Tear Drop Camper for a Corvair

Tear Drop Camper for a Corvair

By Greg Hopewell

After watching a show on the Travel Channel, I was introduced to Tear-Drop campers. This got me to thinking that they would be perfect to pull behind a Corvair. So after doing some research in the internet I decided I could build one myself.

So what is a Tear-Drop Camper? Well the name comes from the overall tear shape of the camper, it usually sleep 2 adults and has a galley area under the hatch in the rear, and with a weight range from 500-1000lbs. and small size usually 4’x 8’ but other sizes are popular too.

The tear-drop camper first came about in an issue of “Popular Home Craft” March-April 1939” and remained popular through the early 70’s , and now with all the small cars and gas prices soaring it is seeing a new emergence into the 21^st century.

So after lots of drawing plans on paper, I started to gather parts together to build my Tear..

The tear frame is built from 40’ of 2”x2”x 1/8” wall sq. steel tubing.

The 15gallon water tank is made out of stainless steel and here it is installed..

The ¾” thick floor is then cut to size, water proofed with roofing tar, and Installed on the frame

The 2-¾” plywood sides are placed together and then cut out with .032”aluminum sandwiched in-between so all will match.

The Sides are then installed by screwing them to the frame.

Roof Spars and ceiling are added by using glue, screws, and nails

A/C duct is installed and closet is test fitted

A/C is installed and finished closet is fastened into place.

Test fitting countertop from Lowes

Galley bulkhead, and inside shelf for the cabinets are installed

The galley is completed and operational.

Skinning the exterior proved to be a challenge to get the 1/8” Luan plywood to bend, and to hold it in place till the glue dried.

The galley hatch is cut out and skinned.

After taking a week of vacation, I now have the galley hatch installed and the entire tear drop skinned in aluminum, and all the electrical wiring done. I attached the aluminum to the sides using out-door carpet glue, and once the sides dry, I put on the aluminum roof with no glue. I then installed all the corner molding to hold it all in place. Them I skinned the doors and hatch, installed the window in the doors and attached the door to the camper..

I also finished the interior.

Some pictures of the hatch and finished galley.

The Tear is ready for the road.

The maiden trip of the Tear was to the club meeting.

And it drew lots of attention. If you noticed that my Vair is sitting a bit low in the back it’s because the hitch on it was a bit high, so I lowered my air-bags to let the trailer sit level while it was parked, the tongue weight of the trailer is 105lbs. with a total trailer weight of about 1000lbs.

Well, here is the tear on its first camping trip, and every thing worked great. It towed great even at speeds up to 75mph. Even at the campgrounds it attracts a lot attention, we had lots of fun and plan to use it a lot more.

The tear was fun to build and I learned a lot about it along the way. I spent about $2500 on parts and supplies and about 300 Hrs.to build, If you would like to learn more about Tear Drop trailers, I found a web site with lots of great people and more info on Tear Drops and Tiny Travel Trailers.

Here is the link: www.mikenchell.com it’s a great place to learn and get ideas to build your own.