I had been toying with the idea of building a teardrop trailer for a while to take on dual-sport trips. On the way home from the Idaho BDR, I got to thinking about my 20-year old cargo trailer that I primarily used for storing building material. It’s lightweight (1000 lbs.), 6 feet tall, 5 feet wide, and 10 feet long and, despite it’s age, only has maybe 4000 mile on it. Realizing I could carry my bike inside rather than in the truck bed I quickly warmed to the idea. Arriving home first of September, I quickly laid out a plan but wisely decided the wife’s bathroom remodel would need to come first (duh?).
Six weeks later, I worked over my credit card pretty good with Amazon, ordering lots of RV goodies. I began by removing the stock side-door bar-lock and replacing it with an RV-style latch. Next, I installed two RV windows and a 12-V powered roof vent. I then built my kitchen cabinet and mounted it on the rear swinging door which would allow me to cook inside or out. As I plan to mostly dry camp, I have removable fresh water and grey water tanks mounted in the cabinet. After I constructed a wooden-frame skeleton, I insulated with 1″ foam board and then fiberglass around the roof cavity. Next came wiring: One 120V GFCI outlet, three 12V interior lights and three 12-V exterior lights, plus a charging station panel. I wanted to keep the propane plumbing simple and safe so I mounted the tank outside and put an additional cut-off inside. At Home Depot I found some inexpensive 1/4″ panels (floor underlayment) with some nice grain. I had planned to paint it but decided to varnish everything instead and was glad I did … kinda retro. I installed the cool recessed wheel chock and front and rear tie-down links. I mounted a lockable Rigid tool box for the deep-cycle battery and wired connections for my 100-watt solar panel. Next I constructed my fold-up narrow-twin bed with storage beneath and installed the vinyl floor. I cutdown a magnetic screen for the side door and made my own for the rear for when I’m cooking outside. I wanted some kind of awning but after pricing them I made my own. Using thin-wall conduit, flagpole holders, and vinyl tarp, I secure it with some ratchet straps when open and then store it in a PVC pipe on the side of the trailer. I replaced the stock trailer connector with the new 7-pin type with a charging lead that matches my truck connector. Also, ordered a compact, self-contained, porta-potty. Last thing was to put on new radial rubber instead of the 20-year old bias-plies. I made a trial-run this past week … everything worked great but I plan on making some more storage. Been a really fun project!
