anyone have one? i'm looking into building or restoring one and have been researching and talking with others about them.
They are great if you have a vehicle that can not tow a lot. Restoring one would be cheaping than buying as the price of a brand new TT is about $5000 basic. If you restore it you can had modifications to it so its more workable for road living. Just remember in adding stuff you add weight. Also I'm not sure if they are availible for free, but I looked into them before purchasing my school bus, but google "teardrop plans" to see if you can find them online some place. Good luck and post some pix of your TT when you get it.
I did a search on these a while back, and honestly, unless you could get a decently solid one for less than $800 or so, I think building would be the way to go...
I have a very good friend who lives down the road from me who owns a bussiness who creates these!!!! They are awesome!!! - but spendy! I'll try to get a web-site for you to see them.
I know this is an old thread, but I have an old popup camper frame out back that I was thinking of building a teardrop on. Anyone had any experence with these lately?
Scary, There are several ways to go here: You can buy complete plans for teardrops on eBay for as little as $5 or as much as $30. You can find some free plans online in .pdf format but you'll likely need multiple sources for a complete unit. Or, you can scour old bookstores for the Popular Mechanics Do-It-Yourself encyclopedia sets that were issued from the 50s through the 80s. They had the complete plans for a teardrop in SOME of their issues. My brother built one that he towed with ease behind a '62 Chevy II with a little 199CI 4 banger all over the southeast in the mid 70s. I think it was based on the rear chassis and axle from an early 60s pickup truck. Just be aware that you want to build it on a solid frame with at least 14 inch rims. Twelve inch rims are not good at highway speed with any weight on them, not to mention that the axles are weak.
They are really not that bad to build depending on what tools you have access to. The owner of one shop I used to work at built one on an old pop up chassis using mostly plywood and 1x1's. Kind of crude but it worked. Another time I helped a friend of mine build one. He is a metal sculptor by trade so it got a little more involved. That one got a homemade TIG welded chassis, and used polished aluminum skinning salvaged from a wrecked airstream. Very high quality and would blind you if you looked at it in direct sunlight.
