Rolling along

Sadly, somebody at some point had driven off without lifting the jockey wheel, so the plastic wheel was "proper wrecked" as they say, and wouldn't roll anywhere.

Also, and this is my fault, as the jockey wheel was off the chassis, I didn't check that the little lever that clamps the thing in place was tightened up properly and it shook loose somewhere between Stratford and our house. Learning point there.

Through luck and good scavenging, I already had a nice little wheel with a pneumatic tyre that I found in a skip about a decade ago. It had stayed inflated for a couple of days, so I don't think I need the puncture repair kit just yet.

So, I've joined those together with a random selection of washers and it all turns quite nicely. The wheel has proper bearings and all. I've bent an M12 coach bolt to replace the lever - I've just got to add a "stop" for it to operate the clamp properly (hole, washer, split pin, I think) and we have a nicely rolling chassis.

Starting at the bottom ...

Which in the case of any teardrop trailer is the chassis innit?

We've gone the route of getting a caravan chassis via ebay. A nice specimen currently resides in our yard (which is not the yard in the picture). This is the for sale picture and it looks like this ...



Those that are interested in prices it cost £82 in Jan 2011. We're sure you could find better for less money ... or on the other hand worse for more money. Patience as with anything on eBay helps. But we've waited long enough to get started. Time for ACTION.

The action will of course be all Steve. I will be more of the planning-for-action, writing-about-action girl ;-)

Chris

Starting out

What do you need before you start building your own teardrop? A blog of course. Okay, priorities may be skewed here, but having an online diarry builds the performance pressure. We'll add some links to influences to the sidebar when we have one sorted and supply blow by blow accounts of how our (first?) teardrop gets built.

Will aim to get something up here once a week and if this is not inpirational enough (remember we are beginners at this game) then look at the Teardrop Hall of Fame for inspiration - lots of inspiration.

Not got comments allowed on this blog because we are too busy building the trailer (aren't we). But if you want to talk you'll find us as feveredSteve and ChessQueen in the excellent Teardrop Caravans of Great Britain forums. A fantastic find for any would-be-builders based in the UK.

You're best off asking questions of people in there anyway, because they are the EXPERIENCED guys with fantsastic trailers to prove it.

One day that could be us. Early days yet ...

Chris and Steve