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Those are pretty cool. I ended up just using car sun shades like these
because I’m lazy. They slip between the door and mattress and tuck in behind the latch bar. Yours look more official.
If you’re happy in a 2-person tent, you won’t have any claustrophobia issues in the Teardrop. Remember, most of the time inside you’ll be either horizontal or asleep or both. When you’re flat on your back, the ceiling is out of reach.
I highly recommend installing every vent and fan option there is. One thing that makes a space quickly feel constrained is lack of air circulation. The 2 fans and 4 vents go a long way towards fixing that. Even better, if you’ve got the skill, is modifying the windows/doors so they can open, or be replaced by screens. I’m looking into doing that with mine since one of the real draws of camping for me is the smell of the outdoors at night.
FWIW, I fell asleep in mine in the middle of the day and didn’t wake up until my wife came out looking for me (and this was just in the back yard).
CLC’s prototype has leading and trailing edge fairings to reduce the drag. The other thing to keep in mind is the angle of attack. If the panel slopes toward the back it’ll be generating lift, as well as drag, and will try really hard to fly off the roof. Sloping forward it’ll be getting pushed down onto the racks.
For absolute best performance, you’d want to completely do without the racks while driving. They disturb the clean airflow over the top of the camper much more than the panel. You’d also want the panel centered or have 2 panels spaced symmetrically on each side of the overhead fan if you are keeping the rack. For that matter, the tongue box can also mess up the airflow unless it’s in the wind shadow of the tow vehicle.
As a practical matter, though, it doesn’t make that much difference, especially if you drive at reasonable speeds, so just do what’s convenient for you.
Have you contacted CLC Support? If that template was supposed to be part of the plans and you never received it, they can send you one.
See new video showing the Integrated Cargo Carrier option here. It’s a brilliant concept
It seems that it can be retrofitted to existing campers. My big concern is clearance with my garage door. I have the Thule racks and a 200-watt solar panel system, so the camper currently just fits with less than an inch of clearance. If I add the ICC, I’ll be forced to store it outdoors. Other than that it’s perfect. I especially like the side panel access (though the removable drawer partitions are pretty cool, too).
Tucked away in the video is a platform for galley access with folding legs. Now the plans for that are something I could go for right now. It would be perfect for my petite wife who finds the galley too high even without the ICC.
Keep in mind that getting what you pay for in this case involves transporting your camper at freeway speeds. If just one little component fails, you could lose all your investment (materials and labor) in the camper, all the stuff inside the camper, have damage to your car and possibly damage, injure or kill others on the road with you. So don’t get caught up in false economies. That HF trailer has absolutely nothing likeable about it other than the price, which will keep going up and up if you count in the required annual maintenance to keep it from being a road hazard.
All that said, do you live near a boating community? You can almost always find an ancient boat for sale cheap (or even free for hauling off) that includes the trailer. Trash the boat and rebuild the trailer into something for your camper. There’ll be lots of hacksaw work and drilling, but nothing really too difficult. Even re-packing the bearings is more messy than complicated. Just remember, don’t weld galvanized.
Good luck
I went with the CLC/Trailex option, too. It’s my second Trailex, I had one for my schooner. No regrets. It may seem pricey at first, but you really do get what you pay for. The light weight and lack of corrosion worries make using the Teardrop much less worrisome. The missing maintenance is not missed. It also makes it feasible to single-handedly move the camper, even on grass. That can be difficult to do with a heavier steel frame.
