The reality was that in order to be pulled by our current vehicle, a Volkswagen Passat, and fit in our garage, the trailer had to weigh under 2,000 pounds and max out at 6' 6" tall to fit in our garage with an entry height of 6' 8" and width of 7' 10". The other reality for our family is that the trailer needed to be four season compatible, which meant that the traditional outside kitchen on a traditional Teardrop Trailer was not ideal. So an indoor kitchen became a major focus. We also have two young daughters and if I was going to take the time and put the financial resources toward building a custom trailer, it had to comfortably sleep 4 which would also require bunk beds for the girls. I am 6' 1" and can't stand to sleep in tents or beds that are too short, nor would I want to spend time inside a camping trailer preparing food or prepping for the days adventure and not be able to stand up. All of these variables required that the trailer "pop up" to achieve the desired inside height and still fit in our garage, a challenging concept on many many levels.It was at this point that I came across two very interesting designs that became sources of great inspiration. The first I came across was the Alto by Safari Condo out of Canada, the design is really quite remarkable and the innovation behind the pop top is hands down just brilliant. With a price tag of $25,000 - $30,000 and not truly being conducive to sleeping 4, it was a source of inspiration and a benchmark for finding a similar solution at a far lower price that would be accessible to the average family. The second inspiration I came across was the Cricket Trailer which was designed by a NASA architect with a story not that dissimilar to mine, 30-something dad wanting a better camping experience for his family without resorting to a white fiberglass box. While the Cricket is also a brilliant concept and incredibly well constructed, it is a bit tight inside and the hanging beds for kids would be fine for a few days, but would require constant "rigging" and a lot of accommodation for younger campers and especially mid night pee breaks!
The beauty of both the Alto and the Cricket are that they provided just the right motivation to come up with what has proved to be the best design and most aesthetically appealing shape to date.
Not only did I come up with a variety of designs on paper, I felt the need to construct the indoor space out of paperboard to get a feel for how we might maneuver inside the trailer. This design finally felt like I had a great place to work from and even received a sort of approval from my wife, albeit a bit skeptical of whether or not I actually had any idea of what I was doing and if I would actually pull off building something that was road worthy, let alone something she would be willing to be associated with in public! With a design in hand, the next step was to price out and determine the potential weight of materials and availability of a trailer to get the project started. I spent a number of days at various lumber yards and hardware stores with a scale in my backpack weighing different pieces of lumber, plywood, and other hardware items and subsequently building a spreadsheet that allowed me to get the potential weight down to between 1900 and 2200 pounds depending on finishes and the size of water tanks...I am sure more than a few hardware store employees and customers thought I was just a wee bit crazy, and maybe I am, but I do my homework!
