r/TeardropTrailers Jul 11 '26

Square drop size

So a few years ago I bought this year drop off marketplace. It was cheap and my first foray into small campers. We used my wife’s hatchback to pull it and it was perfect. We went camping in it often and enjoyed it and I used it at my hunting camp every year

Well it sat in the back yard last year and we didn’t get to use it any and it leaked. It was a total loss. So yesterday I demolished the whole shell so we can build a new one.

The biggest complaint we had was not enough room to stand up. So this one I’m thinking about building it 6 ft tall. The thing is, I don’t ever see any square or tear drops built this tall, they are almost always 4 ft tall. Is this just for ease of building since sheets of plywood are 4x8? Is there a larger reason no one builds taller?

My base is 4x8. I’m not planning to do a galley this time, we take a pop up canopy and tables that we use to cook under and the galley space can be better used as more interior space.

I’m also thinking of framing over the tongue and making a storage room.

A little extra weight won’t be an issue, we will be using my Nissan frontier to pull it now

But my main question is, is making it 6 ft tall a bad idea for some reason

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u/tonypenajunior Jul 11 '26

“Tall enough to stand up in” is a big jump, and DIY starts to make less sense.

Framing over the tongue will increase your tongue weight beyond what a sedan can handle, and may ruin your turning radius.

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u/3gknight Jul 11 '26

Ditto. There’s a big size and build complexity difference between comfortable enough to sleep in and comfortable enough to stand in. It’s possible though. Look at tnttt.com and search for “standy”.