Let's talk Teardrop Trailers

We don't know quite yet. The 8ft version of that trailer comes in at about 1,450. We're guessing 1,650 dry and around 1,900 fully loaded. The tongue was at 100lbs but the tongue box and fridge weren't mounted yet. We tossed a 160lbs guy in front of the cabin on the frame and it pushed the tongue up to 202 - that feels about right.

 

Got to bring the trailer home last week and do a shakedown run over the weekend. Overall everything worked great! Here's a bunch of photos from the final build and the shakedown run - full camper, rear cabin cabinets, front cabin cabinet, a shot from the shakedown with awning room up and fridge slide out.

 

Looks great! Time to get it dirty!

 

we’ll probably do one more fairly safe run to work out some more kinks, but then absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

 

what brand is this? Or is it home build?

 

It's a kit I built with Hyk Outdoors. The team there was great to work with and I got to see a bunch of the trailers they've been building for inventory. I'd stack the quality of work they do against any trailer I've seen on the market. They have stock models, do custom configs, and a limited number of kits.

I've got a build thread going on Overland Bound if you want to follow the whole process.

 

awesome...heading to that site now!!

 

Getting close on my DIY "squaredrop". Looking to have this wrapped up in 12 days for memorial day. Let the rush begin!

Check us out on instagram @33_sqft or the build thread here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-squaredrop-trailer-build-thread.706164/

 

Had a great second run with the trailer down some forest service roads in the MTNF. Deployed all 400W of solar and am confident we can have power indefinitely.

 

We bought this teardrop from a friend. Her other friend was the original builder.
Now this is not nearly so refined as 90% of the teardrops I saw in this thread. But I prefer simplicity, so that is what I went for.

Dry weight is about 700 lbs.. We towed this trailer in the past with a '04 Jeep Liberty, a '99 RAV4, and with my wife's Honda CR-Z hybrid sports car. No, not the CR-V SUV ... The CR-Z! Perhaps surprisingly we had no trouble hauling it with any of those cars. Went to Kentucky, from Texas, and to Wyoming, up into the mountains, etc etc.

Now I have hooked it up to our new (to us) 2014 Tacoma base model 5-lug truck. We will be testing it soon. I just added the blue (500 pound) Sumo Springs. Picking up a scan-guage today to monitor transmission temperature.
We have a lot of colorful junk in there.

Has a large solar panel and 12v system to run cell phone chargers and a fan for cooling. No plumbing. Just a bed inside and a couple book shelves.

 

This little Honda had no problems towing our tiny teardrop. So I expect the Tacoma will be just fine as well.

 

Absolutely nothing wrong with simple! I started with a blank slate and have been slowly adding things as we find that we want or need them. The first picture had me worried, it looked like PMF that was coming off, but the other pictures show that it's more of a coating of some sort to make the pattern.

 

Right, LouisD, that is actually galvanized metal flashing that was added by us. We glued and screwed it over a lot of the seams where the original construction has only two sheets of plywood on the corners.

Overall I am not impressed by the construction of the plywood box we bought. I went in and added a lot of structural reinforcements, including a bulkhead wall between the bed and the kitchen. It has far greater stability and rigidity than when we picked it up.

I towed it with the Tacoma last night, for a quick test run. Half an hour at various speeds up to about 65. Sumo Springs (500 lb) worked great. This test generates two teardrop-related questions:

Gear shift knob, my best choices are "3" or "D" ... 2014 Tacoma Base model with 5-lug axle. I need to look up the max speed where I can downshift from D to 3. Also should I just kick it to 3 if the transmission temperature goes over a certain threshold?

Scan-guage 2 II acquired, wired, and working. But I need to look up a code to program the scan guage to show transmission temperature. Those are my issues at the moment.

 

The owner's manual says I can down shift from D to 3 at 71 miles and hour or less.
I will just think of it as 70.

Or is it saying to downshift from 3 to 2 at 70? That seems high.

 

I'm now a member of the "teardrop" club. Its a Hiker Trailer Mid-Range 5x10 We only had our first 4 night shakedown trip so far but we are really happy with the trailer. Lots of modifications to come on the galley area especially.

 

Our base model '14 Tacoma had no trouble towing our 700 lbs teardrop from Texas to Kentucky and back. We kept it in "3" most of the trip, with a few times kicking it to "D" just to see what would happen.
I'll look for a better picture. But the Tacoma and the teardrop seemed extremely compatible.

 

I never liked the idea of towing a trailer off road but I came across a really good deal on a little custom built tear drop built for off road. I’m considering purchasing it just wanted to know how bad is it towing off road? I don’t plan on doing any crazy trails but do you any of you guys regret getting a trailer?

 

VST, I don't regret buying a teardrop, but I do enjoy the freedom and maneuverability of having just the Taco on some trips.

 

Here's a shot of me towing my teardrop up Last Chance Canyon in Cali.



You have to remember it's back there, but towing is fine off-road. I do have brakes on the trailer, which is nice on the downhills.

 

Little Guy. Purchased, Covid came around, used it once, sold for $3500 more then what we paid. Since then, have purchased a new Flagstaff
E-Pro 19 FD. Highway tow vehicle, 2018 4X4
4Runner, which we have recently traded on a
2021 Tacoma off road, 4X4, build date, 7/22.
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