As some of you already know, my family decided to finally get ourselves a custom teardrop trailer. I won't bore you with the infinite details of my research of teardrop trailers, designs, styles, and manufacturers.
When it comes to US manufacturers, I would consider the MOBY1 XTR one of the top fabricators of off road teardrops. So-Cal Teardrops are also well built and have a great dealer network that fabricates them throughout the US. I further understood the, "you get what you pay for" mentality during my research phase. However, the minor details in quality between top manufacturers become more gray as you compare them. Materials and equipment begin to make the differences in price. It also brought a great appreciation for what some of you create on your own [MENTION=47340]Titanpat57[/MENTION] [MENTION=67615]Dirtco[/MENTION].
After seeing different TDs in person, I eventually came across a "local" teardrop builder. There are actually quite a few within 5-6hr drives from Portland. I happened to come across one of them at the Portland RV show and was really impressed at the level of detail they put into their builds. After a hour or so of conversation with Ben, their GM, I knew who I wanted to build our teardrop. Especially after I found out Ben was a huge Toyota guy too. He's got a pretty sweet pristine FJ60.
Teardrop Trailers - Oregon Showroom | Tear Drops NW, Salem Oregon ? is owned by Bill Coberly and his wife, Linda. Absolutely fantastic people to deal with. I scheduled an appointment with Bill one Saturday and we spent 4 hours going over the detail of the build. They had never done an "off-road" teardrop before. But because of their custom frame builder and the fact that they use 2x3 box for the frame and 3x3 for the tongue, I was confident in the durability of the frame.
Ben has always wanted to build a custom off road version of their teardrops but never had the customer or the time to invest in a showroom trailer. Almost everyone of their "showroom" trailers they build is sold before they can even put it in their showroom. Even Bill and Linda's personal teardrop lasted a couple of weeks before it was picked up by another teardrop family.
Throughout the build Ben maintained contact with me in detail about everything that was being installed and where. There was some equipment they had never incorporated in a build before. He discussed almost every move during the build and even sent update pics as the build proceeded. Overall, the complete build beginning to end only took 6 weeks. That is an unbelievable amount of turn around considering what other teardrop fabricators are quoting (and I asked A LOT of them). It was important to me and my family to have our teardrop by my 40th birthday and not only did TeardropsNW accomplish that goal, they beat the deadline by 5 days!
So, on to the build...
Ben was teasing me with some CAD work.
More parts laying in front of him.
Powder coated black frame.
Mocking clearance for the tongue box and wireless trailer brake controller.
Very beginning stages of fridge fitment.
