Teardrop Trailer Camping with Children

My husband and I don't have children, but I always admire teardrop campers who bring their small children to gatherings or on regular campouts. While camping can be simple, it gets a little more complicated with children included – especially in a very small trailer. I decided to ask the parents and grandparents on the Teardrops n' Tiny Travel Trailers forum about how they camp with their own little ones and what things they keep in mind when packing up the teardrop for the whole family.

Where do the children sleep?

"I am getting ready to spring camp with my wife and our three-year-old daughter in our Five Wide Platform Little Guy. We have glamped in it recently to see how we fit. My daughter uses about half of the queen sized bed and must be re-positioned during the night for our comfort. I see napping during the day as the way to supplement our somewhat broken sleep during the night. I am concerned about rattlesnakes here in the Southwest as being a danger to talk to them about. They are excited about camping and I think this is going to be most enjoyable."

Tucguy
Tucson, Arizona

[Mark Janke of Overland Trailer built a 10 foot long trailer with a bunk bed for the "Assistant to the Senior Manager" who celebrated her one month birthday in a teardrop trailer.]

"The little Assistant to the Senior Manager celebrated her one month old birthday on a camping trip in the jPod. Since this family arrangement is new to us, Senior Management and I thought it would be wise to camp someplace near our home-base and someplace that had bathroom facilities. Little baby did well. She woke up once in the night and I got to change a diaper in the jPod. I am thankful for the Fan-Tastic roof vent that I installed when building the jPod. It pulls enough air to make the windows whistle. It also pulls enough air to flush the soiled diaper smell out of such a small space! Without that fan, teardrop camping with a new baby would be too much of an adventure for us."

Overland Trailer
www.overlandtrailer.com

"We put our three girls in one tent and the boy in his own right next to them so they can talk."

rowerwet
Merrimack River Valley

How do you keep them entertained?

"The campground we plan on going to with just our kids and the teardrop has playgrounds and a beach. My kids have never been bored at a beach."

rowerwet
Merrimack River Valley

"A bicycle, small car/truck toys, use of the campground playground and Saturday morning cartoons while I showered kept my 4 1/2 year old great nephew occupied."

Verna
Indianapolis, IN

"I've seen a group of kids spend five days digging a hole. I've seen a five-year-old perfectly entertained with a spoon and a bucket for a full day. You don't need to bring every toy, or buy a ton of stuff. They have imaginations. With that and attention from their parents, they will have fun. Have a backup plan in case the weather goes bad, but keep it a secret. If you tell them you brought the iPad, they will want to play with that instead of being outside."

Socal Tom

"Camping is simple! Keep it that way! Kids will find lots to do on their own in almost any circumstance."

Vedette
Westbank, British Columbia

How do you avoid the "yucky food" face?

"Food needs to be familiar. To get kids ready for camping out, cook a few times in the backyard using your camp cooking gear to make sure you can turn out kid-friendly foods outside of your own kitchen. Everyone needs to start the day with some protein. Sugary cereal leads to a sugar crash and whiny-ness."

Catherine+twins
Northern New Mexico

"We make sure there are snacks but don't offer them all the time, meals are a group effort, we all chip in for food and then one person does the shopping."

rowerwet
Merrimack River Valley

"I made sure I had food that he would eat, and he played so much that he was hungry. And he fell asleep quickly, too."

Verna
Indianapolis, IN

Some (extra) tips…

"When you arrive at camp everyone has a specific job to do so you can settle in very quickly. Even very small children can be given a camp setup chore to do. We can bug out of a camp area fast too because everyone has a task to complete."

Teardrop Nanny
Northwestern Coast of California

"At night I tie a string with a glow stick on it around their necks. You always know where they are. Haven't lost one yet."

cherokeegeorge
La Crescenta, California

"For us camping is about keeping them covered with sunscreen, making sure they are eating enough, and then following them with a camera for all the memories."

rowerwet
Merrimack River Valley

Photos by vwool, Overland Trailer and 48Rob

Unusual Places to Take Your Teardrop Trailer

We have been to some amazing places in our teardrop trailer like Crater Lake, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, and there are some interesting places we still want to go to. For some reason we have never made it to Cathedral Gorge in eastern Nevada, but once I saw photos online of the amazing rock formations, I had to add it to my growing list.

Some other unusual places we want to take the teardrop camping is White Sands National Monument in New Mexico (along with the funky Truth or Consequences, NM), the Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona, Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World and the Leinenkugal Brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

The reason we call these places unusual is that they are not your typical parks or campsites. The White Sands National Monument has regular missile testing nearby and you can sled down the white dunes like you would down mountains of snow. Saguaro National Park, while hell in the summer, is heaven in the winter and spring. The Fort Wilderness campsites at Disney World in Florida are expensive, but what a great way to stay in the park and avoid the traffic and lines for the buses. On the TNTTT forum, asianflava has a good review of the Fort Wilderness campground.

As for the Leinenkugal Brewery and the Leinie Lodge in Wisconsin. One of the first photos I saw of a teardrop trailer was Big Woody Camper's photo of one of their handcrafted woody trailers in front of the brewery. In addition, one of my favorite book characters, Anna Pigeon of Nevada's Barr's mystery series drinks Leinenkugal beer and their Sunset Wheat is hands-down my favorite camping beverage. I don't think we can camp there, but a photo in front of the brewery is going to be necessary.

Where is an odd or unusual place you want to take your teardrop trailer?

Teardrops for Tailgating

With football season in the U.S. in full swing, on the weekends stadium parking lots are filling up with tailgaters cheering for their favorite teams. To make your tailgate experience even more fun, why not bring your teardrop trailer along? Many tailgaters bring their own trailers or RVs to tailgate events so they can have access to a kitchen, bathroom and even a living room couch with a TV tuned to the game.

A teardrop can have the same amenities without taking up two or three parking spots. If the weather is nice, you can open up the galley and set up a bar with the chips and beer, pull out a few camping chairs and watch the game from the parking lot. If you get tired of the crowds, jump into the bed area and close the doors and curl up with a good book that's not about football.

If you are a mega fan, Little Guy Worldwide allows you to order your fiberglass teardrop trailer with your team's logo and colors.

 

To thoroughly enjoy your teardrop tailgating experience. Here are a few tips:

 

1. Check on the rules and get there early: Check with the stadium or university/college to be sure you can bring your trailer and then get there early to get a prime spot near the end of a row where you can make a quick getaway after the game and the tailgate party is over.

2. Don't forget the shelter: I've been to a few games where the weather does not want to cooperate. When you stake out your space, be sure to leave some room to set up an EZ-Up or other pop-up shelter. You can even get a shelter printed with your team name or colors.

3.  Stock your galley: Pack up the teardrop with what others seem to forget. This includes paper towels, garbage bags, bottle openers, toilet paper, aluminum foil, hand wipes and a first aid kit for those rival team altercations.

4. Get ready for the admiration and pack some extra beers: Teardrop trailers at a football game are a novelty, so be ready to give extra tours of your teardrop. Have extra beer and snacks on hand for your admirers.

5. Oh...and go Wolf Pack!


Top photo: The ultimate tailgater teardrop from Big Woody Teardrop Trailers

Friday Teardrop Photo

I'm currently off teardrop camping in Grand Teton and Yellowstone. However, I'll leave you with this photo of a Nevada sunflower being a bit rebellious and looking off in the other direction versus the other sunflowers around it.

That's kind of what teardrop camping is all about: thinking a little differently and outside the proverbial box.

Friday Teardrop Photo

My friend Andres sent me a photo of this teardrop trailer decked out Hobbit-style.
Now all we need to do is to find a camping spot in the Shire.

Teardrops as Low Maintenance Fun

I was just thinking this weekend that a teardrop trailer is not only a useful way to organize your camping gear and tow your necessary items to your favorite national parks, but it's also a fairly low maintenance toy. We have had higher maintenance toys in the past: sailboats, quads, scooters, and motorcycles. Each of these have had to be repaired, filled with fuel or maintained throughout the winter. Not so with the teardrop.

Of course, teardrop trailers do need some TLC. They need to be periodically cleaned and if you have a sink or refrigerator, these need to be kept in working order. I do spend some money every year getting the ball bearings in the axle repacked and I replace the tires every few years. I spend a whole 15 minutes in late fall taking out the battery and putting it on a trickle charger for the colder months. That's about it.

I do anticipate having to replace the hydraulic lifts on my galley in a few years and getting some repairs done on my front jack. But because my teardrop is so well made, I can save up and pay cash for these repairs when they are needed. However, the more you do maintain your trailer before you hit the road, the more fun you will have with it.

Friday Teardrop Photo

These were a couple of teardrop trailers I took a photo of in the Cappadocia area of Turkey.
It was nice to see that they are also popular in Asia. :-)

Five Things You Never Thought You Needed in a Teardrop

We try to keep the items in the teardrop trailer down to a minimum. You have a small trailer so that you can keep life simple, right? However, once in a while I find an item stashed in the teardrop that has really come in handy on our camping trips.

1. Cleaning Rags

I throw a couple of clean rags into our storage area with the dish towels. These are useful to have for wiping up spills on the tablecloth and doing some quick cleaning of the galley area after cooking. They are better than using paper towels (which tend to run out quickly) and I just wash them out and and hang them up on a clothesline.

 2. Temperature gauge

I have a small temperature gauge that sticks to the window. It's nice to know the outdoor temperature before getting out of a warm bed in the morning. A smart phone with a weather app is useful, but we usually camp where we can't get cell service.

 3. Wind-up Radio and a Pair of Two-way Radios

We have an emergency wind-up radio that has come in handy a few times for local news, weather and some off-beat music stations. The batteries in this radio are charged with few cranks of a manual handle and they last for about 45 minutes. We've also used two-way radios in a few situations when we've been separated from our friends while hiking.

 4. Notebook

I always keep a notebook in the teardrop for jotting down recipes, notes on camping trips, hiking trail directions, to-do lists and a myriad of other informational tidbits.

5. Extra earplugs

Even though we usually camp in pretty quiet areas, there will be times when other people in a campground want to get up earlier than you. Since we also tend to sleep with the windows open, I always keep extra earplugs in several places around the bed: in the toiletry kit, the first aid kit and at the foot of the bed with my books and notebook.

Teardrop Trailer Ingenuity

I just returned from a fun trip to Lake Shasta and the Dam Gathering. There were around 190 trailers at the gathering and the majority of them were teardrops. I spent some time walking around and taking photos of what I thought were the best bits of teardrop trailer ingenuity. These were either builds that caught my attention, camping ideas that got my brain moving or interesting and beautiful details that caught my eye. Thanks to everyone at the gathering who let me snap away with my iPhone and kudos to those who came up with some great ideas.

The Motel 2 was a popular build at the Dam Gathering and had some unique and helpful features that would make camping in the teardrop much easier. The teardrop was built to be square rather than rounded and the galley had a side opening that would make a nice windbreak. I also loved that the owners used a yoga mat cut to size to keep their kitchen items from sliding around. The interior had folding mattresses from IKEA that allowed them to create a small couch.

I wrote a previous post on the Oregon Trail'r company run by two brothers: Sawyer and Jon Christianson. I met Jon and his wife, Jamie, and was impressed on how they set up the bed for their young daughter in their personal teardrop. She sleeps in a cot above the foot of their bed and the mirror next to the cot is actually a shelf that comes down into the galley. This was made so the couple could keep an eye on their toddler when she took her teardrop naps.

Gordon and his wife's sink washing station blew my mind. It sits right next to their teardrop trailer and features a hand pump water sprayer connected to a copper tube that runs over the heating element of a propane-powered grill. The water is pumped into the copper tube and comes out hot into the sink. Gordon said that it's sometimes too hot to use right away and the couple will sometimes put the hot water into the small ice chest to keep it warm throughout the day for washing their hands.

This sink idea also had a ton of style. Randy and Sandy's teardrop sink had a vintage Stanley thermos as a faucet. These types of thermos containers were used in several teardrops at the gathering.

 

These were just a few details that caught my eye and showed that teardroppers really have a great sense of style.

I loved this storage box with the various vintage travel stickers. The Coca-Cola thermos is awesome.

I didn't get the name on this trailer, but that copper light just outside the bed area was one of my favorite details at the gathering.

I couldn't resist taking a shot of this chicken wire cabinet in the teardrop of Dawn and Dave Kappadahl.

Six Favorite Flickriver Teardrops

I will be out of the country on a non-teardrop trip for the next few weeks, but I thought I would leave you with some teardrop porn courtesy of the Flickriver teardrop trailer group. These are the six most beautiful photos of teardrop trailers in their natural element and will hopefully give you some great ideas on how to set up your own comfortable camping spot.

 

Teardrop Illuminated even in the swampy field . 75/365 by giggirl 1

Fox Ridge State Park by kgilbertsen

 

Grace our trailer by giggirl 1

 

 

Teardrop Base Camp near Leavenworth, WA by cruiznbye

 

 

Our Humble Teardrop Trailer at Apgar Campground, Glacier National Park by cruiznbye

 

 

Flippin' Out in the Kitchen of our Teardrop Trailer by cruiznbye

 

 

 

International Glamping Weekend

Okay, teardrop camping could be akin to glamping. So what? There is nothing wrong with enjoying the beauty of the outdoors in the comfort of your own bed, with a glass of wine after a warm, outdoor solar shower. After being profiled in newspapers and magazines as a credible and affordable way to camp, it now seems like glamping finally has some clout. This is being celebrated with the International Glamping Weekend, hosted by MaryJane Butters, author of Glamping with Mary Jane and MaryJane's Outpost.

The International Glamping Weekend will be held June 1-2, 2013 all over the world. On her site you can search for a local glamping gathering, join a glamping group and get tons of information on various types of glamping and where to glamp. This doesn't only apply to teardrop trailers, but to anyone who wants to be outside, just not sleeping right on the ground.

You can even get a free "I'd rather be Glamping" bumper sticker from the website by sending in a SASE to the address provided. Mine is in the mail right now.

Friday Teardrop Photo

A typical camping weekend. Taken at Twin Lakes near Bridgeport, California.

Featured Teardrop: Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy is almost ready to take her first summer camping trip. Brian and Sandi Woods' teardrop trailer might just be one of the most unusual teardrop trailers on the road this summer. Miss Piggy is a custom "Frankensteined" teardrop built out of a 1959 Simca Vedette, a 1951 Studebaker, a 1950 Studebaker and a 1946 Chev PU truck.

Brian has been building and restoring unique vehicles for over 46 years and he and his wife wanted their first teardrop trailer to be very unusual. Miss Piggy took about 14 months to build and includes parts from nine cars, four trucks and two motorcycles.

"I wanted something that not everyone else had." Brian said. "I am a much better welder than a carpenter, so I thought I would build our teardrop out of cars rather than plywood. I had purchased a 1959 “Simca Vedette Beaulieu” for the motor, but thought the car was too cute and in too good of condition to scrap. So it became a body donor for the teardrop."

Brian and Sandi are avid Street Rodders and had seen teardrop trailers at various Rod Runs over the years. However, they had been tent campers for years with their children, and had never really had the desire to tow anything behind their Street Rod.

"Now that I am reaching retirement and we are empty nesters, Sandi and I agreed it was time to get off the ground," Brian said. "Sandi loves the idea of not having to set up and take down the tent on each day of our travels."

Miss Piggy is nearly complete (the headline and interior panels have to be installed), but Brian and Sandi did sleep in their new tear on New Year's Eve in the shop as a trial run. This summer, the couple will be heading out on a 7,000 mile trip around the West and Northwest which will include stops in Yellowstone, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado and Los Angeles. They also plan to have a teardrop gathering in Washington state. The couple love to camp around the Pacific Northwest, Washington, the Rockies and the East Kootenays.

So, how did this teardrop get her colorful name?

"One night as I was mocking up the nose and the front window I walked across the shop to have a look at the overall picture," Brian said. "As I turned to look, my first impression was, 'It looks like a pig snout on a piggy bank'. From that moment forward I referred to it as 'Miss Piggy'."

 

Brian and Sandi are Vedette on the TNTT Forum and the founders of the British Columbia Chapter of Tearjerkers.