Cant believe I never posted this - Eclipse camping

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Wife and I went up to the Priest Hole recreation area on the John Day River in central Oregon to view the eclipse last month. This was the first "real" test of our homebuilt teardrop trailer I made over the winter, and apparently I never posted the pics here.


Just getting there, the traffic was horrible. Took 5 hours to go the last 30-ish miles because everyone was trying to get to some music festival we weren't even interested in going to, but it backed up the road for miles. Finally got there at about 11 at night; we unpacked the trailer and went straight to sleep.


Set up our campsite the next day.



The kitchen. I guess we're roughing it with style?


A guy in a motorhome smelled us cooking and said we brought more stuff in our little teardrop than he had in his whole motorhome.


What campsite is complete without a lounge?


Despite its small size, we have pretty much everything we need inside the trailer.



And right over the hill is the river.


Saw this hard core teardrop while out exploring the town of Fossil.


This must be where all the western movies are filmed.


John Day National Monument - Painted Hills



John Day National Monument - Clarno Formation







John Day National Monument - Sheep Rock. There is a very cool paleontology museum here, but I forgot to take any pictures.



We ate very well. Cinnamon rolls...


...and bacon...


...are part of a complete breakfast!


Slow-cooking beef with solar power, because we can!
 

We had to eat the stew we made in our truck, though, because there were so many bugs outside.


We also used it for BBQ shredded beef sandwiches.


Yes, that's Korean BBQ. In the middle of nowhere.


And fried chicken sandwiches.


But of course the main reason we were here was the eclipse. The best seats in the house were inflatable, and in the back of our truck.


Watching the moon slowly block out the sun, listening to Dark Side of the Moon. Like a boss.


Almost there.


Getting very dark, and a little chilly.


Totality!


Twilight in the middle of the day.


While everyone else was packing up to leave, we had one more day so we finally decided to enjoy the river.


The H.M.S. Inflatable-boat-with-a-plywood-floor-and-a-trolling-motor!







I thought it was dead, but apparently that's just the skeleton they leave behind when they shed their skin.




Of course, the night before we're going to leave, I'd get a flat tire...


Patched it up and decided to make one last stop on Mars before heading home!
 
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That looks awesome!

Is that a homemade evap-cooler for the trailer? What's your solar and battery setup?
 
Wow! very nice setup you have made there. I like the inflatable chairs. We like to keep it a bit simpler but I can see a tear drop trailer in our future. My wife in now googling the grill for your korean bbq though, that might be an addition.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
That looks awesome!

Is that a homemade evap-cooler for the trailer? What's your solar and battery setup?

It is. I made it out of an ice chest, a cut up swamp cooler pad, bilge fan, water pump, and dryer duct. We weren't in the trailer much during the day but it worked to cool it down a bit.

Solar is 3 100 watt panels (2 mounted on top of the trailer, one on the ground), a 225 amp hour battery, a cheap PWM controller, and a 750 watt inverter. The only time the battery wasn't fully charged by sundown was the day we used the crock pot.

If you're interested in a trailer build journal I have one here


Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Wow! very nice setup you have made there. I like the inflatable chairs. We like to keep it a bit simpler but I can see a tear drop trailer in our future. My wife in now googling the grill for your korean bbq though, that might be an addition.

Yeah, we love our Korean BBQ but it costs $40 a person from the restaurant and we have to cook it ourselves anyways so why not do it at home? We have a heavy cast iron grill and an electric burner (so we don't set the house on fire) to use at home, but the little nonstick one and propane burner work great for camping, especially now that we can keep meat frozen in the fridge.
 
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Pretty neat! More electrical stuff than I'd expect, great setup to make everything work!

Thanks for the photos too, lots of nice shots!
 
Just read that build journal. You did an incredible job, looked like a ton of fun! I'd love to build something like that, but I really don't have time at the moment.

I'll probably buy a camper already built someday.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Just read that build journal. You did an incredible job, looked like a ton of fun! I'd love to build something like that, but I really don't have time at the moment.

I'll probably buy a camper already built someday.

Yeah, it took me 4-5 months of working on it pretty much all day after work to the point where my wife had to tell me to stop working on it, lol
 
You didn't see the pics of the kitchen in the OP? We have a freestanding mini fridge with freezer running off the solar.
 
That's cool and I bet you spent weeks if not months planning it all out, which can be 90% of the fun.

You brought solar panels to an eclipse?
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
I like your stainless plates.

They're actually burner covers for a stove, but they make the perfect plates
 
Thanks for posting the pics and the build log! I've wanted to build a teardrop for a long time. Have you weighed the teardrop? How does the 4x8 trailer feel? Does it feel tight, especially with the insulation and inner skin layer taking up space? I've been debating whether I'd want to start with a 4x8 or 5x8. 4x8s are much more common, but I'd be worried it would get cramped in there. I'd been thinking about going with a 4x8 with no insulation in the walls to squeeze out as much interior volume as possible.

I see you have a 2.7l Taco, how does it handle the towing? Ideally I would build a light enough trailer for my Element to pull, and probably a much simpler build, no running water, no heater, no plumbed propane, maybe even no 120VAC wiring. Basically a sleeping quarters and a kitchen counter in the back with a 12V cooler.
 
Most excellent!!! John Day National Park looks like a place to target!
Your set up takes creativity to another level.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Originally Posted By: EdwardC
Thanks for posting the pics and the build log! I've wanted to build a teardrop for a long time. Have you weighed the teardrop? How does the 4x8 trailer feel? Does it feel tight, especially with the insulation and inner skin layer taking up space? I've been debating whether I'd want to start with a 4x8 or 5x8. 4x8s are much more common, but I'd be worried it would get cramped in there. I'd been thinking about going with a 4x8 with no insulation in the walls to squeeze out as much interior volume as possible.

I did weigh it on a truck scale, just because I was curious. With a full water tank, it's 1,640 lbs. It's pretty much the smallest that's acceptable but since my wife and I don't hate each other yet (maybe we haven't been married long enough?) we make it work. Neither of us are exactly small people. I went with the 4x8 because that's the size of a HF trailer and, also, the size of a sheet of plywood. It just made everything easier. We plan to take this thing up in the mountains to the snow in winter, so insulation was a requirement.

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I see you have a 2.7l Taco, how does it handle the towing? Ideally I would build a light enough trailer for my Element to pull, and probably a much simpler build, no running water, no heater, no plumbed propane, maybe even no 120VAC wiring. Basically a sleeping quarters and a kitchen counter in the back with a 12V cooler.

It's definitely not ideal, but it was free (given to me by my dad) so we make it work. Towing with OD off, it will do 75 on the flats easily, but get in the mountains and we're limited to 40-50 in 2nd gear (4 speed auto) up some of the hills. I don't have a temperature gauge on the transmission but I did add an aux. cooler to supplement the one in the radiator. The most important thing I did was add airbags to the rear suspension; between the ~2000 lbs in the fully loaded trailer and 500+ lbs of gear in the bed, the truck rides on the bump stops otherwise and wants to fishtail all over the place if I go faster than about 50. With the bags inflated to 75 PSI it's completely level, and drives smooth and straight at any speed.

I will say that as soon as we can save up the money (I refuse to finance another vehicle), I have my eyes on a Nissan Xterra as a roadtrip/camping vehicle. V6, 4wd, and an enclosed cargo area (we ended up driving through part of a thunderstorm on the way home, and everything in the bed got soaked) would all be welcome. We'd keep the truck, because we still use it to haul things at least once a week. Truck got about 17 mpg on the trip, probably because it was overworked, can't see a V6 doing much worse.
 
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Wow! 1,640lbs with water is lighter than I would have guessed. There's some hope for my Element. We've pared down a lot of our camping gear, so we pack pretty light nowadays. You sure do know how to camp though, I love the Korean BBQ setup. We're thinking about making a Hot Pot meal at our next camping trip.

The Xterra would be a great vehicle for that, I'd say maybe second only to a 4Runner. I know what you mean about rain, nothing worse than wet camping gear that you have to unpack, dry off and repack after you get home from a trip.

Thanks again for sharing!
 
The problem with 4Runners is they hold their value too [censored] well for what they are. People around here seem to think '90s models are still worth 4-5k which is ridiculous.
 
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