitely works! I thought about this, but the other downsides are that it leaves the screws exposed which isn’t as aesthetic and would be even easier for someone to remove them and take stuff from the Galley while you are away from the teardrop.
I bought my fan from amazon, but we must have ended up with the same one because I thought the same thing. But, after a few days I got used to the look of it and I forgot about it.
No problem. One disclaimer: the mattress comes really compressed to fit in the box, and so after you take it out and unscrew the opening for the sleeve it takes several days for the foam to “inflate” to its actual thickness. So don’t expect to sleep on it right after you get it!
I received the mattress that I linked to in my above post and finally slept on it last night. I’m really impressed! I was expecting it to be more like an air mattress but really it is just a 4″ dense foam in an airtight sleeve. Last night it was just below freezing here and the mattress helped keep me warm as well as being very comfortable. Usually I can’t sleep in while I’m camping but I didn’t wake up until 9AM. My wife liked it as well.
Here’s a photo my wife took:
Good Question! I made a 2″ foam pad out of some foam I found at a surplus store. After sleeping in it for a few nights I decided it isn’t nearly comfortable enough.
I ordered one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Kamp-Rite-Queen-Self-Inflating-Pad/dp/B004M0YYEC
I think that is the same mattress that CLC used in their model trailer. I’m supposed to receive it tomorrow, so i’ll let you know how it sleeps!
Patfly, your teardrop looks awesome! Great job!
Can you explain what the big black rectangular insert into the bulkhead is? I’d be interested in some close ups!
Jake
What worked very well for us is gently pulling the corners of the cloth. It worked best if we had two people, one on each corner pulling at the same time. To be clear, I am referring to the corners on the same side of the teardrop, not opposite corners.
Sorry for the slow response.
I don’t have the dimensions on hand for the box, but we made it out of 1/2″ plywood (not the fancy stuff, just home depot plywood) to fit in the space. It was kind of fun to design because there was the angle of declination for the solar panel as well as the angle of the sides which we attempted to have mirror the angle of the trailer tongue underneath it. We cut it out very carefully with all the angles and then used wood glue and pin nails to put it together. I think we used old door hinges for the hinge.
Solar panel is 100W. Its overkill I think, but it was only $30 more than doing 50W, and I like the comfort of knowing I’ll never lose power to the fan in the summer. Also I can charge laptops and stuff if I need to.
As far as the axle, we spent a lot of time thinking about it. We considered moving the axle, but in the end decided to leave it where it was. We did some measurements to make sure we would still be able to turn the car sharply and there were no problems. We figured that the trailer is operating as Harbor Freight designed it to. So far there have been no problems. It pulls really nice and is super easy to back up.
John,
The diagram for Harbor Freight trailers doesn’t include any kind of vibration dampeners as mentioned earlier in this thread. Should vibration dampening be included somehow?
Jake
Yes, I just used a clearcoat, but the clearcoat provides UV protection. While a clearcoat is a little more complicated than varnishing by hand, it did save us some time.
No problem, ask away.
I think in the summer months, when you would sleep with the fan venting the trailer, there would be no problem with condensation. However, my parents camped in my teardrop earlier this week and noted that in the morning there was some condensation on the inside. They were sleeping with the vents open but the fan not engaged, because it was pretty cold outside.
I haven’t come up with a better solution for insulation than the CLC headliner kit. I thought of maybe buying some cheaper kind of foam and fabricating it myself, but i’m not sure that I could make it look good. In the end I might buy their headliner kit.
Without the headliner I just hid the wiring as well as I could. There is one double wire going from the fan directly down the middle of the cieling and then through the bulkhead into the galley. For lights, I put strip lighting around the door frames and so there is only an 8″ wire going from the forewardmost part of the door frame to under the build in shelf and then up into the galley. They really don’t catch the eye very much, so that’s not a problem.
I bought the same fan that CLC sells from amazon, before CLC added the fan to their website. We didn’t put in the headliner for our teardrop, but we might add it later on. Without the headliner, we didn’t need the plywood parts that CLC includes with their fan.
Any fan can fit onto the teardrop because you cut the opening for the fan out yourself. CLC doesn’t cut guidelines into the top hatch for you.
Hey Jen,
For the trailer I used this harbor freight trailer: http://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lb-capacity-48-in-x-96-in-heavy-duty-folding-trailer-62648.html
The harbor freight trailer is probably the cheapest option you can find, but the quality of the trailer is not as good as the aluminum one that CLC had designed for the teardrop. I think the lifespan of the aluminum trailer would be far greater than the harbor freight trailer. Also, we did some modifications to the trailer to make it work better for us, mostly welding it all together so it would be stronger and shortening it by 10″.
As far as electric systems, I used solar to power it. I bought this solar panel kit and this deep cycle battery and a fantastic fan vent. I oversized the solar panel and battery, so you could probably get by with a smaller system if you wanted! Aside from those big things, there are a lot of little things you’ll need for the electrical system. Switches, fuses, wiring, whatever accessories you want, lights, etc.
Enjoy the project!
