Teardrop Advice for a Newbie

[DELAV]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this site, and overlanding in general. My wife and I have a beat-up old '99 Toyota 4 Runner that's been our Utah companion, and are looking to get out and explore the PNW now that she's just about done with her medical residency and we're moving to Washington State. We love to camp and all the adventures associated (climbing, skiing, cycling) and would like to build a trailer that is ready to hit the road when we are.

As a grad gift to her, I've been shopping off-road teardrop trailers from AT, Inca, Moby, TCT, etc, and even considered building my own. We won't be doing any rock crawling, but I'd like something with at least 15" of clearance, a decent wheel/tire package and a sturdy frame and cabin that can handle forest roads and mild trail use. The ORE package from TC Teardrops seemed like a great value for something like this, and the guys at SoCal teardrop said their base road models are fairly tough.

I recently came across the trailer below and think it may fit the bill well. I can't post a link as a new user, but the seller is asking around $10.5k. From what I can tell, it's actually an older 'Rover' model from SCT, that someone had a larger wheel/tire combo fitted to. Otherwise, a fairly stock build that seems to be in good shape. The seller has been very helpful, and hasn't used the trailer much in his 2 years of ownership but says it all works as it should.



From what I can tell and have read, So-Cal makes an excellent teardrop and I like their overall design and construction better than most. I'm reaching out to you all to see if you think this is priced fairly, and what types of things I should look for when inspecting it? I'm heading out thursday to take a look.

When I pick this up, I plan on adding an off road hitch setup, water tank and pump, roof rack & basket, awnings, larger tongue box, rotopax units and a 120V inverter and system. Sounds like a very fun project to me!

Thanks in advance for the help!

Adam

 

[Sb_Moto]

No experience with that model, but you might look at buying a normal teardrop and then upgrading the suspension?

There is a little guy in my area for $3800.00. (Arkansas) Its pretty basic, but throw 1000 at it and you should be fairly set.

Now IMHO if I had to do it all over again I wouldn't go teardrop style. I would just get a small trailer and put a RTT on it or even better just put the RTT on the vehicle.

Everyone has their own opinions, but that is mine.

 

[Phxdsrtrat]

I've spent the last 6 months researching off road tear drop setups. I made my decision to purchase new and am now in the "build queue" for a delivery of late this year / early next year. From the pricing I've seen I would say that seems like a fair price. It's hard to tell without knowing the full list of options. I can tell you it would be much more expensive to have one built.

Retrofitting a teardrop for off road duty was mentioned. This can work if you plan on keeping the off roading fairly light. Otherwise, most builders re-inforce their frames for off road situations so take what you will from that bit of info.

As far as a small trailer with a pull out kitchen and RTT, I think this is actually the optimum setup for overlanding. However for my situation with the wife hard walls were a must. Keeping her happy is very important to the outdoors experience in my experience.

-Curtiss

 

[DELAV]

Thanks guys. If this were for me and my buddies, I think a box-style trailer and RTT would be much easier to tow off-road, and much cheaper. If it were only that easy for the Mrs.!

The wife and I really like the idea of something that be towed almost anywhere, and be quick to setup/take down when we want to move on the the next destination. Given the rainy spring and fall seasons in OR/WA, we feel a teardrop may help us get out a bit more, too compared to the RTT. If it sounds like I'm being lazy (and she's being picky), it's probably because it's at least a bit true.

In any event, thanks for the feedback. Phxdsrtrat, who are you going with for your build?

The trailer I pictures includes nice cabin/galley cabinets, a slide-out 2 burner propane stove, an Engel 40QT 120V/12V fridge and a CD stereo system, plus the usual lights, mattress, etc. Probably more than we even need, but certainly sounds nice for starters.

 

[Ducmonsta]

I was in a very similar situation to you a couple of months ago. I did a ton of research and needed to find a teardrop company that fit the bill. I ended up with a company in Salem, Or called www.teadropsnw.com. I ended up working with them for their first off road build dubbed the "Recon". I'm currently in the southern Wa area and will be making a trip around the country to put ours to the test.

As far as the teardrop you found for 10K, that would be a great deal depending on the amenities and quality of material used. In general, I've found that anything I wanted to have custom built ended up in the $30K+ range (read Moby1/SoCal).

 

[DELAV]

Small world, that builder is just down the hill from my folks who live in Salem, OR. I took an initial look at them and wondered if they'd ever do a custom off-roader. Do you have a link to a build you can share?

 

[MtnToSea]

I'm having a SoCal Teardrop built right now and the one you are looking at appears to be a fair price. What I would do if I were you is go to the SCT website and price out a new one with the options that the one you are considering has. This way you can tell if it's priced well compared to a new one. Good luck.

 

[Ducmonsta]

Small world, that builder is just down the hill from my folks who live in Salem, OR. I took an initial look at them and wondered if they'd ever do a custom off-roader. Do you have a link to a build you can share?

I have a bit of the build process in my 4runner thread in my sig. You can see some of the pics of our adventures in it on IG by following me @tdnwoffroad or and some in @ducmonsta.

If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to discuss over the phone. Pm me for a number and we can schedule it.

 

[Phxdsrtrat]

Phxdsrtrat, who are you going with for your build?

I went with an Oregon Trail'r Terradrop. It appears to be a quality built off road capable Teardrop. I went with quite a few bells and whistles and as others have indicated my build price pushed up to above the $20k mark. Google them and check out their sight for an idea of what the Terradrop is and how it's constructed. They are very open about the materials they use, how they build their trailers and are quite proud of the quality of work they do. They have a series of youtube videos that are a great watch on construction techniques.

-Curtiss

 

[JoshN]

SCT trailers are WAY too expensive for what you get IMO even that used one. But, I am a lifelong woodworker, so building my own was much easier for me than it would be for someone without a woodshop and years of practice. Traded a table I made for some fab work on my trailer frame and away I went. I came in somewhere under $6k but used only marine grade plywood, stainless steel hardware, marine grade fiberglass and paints, etc. If you think you can tackle it (it really is just a big box at the end of that day) then go for it. If you can't or don't want to then paying someone else is your only option and you are at their mercy for price. Keep in mind though that alot of folks who built their own have no woodworking experience, use sketchy build methods and are selling for a reason.

 

[IM1RU]

^ Any custom built anything is spendy. Yes you can do it on your own for the cost of materials, but when you have it done for you, you have to consider that you are paying people for their time. If you have the tools, good on ya, if you don't then you can add thousands to the build cost. You also have to consider the fact that they have been doing it for a while and have figured out many things that you may never. I've just spent nearly $3000 putting solar and a Timbren suspension on my VMI, and that was doing it myself and getting parts at nearly cost. You gotta pay to play.

 

[DELAV]

Thanks for all the replies guys, this is very helpful. It's amazing how quickly these trailers can add up, and I really dig the design of that TerraDrop. Cool custom build there Josh, that's one to aspire to.

At some point, I'd love to design and build my own. Realistically this is probably for a later phase in life when I've got the tools, time and first-hand experience with trailers to understand what I like and what I'd want to improve in my own design. I've seen enough build threads and stalled projects to avoid the temptation of jumping right in. As someone mentioned, these things aren't complex for those mechanically inclined, but I bet there are quite a few things you learn as you build, and I'd like to do as much research as I can before I sink $6,000 in materials into a bad design or an amateur-assembled unit.

I think we will try and get that So-Cal unit for a good price, and enjoy getting out there for the remainder of 2016. It will be fun to add a few systems to the trailer and learn along the way. As our needs change, perhaps we'll get in queue for a custom unit or consider designing something ourselves once the new garage is all set up.

Thanks!

 

[Olive236]

Certainly there's no perfect setup but the TD makes lots of sense if you don't want to be hauling your house everywhere you go. Love ours - though not perfect - and we've lived in it for months and put over 20K miles on it in fewer than 2 years.

Some suggestions: Lock N Roll hitch, electric brakes, good deep cycle battery with solar, water tank under the trailer, spare the weight of cabinetry in the galley and go with various tubs to store food, kitchen things, etc., RV tent for extra living area....and enjoy!

 

[Michaelbestlynd]

I too was in a similar situation. For as long as I can remember, I wanted a custom Sprinter van, outfitted with all the bells and whistles. But the cost and storage (HOA wont allow outside parking), just make it unrealistic. About two years ago, I started looking teardrops, in particular versions capable of off-highway travel. Off-road versions were particularly interesting to me, as most of the good camping spots in AZ are down my favorite Jeep roads. So my search began.

I looked at every company I could find on the inter-webs. SoCal, Moby1, and Adventure Trailers were at the top of my list. I wanted a rock solid build, large water capacity, hot water, AC/Heat, great galley for cooking, generator, and an off-road specific suspension system. With all the options I wanted, the price was pushing $30K with those manufactures.

Then I stumbled upon InkaOutoor. They had a great looking teardrop, but no off-road version. I thought, how cool it would be to have their trailer on top of an A-arm style suspension. And then a few months later they introduced just that. The Inka trailer is a bit different than the normal aluminum clad camper. Its built with a birch and foam core substructure, glued and screwed together like the others, but then is coated in a bi-axial fiber to eliminate any seams, and finally covered in a special epoxy paint developed for the offshore industry.

My trailer is currently in production, and will post pictures here when its complete. Check em out, and I think you’ll find that they include many of the options standard that others charge a leg for. With all the options I wanted, I’m just over $20K, for a well designed trailer, with purpose built suspension system.

http://www.inkaoutdoor.com/

 

[FMF]

I was in the same boat. My wife and I wanted a trailer that could Handel mild off road. We tried a "off-road" popup trailer but it could not handle the rough roads that we like to travel. I have always like the simple quick setup of a teardrop but hated the fact that they are all bed. So we decided to build our own with a small camper. It ended up being more than we planed to spend and came out to around 7k, plus the a few tools. Before this we had never tackled any thing quite like this and we both learned a lot! Hell we had so much fun making it that we offered up our garage and tools to our friends if they wanted to build there own. My point is that if you look at it as one whole project it can become very overwhelming! But if you break it up into a lot of small project tasks it will become a lot less daunting. Not sure if that helped or not but best of luck and have fun with it!