In fall of 1998 my wife and I were
returning from a cold, wet and windy camping trip in the Sierras. My
wife (who had been in poor health) announced that her tent camping days
were over; and if I ever expected her to come camping with me again,
she wanted walls, a mattress, a kitchen and a potty.
Thus started our epic quest
for a suitable RV trailer. Our initial search turned up a couple 15'
trailers that were way beyond the towing capacity of either of our
vehicles (a Camry wagon and an old Toyota pickup). We found a 13'
trailer in Hemet that might fit through our side gate, but it had
extensive water damage, was missing appliances, was filthy with debris and
rat turds, needed new tires and was priced at $1,300. My wife was
disgusted with the mess, and I still doubted the ability of either of our cars to
pull it.
A while back we had seen the
Visiting with Huell Howser episode on teardrop
trailers (#609), and my wife was enamored with
the charm and grace of teardrops, and I admired their compactness and
efficiency. However what had stuck in my mind was the owners saying
how rare they were, as they weren't made anymore (they are on a limited
basis, but that's another story). I didn't think we
could find one, and if we did, it wouldn't be cheap...
We gave up hope and lost
interest. The purchase of a computer allowed us on the internet,
with the ensuing power of classified searches. I stumbled over an ad
for a used teardrop. Elated with our find, we rushed over to view
our "prize". What we found was the rotting hulk of a tin
can that looked like a drummer had been beating it with an ugly stick. Another
couple had got there first, and had paid $1,100 for it and were gleefully
towing it off. My wife was heartbroken. The next couple of weeks we drove all over
Los Angeles looking at more teardrops, and all were overpriced and in terrible
condition. As our frustration mounted, I started questioning the wisdom of spending $1,000+ on a
trailer that needed everything replaced but the hitch and the dome light.
Once again the internet came
to the rescue. There was a growing internet presence of the teardrop
community , and I found reprints of a 1947 article on building a teardrop
from scratch, as well as websites of other intrepid enthusiasts building
teardrops. It occurred to me that as a carpenter and electrician,
why couldn't I build our own teardrop? It took some persuading to
convince my wife, who finally agreed on the condition "it
better be nice"! Thus started the next epic of trying to
build the perfect trailer.
I soon found the plans were
very brief and left out many important details. I ordered most other
available plans and reprints, and was frustrated with what I got. None
of them were comprehensive. I
was in the middle of building by now, and I ran into countless problems
that I knew had been solved thousands of times before, but I could find no
clear directions on how to do it. I spent a lot of time looking at
old photos and re-designing, and had to remake things several
times, but in the end came up with what I thought was a solid product.
