This weekend, I went to the vintage motorcycle festival at the Barber Museum and motorsports complex and took my little teardrop camper on its first major outing (800 miles and four nights), which was actually its second outing. The week previously, I had had a Texas Sidecar Standard attached to my Suzuki Bandit 1200S. The trailer pulled like a breeze, presenting no problems. It was great not to have to pitch a tent or take one down. When tent camping, I usually have to allow myself an hour to break camp. With the teardrop, ten minutes or less. However, my particular camper is strictly a one person accommodation. I soon discovered another advantage to pulling the trailer. On the way home, I stopped for lunch at New Albany, AL. When coming out of the restaurant, I took time to check my back tire because I knew it was marginal. Well, it was worse than marginal, it actually had steel cables showing. I decided against going any further until the tire could be replaced. Unfortunately, it was Sunday, which meant another night on the road. Since I was puilling a camper, instead of looking for an RV park, I just pulled into the nearesr Wal Mart parking lot. I don't think one could get by with this if tent camping. The camper was an easy build and an easy tow. If you've been thinking about building one, go for it.
Joe Grove
Jonesboro, AR
Somthing along this size look's prety okay for an outfit, me think's.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Teardrop-Tear-Drop-Camper-Trailer-How-to-Build-Plans_W0QQitemZ150304895375QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item150304895375&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Safe riding Karl.
Little Guy makes a great product, but I'm a little on the poor side. I think I had about $750 invested in mine and it weighs in at about 250 lbs. Of that $750, a couple of hundred was for the door, which could easily be hand made for a lot less.
Joe Grove
Here are a couple of photos off a Pashnit site that show a tear drop camper in service. I like the back opening being able to be sort of a tent and make it a bit larger. This one is fiberglass though, and I'd prefer building a home-made one of wood, I suspect. I think the area was in Germany, but I could be wrong. Not sure where Popham is located.
Originally written by Bandit1200s on 10/21/2008 9:13 PM
Little Guy makes a great product, but I'm a little on the poor side. I think I had about $750 invested in mine and it weighs in at about 250 lbs. Of that $750, a couple of hundred was for the door, which could easily be hand made for a lot less.
Joe Grove
Yup, their doors alone would blow your whole budget, once shipping and tax was done on two of them Little Guy suckers.
THESE CAMPERS ARE VERY NICE AND PROBABLY PRETTY PRICEY BUT I WOULD LIKE TO BUILD MINE FROM SCRATCH, EXCEPT FOR THE TRAILER. IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY, IT'S ABOUT BUILDING SOME THING WITH YOUR OWN HANDS AND THEN GETTING USE OUT OF IT. I HAVE A GOOD IDEA WHAT I WANT SO OFF TO THE DRAWING BOARD. I'LL TAKE PICT'S.
Here's another take http://www.uralmotorbikes.info/Uralcamper.htm
Safe riding Karl.
Thanks for posting that site link. Lots of pics there, besides just those of the teardrop build. I like the boat with the Ural. I had seen that done from a site linked at Pashnit, but the guy was a Frenchman who had removed the tub and replaced it with a small boat that was similar.
KARL, THIS IS GREAT, GETTING BACK TO BASIC'S,I LIKE THE REAR OPENING. YOU DONT NEED THE DOOR AND YOU HAVE GREAT HEAD ROOM.THANKSD FOR THE` LINK, JOE
For all of you interested in teardrops or small trailers here's a good link:
http://www.mikenchell.com/
If you're building your own here's a link for some parts:
http://www.teardropparts.com/sub-pages/teardrop-hardware.htm
I've got a question. I'm tempted to build/buy a teardrop to pull behind a BMW/2 conversion w/ an R90 engine and Ural sidecar. Anybody know how much weight I can safely pull? I'm currently pulling an Aspen Classic with a BMW K1100LT and California Friendship III. It works but it's pretty heavy.
Paul
Retired but always working!
I had a R90/6 that I pulled a trailer with it wasn't a tear drop it was a home made trailer useing a car top carrier box and was a LOT lighter than a tear drop would be, with your having a Ural SC which isn't a light car I personally wouldn't do it, for one thing the brakes are not the best on the bike and with the sidecar plus a trailer stopping would be a challenge IMHO also not being able to change ratios on the final drive with the power that the R90 has long pulls would be hard on the bike, if it was me I wouldn't do it. Last year at a meet in Idaho there was a fellow that wanted a draw bar put on his rig so he could tow a trailer and was having trouble finding someone to do it because there seems to be some strong feelings about the added weight and pull on the lower cross pipes, I can't make a statement one way or the other on that but he had talked to quite a few installers, it could be a libality thing,,I don't know.
thanx for the info. the old /2 still has drums in the front but I'm planning on installing dual disks next year. I used the /2 back in the mid 80's when I was a computer tech for a bank here in AZ. I pulled a small utility trailer (approx 150lbs) with all my spare parts in it. Probably a total of around 200lbs. The hitch is a 2" steel square tubing running across the horizontal mounts. I'm guessing the teardrop we build/buy would be no more than 300lbs total weight loaded.
So how about it? How many of you out there pull trailers behind your chairs and how much do they weigh? I've been on bikes since 1974 and have always thought of myself as a safe driver. I surely don't want to do something any more stupid than I've done in the past!
We pulled trailers back in the late 60's and early 70's when it attracted more attention than a sidecar does. The heaviest one was an old canvas sided Time Out camper at about 375 pounds empty. Of course, it was never empty.
I pulled it behind a GL1000 Goldwing and behind an FLH, both with sidecars and two passengers plus myself.
The biggest weight differential is my current rig, a 1999 Moto Guzzi V11 EV with a two passenger Motorvation and a Bunkhouse Camper, but it also probably has the best brakes I've worked with. This is also the first one with a working sidecar brake. The only thing I've found is that when fully loaded, the Guzzi and the Harley both require a lot of up and down shifting. I also spend a lot of time in 4th instead of 5th. I've ordered a set of sidecar gears to improve this. Even in panic stops everything works nicely.
The FLH had the hitch directly behind the bike and sometimes got funny on a wet road. All the rest were center mounted and work nicely.
FYI and comparison, H&W Honda in Marshall Texas has for sale a 2003 Expedition EV165 teardrop, altho,if the stated specs are near accurate, it appears more appropriate for a small car:
Price *$3,599.00: CAMPER TRAILER W/AIR CONDITIONER ZIP ON TENT SLEEPS 4 EASILY -- SPARE TIRE /AIR CONDITIONER/ZIP ON TENT TO ADD TWO TO FOUR MORE CAMPERS/SUNROOF/DOORS ON BOTH SIDES MFG. BY SILVERSTREAM TRAILER USED ONLY TWICE
See more here: http://www.hwhonda.com/new_vehicle_detail.asp?sid=05595972X11K7K2008J6I35I55JAMQ2916R0&veh=6495&pov=924166
Lee
MB5+TW200+CRF250L+GTV300+INT650
XL883R w/Texas Ranger Sidecar
Zuma 50F + Burgman w/Texas Sidecar<Mrs. SwampFox
