Let's talk Teardrop Trailers

Yes that’s 3–>2 at 71mph screaming! But that’s the limit not the every day. When I was towing a 6x12 enclosed trailer I would be at 60mph going up a hill and drop 4->3->2 when the RPM would drop below 2500.

 

Agreed, that would be an extreme downshift. We just went from D to 3 for most of the trip towing our teardrop. It was fine at any comfortable speed (65 - 70).

 

Everyone getting their trailers out? I've managed to get two trips under my belt this month, one with my son and I and then one with the whole family. Managed to not take a single picture of the trailer during either trip. I did a test run last month during a cold snap. I was curious how the furnace would do and how it would be in the trailer. I wound up making a set of insulated curtains after that night.



More recently the kiddos have gotten comfortable enough on their bikes that we started taking them with us. Unfortunately, with a DCSB full of camping gear the only place for bikes at the time was the roof of the truck. Want to guess what four bikes on your roof does to your freeway mileage? Hint: It's far worse than carrying the canoe up there. The other issue with bikes on the roof of the truck is that it's a complete pain to get them up there or down.

So what to do... Well, I looked at those fancy newfangled racks that go into the hitch. My trailer has a hitch, but after talking with a buddy who travels with one of the vertical racks on the back of his trailer, he didn't recommend it. They're very expensive and the back of the trailer can bob up and down quite a bit. Heck, most of the manufacturers don't recommend using them on the back of an RV or trailer. The other issue is that I would have to figure out how to pivot the rack out of the way of the galley. Not insurmountable, but it seemed kinda hokey to me.

Which led me to the idea of putting my existing bike racks on the trailer. Except that's the same problem with putting them on the roof of the truck with the added aggravation of two solar panels and a vent to work around. The hatch would be the ideal place if only it didn't have to move. Well, what if the rack moves with it? I don't trust the hurricane hinge to support that much weight without help, but I also figured it'd be a pain to make a strong hinge line up with the hurricane hinge, plus I had to keep in mind that if I weren't careful I'd have the racks hitting the solar panel when the galley opened.

So, what we have here is quite possibly the first four bar linkage teardrop trailer bike rack:





So yeah, there's a linkage on the galley hinge bracket which allows the rack to stay more level as the galley hatch opens. It also allows the load to be shared between the trailer and the galley hatch, with most of the load being on the trailer side of things. The whole setup is low enough that putting the bikes on is really easy with both feet on the ground and the bikes don't stick past the rear bumper nearly as much as they would with any other 4 bike rack on the market. The teardrop is also wider than the roof of my canopy, so there's the bonus of having more space. I did leave a gap down the center to minimize blocking the 3rd brake light, the gap also makes it easier to get in and put the center bikes on the rack:



I beefed up the latches for the galley lid and made some solid latching points to transfer more force off of the galley lid and onto the trailer when the hatch is shut. I'm not completely finished yet though. I beefed up the gas struts for the galley hatch so that they will hold the hatch up with the racks on, but not enough for when the bikes are on. I'm currently waiting on an additional set of gas struts that will go from the latching plate on the trailer up to the roof rack. These will be removable so that I can pop them off when we have no bikes and install them when we do have bikes.

Camping season is almost here! Everyone else getting ready?

 

Great idea on the bike rack. That seems like the ideal solution. And, you can carry a kayak as well!

Quick question - do you keep a window open at night, even in frigid temperatures? We don't have a furnace, and haven't camped in much below 32* weather, but we always keep at least the roof vent open for air flow.

 

Just got back from a great trip with the trailer and family with another six nights in the trailer, eight days on the road (crashed at a friend's house one night). The route is probably easier to show than to describe https://tinyurl.com/35ehk6m2

Highlights of the trip: Pretty much every campground was empty. Hard to say what campsite was our favorite as they were all great in their own way.

The bike rack worked awesome, no issues there. We had a couple of long days of gravel and washboards with no issues.

The new tongue box mounted fuel can holders worked great. It's far easier to get the cans out of those than the bed of the truck. Due to my phenomenal ability to miss a gas station, we wound up using the cans to refill the truck. Twice.

Coldest night was 28* which leads into Scott's question:

We do keep a window open at night. Usually mine, as I like cool air on my face when I sleep. We had three nights during our last trip that were below 30*. On a typical night in those temps we sleep with the roof vent open about four inches, my window open an inch or two and the furnace set at about 68*. We have insulated curtains on the three front windows (Reflectix inside of a cotton sleeve) and insulated curtains on the side windows (Reflectix inside of waxed canvas sleeves). We did have one night where I had the vent closed due to a combination of wind, rain and snow. I had my window open a little more than an inch and all curtains on. The furnace cycled once when we first got in, but the inside temp of the trailer never dropped below 68* after that even though it reached 29* outside. Keep in mind that there are four of us in the trailer (kids are 8 and 5).

The main issue that we run into when we are buttoned up like that is condensation. Four people breathing equates to a lot of moisture in the air. The easiest way to get rid of the moisture is via ventilation, but if you cut back on that to stay warm then realize that you might have a bit of a damp morning in the trailer. For us it hasn't been a big deal as we don't typically lounge in bed in the morning. Once everyone is up I'll wipe off any condensation with a towel, open up the windows and run the fan until we're ready to hit the road.

And now a couple pictures
Seaquest State Park WA (a great quick overnight spot for us that puts us south of Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia without a long driving day)


Lunch stop at Succor Creek State Park OR. There's camping here as well and I think if we do this loop again that we'll add a day. There is a ton to explore:


The road between Succor Creek and Leslie Gulch is fairly remote:


Leslie Gulch was pretty neat, and there's a campground at the end (Slocum Creek). It was the coldest night of the trip (28*) despite being the warmest day (65*)

 

well, might as well throw my teardrop setup in the mix. This is my fourth TD and basically 'upgraded' each time. Just started towing with the Taco. Came from a 5th gen 4R

 

You nailed it with the airflow for condensation.

What kind of roof vent fan do you have? I have a Fantastic, that is reversible, and on some wetter nights, I flow the air in, with the vent opened just enough to turn on the fan, and still keep the window cracked. This allows the fan to move air, and not suck in to much rain, and the air blowing out the window, is usually just enough to create a positive pressure to keep rain from coming in there.
I am usually solo, and only have the JRT pupper with me, so I haven't had to deal with four bodies creating moist air.

 

I've got a Fantastic as well. I sometimes think I should have gone with the MaxxFan; I really like that it has more settings and a cover that lets you run in the rain. I do something similar to what you describe when it's warmer out. I'll have the fan set to exhaust on the low setting and then my window open. If it's warm enough, my wife will open her window too. We have issues with the fan if we set it to pull air in while we have the curtains on, the curtains restrict the air flow too much. Running the fan on exhaust simply pulls the curtains back enough for air to come in. We almost always set up our awnings that go over the doors, so pulling rain in through the windows usually isn't an issue. I personally don't care for the curtains but the kids sleep better when it's dark and my wife for some reason prefers them up when she's changing.

 

NICE EOR!

 

So far since we stopped working on June 1st we've spent:
A week in Comanche National Grasslands


A week outside Crested Butte


A week at Rabbit Valley


A week at Capitol Reef


A week at Mono Lake


A week in Yosemite


And a week above the Salt Spring Reservoir


Still have a month and a half before we'll need to work again. I think we're heading toward Washington state after another week in California with our daughter and her husband.

 

Two of my favorite places - so nice.

 

That looks rough.

On a side note, is the camera angle funny or did you tweak an axle?

 

Funny camera angle. Axle is fine.

 

my heart sank for a moment there. Really wishing I was home right now, you're in my neck of the woods but you'll probably be gone before I get off this tub.

 

Lol. Yeah we're almost in Colorado now

 

Love that color, reminds me of CAV BLUE, but it looks to be a tad purple on my monitor.

 

It's called "Pigeon Blue" Kind of like Toyota's Cav Blue. Not too blue, just chalky enough with grey to not be too bright.