Forum Discussion

Jeepymom's avatar
Jeepymom
Explorer
Aug 16, 2015

What teardrop to buy?? Or is that what we want?

My husband and I are retiring soon and shopping for our first mobile home.We want something that can be pulled by our Jeep Wrangler (less than 3500 lbs.), is small enough to park in our small side yard where there are overhead wires, and that won't break the bank! We first looked at travel trailers, but being new to RV'ing, hate to spend nearly $20,000 for our first one, plus they are too large for our yard. We next looked at hard-sided A-frame pop-ups, but don't think we would be happy with the privacy-curtained wet baths with cassette toilets. So now we are looking at teardrops with an door-enclosed shower and flush toilet or shower/toilet combo, indoor kitchen, AC, and bed or fold-down bed. It only needs to sleep two, and we would love to keep the price under $12,000. Oh- and my husband is 6' and really doesn't want to stoop inside it. Do you know of something meeting those requirements? We would consider a used one in very good shape. Thanks so much for any help you can provide!
  • Thanks for the quick responses. Actually, I put a weight limit of 3200 because that's all my husband's Wrangler will tow, but my 2004 Liberty has a factory tow package and a limit of 4500. We do like the A frame hard sides but are turned off by emptying the cassette toilet.We are much more "travellers" than "campers," and besides the storage problem of a large trailer, we envision long trips where we stay at a campground if the facilities are nice, and retire to a Red Roof Inn when they are not or if it's raining.
  • SoundGuy wrote:
    This just my opinion and one others may disagree with but I think of extra small trailers like the teardrops not as trailers for newbies but for those who've already been there, done that and clearly understand not only the advantages in owning such a small trailer but also the very real disadvantages. For newbies like yourselves I suspect that although you may initially be attracted to these lightweight trailers you'd quickly find this size of trailer awfully restrictive and have you wishing for a more conventional style of travel trailer, something 19' or longer. The problem there of course is your tow vehicle which really isn't suitable for towing anything this size, so bottom line I don't really have an answer for you other than to say be awfully careful if you do decide to proceed with this teardrop idea.

    Good advice here...I agree.
    I suggest you look at pop-up (tent trailer).
    We camped in one for years and it served us well...and would tow nicely behind your Jeep Wrangler.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    The really small trailers like the TEAR DROP is only for sleeping inside. Most everything else is outside maybe with a TENT covering most of the area. I like that kind of camping but it may not be your liking. My neighbors have the A-FRAME and for two people it is great. Very easy to setup etc...

    I would really try to fit something in with hard sides in the 22-24 foot range.

    The older JEEPS were not designed to tow anything at all. Perhaps the newer ones are better at it... Back in the day our best camping years was pulling a small utility trailer behind our OFF-ROAD JEEPS and setting up the biggest baddest three room TENT next to wooded creek bed you could think of haha. The JEEP would take us all over the AZ and NM High Country and we most often went with groups of other JEEP guys and gals...

    GOOGLE IMAGE

    My off-road POPUP camper here weighs in around 4200 lbs loaded down and I pull it with my 2010 F150 truck. The truck doesn't know the POPUP is behind it and it gets great 19-22 MPG gallon on the open roads... Can drive from Northern Neck VA where we live to the Smoky Mtns at Gatlingburg TN on one tank of gas... Can't beat that with a stick...

    This is the way we look when camping off the power grid campsites...


    We enjoy this stuff bigtime but being in a full timer situation I might like to have some more walking around space inside the trailer and maybe some hard sides...

    Roy Ken
  • This just my opinion and one others may disagree with but I think of extra small trailers like the teardrops not as trailers for newbies but for those who've already been there, done that and clearly understand not only the advantages in owning such a small trailer but also the very real disadvantages. For newbies like yourselves I suspect that although you may initially be attracted to these lightweight trailers you'd quickly find this size of trailer awfully restrictive and have you wishing for a more conventional style of travel trailer, something 19' or longer. The problem there of course is your tow vehicle which really isn't suitable for towing anything this size, so bottom line I don't really have an answer for you other than to say be awfully careful if you do decide to proceed with this teardrop idea.