08/28/2024
Well here it is. The mattress arrived today and decided it was time for a final reveal. This took me 3 years to build. Not constantly. I would say I built the majority in 4-6 two week stints. My new design, to give comparison, will take about 4-6 days to build. It will also be greatly simplified. This build, although the end result is an heirloom trailer you could put in your Will, is a complicated design from a build perspective. From a final product perspective it is the complete package. The total cost was about $12,000 in materials. (way too much) I wouldn’t sell it for less than $25,000 and do not plan to sell it. Equipped to be fully off grid. Built mostly with baltic birch and sheathed in aluminum painted with the highest end automotive paint. It’s essentially a hot rod camper. I paid nothing for the paint because my friend is a sales rep and I’m a potential client. Painting aluminum is a very long, labor intensive process. Consisting in 7 layers of different products and a stage where you sand the entire body smooth by hand. Best in class 2 top stove burner, The Partner Cook. 15” tires with equally classy black semi-gloss fenders. 200W Renogy flexabil solar panel. Vintage Coleman cooler to match and Baltic Birch drawers. Black front diamond plate and a basic tongue hitch. I still need to build the galley organizer but waiting until I know what I’ll bring camping and the third brake light which I wired for, but I may or may not do. The organizer will also hide the wires you see in the back. Thrilled to be done, excited to kick off my design and teardrop business. I learned from this the hard way. Many a midnight contemplatuon. My new process involves using modern building techniques mainly CNC processes to severely cut down on build time, but my new product will be equally hardy, just not as fancy.
