Trailer Build - Project Start - October 9, 2016

*THIS BUILD IS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, SO UPDATES ARE AT THE BOTTOM UNDER OLDER POSTS!*

I am venturing into a teardrop trailer build this winter and decided to share my build progression with others.  I pulled all my ideas for the chassis, body style, materials and accessories from the web, along with helpful advise and tips from other builders.  I appreciated all the info and advise from other peoples posts that I wanted to do the same in the hope that my build will help some other trailer build adventurist along the way.

By no means am I a professional at this kind of stuff, and only dabble in home improvement from time to time; but I do have an attitude that if I am going to build something on my own, the end product cant look like it was home made.

Price tags for off road teardrops can range from $10K, pretty basic to $30+K fully loaded with roof top tents, etc.  I did a rough estimate on my anticipated project cost with most bells and whistles except the roof top tent and figure it will cost me approx $6,500.  My goal is to get the trailer road and camp worthy for about $3,500 to $4K and add some of the luxury creature comforts later.  The build will be wired and structurally outfitted to receive the add-ons but the bulk of the costs will surround the chassis, suspension, wheels & tires and doors/windows.


Below are 2 photographs of the completed trailer on our first outing to Taylor Falls, MN on the St. Croix River, August 2017.  It towed great at 75 MPH and even got a few inquiries and thumbs-up along the way.

Completed Trailer - Drivers Side

Completed Trailer - Passenger Side

I modeled my build around the Oregon Trail'R due to the fact I liked the rugged look and did not have the complex compound radii on the back hatch as other teardrops do.  This is where I recognize my skill set limitations and went with an easier shape, while maintaining most curves in the profile.  I did not have access to one of their trailers to get dimensions, so I proportioned many of the features I liked off this photograph.  I have very limited CADD skills so I plugged what I could into a drawing and came up with this:

Oregon Trail'R Model Used

Oregon only makes 8 ft long trailers and I am 6'-1" so I'm making the trailer 5 ft wide X 9 ft long and will actually fit a true queen size mattress.  I will be building the trailer out of my garage in which I have heat which will come in handy in a couple months.  One suggestion I got from the web is to build a rolling workbench to help with the build and assembly, Cost $80.  Since my workshop is in my basement, I figured this would be a good idea since most of my tools would be moved into the garage.

Project Work Bench

I purchased the chassis steel pre-cut for the base frame yesterday, I did not purchase the tongue steel as I wanted to make sure I was ordering the correct length with proper angle cuts.  The frame steel you see in the picture below is 2 x 2 x 3/16th square tube, Cost $180.  I considered 2 X 3 framing material but I am weight conscious and the 2 X 2 saved 40 lbs.   I also purchased 3 collared receiver hitch tubes, 24" long at a K-Bid auction for $27.  One will be used as part of the tongue for an interchangeable hitch arrangement, the other for the rear to carry a receiver mounted bicycle rack.

Frame Steel

I beveled all the tubing ends with a grinder so I was assured I could get a full penetration weld throughout for the off road stress introduced to the frame. (tack welded for initial assembly).

Tack Weld Joints

Other advice I got online was to make sure the frame is completely level for welding, don't lay on the garage floor as that surface is most likely uneven.  I used jack stands to support the work while I squared up and leveled the outside frame rails.

Exterior Frame Assembly

That's it for today.