After 3 ½ years, lots of trial and error, many trips to my dads garage where we built the trailer, and hours of fun working with my dad and figuring out the trailer design, we have finally finished the teardrop camper. The project has been rewarding in many ways. Spending time with my dad building the trailer has been priceless. Completing a project of this magnitude has been very rewarding. And of course actually camping in the trailer will be a blast.
I pulled the trailer from Oklahoma City to Richardson Texas which is approximately a three hour drive. I was nervous as to how the trailer would handle going 70 mph down the highway for three hours. The only pulling previously had been around the block, testing lights and brakes. But to my amazement the camper handled it very well. No wobbling or pushing and nothing fell off. The drive home was a complete success.
The very next week, for its maiden voyage I decided to stay the night at Taylor State Park where I would spend the night and do some mountain biking the next morning. The picture below is everything hooked up and ready to go.
I arrived at Tyler State Park around 5:00 pm on a Friday evening. Got all checked in and selected a campsite with electrical hookups so that I could use shore power instead of battery power only.
I backed into the site, set up the canopy for one side, laid out my rug and my camping chair. I then broke out some food and sat down for the evening. I spent time reading and contemplating the camper project. It wound up being a beautiful cool evening.
As I was setting up the camper I had an issue with the power station. Everytime I would try to plug in the shore power connection, the fuse at the station would blow. So I did not get to run my 120v system in the trailer. I was only able to run the 12v items.
As I went to bed that evening, I closed the doors and slid open the screened windows on both sides. I then turned on the overhead vent fan. This created a wonderful evening bedtime draft that made for a wonderful evening somber and I used my 12v lamps for some in bed reading.
The vent fan ran all night and it was cool enough that I did not have to use the wall fans at all.
I woke up the next morning and prepared myself for the morning bike ride. As I was closing up the camper I did get a few interested parties that came by to ask me about where I got the camper from. I was very excited and proud to tell them that I (along with my dad) built the camper from scratch. They of course proceeded to ask if they could look inside and asked me about how I built it, where I got the plans from and how long it took. Having people ask about the camper was the funniest part of the camping trip. It made the build worthwhile.
Looking back on the trip, it went very well and I plan to make a few more before the year is out. But there were a few items that I forgot to bring. One was a hammer for putting in the stakes for the canopy. Another was a lug nut wrench in case I blew a tire (I did bring a spare tire). It would be nice to have a small table. Other than that, I believe I had all the supplies I needed and the short trip went very well.
I hope everyone has enjoyed the journaling of this project and I look forward to journaling other projects. Happy Camping.
