The Shelter Blog has been inactive since May, 2019. Too much to do! From this point on, Lloyd’s Blog will have the buildings, vehicles, and home-related posts such as what has previously appeared here. Go to lloydkahn.com.

Casual Turtle's Teardrop Camper

By Lew Lewandowski on December 5, 2014
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Peter Pavlowich’s Casual Turtle Campers were featured in TINY HOMES ON THE MOVE. He’s just built a new teardrop camper model: The Hatchling.

Lloyd, Lew, and folks—

I hope things are good in Bolinas. My wife and I took a drive up thataway back in the summer while she was working in the bay area — what a intriguing community you’ve got there.

I was hoping you’d be willing to share a new model I’ve been working on with your readers. In the event that you will, I’ll send along a little blurb:

Here’s a new model that I’ve been wanting to build for a while. It’s sort of in the size and tradition of a teardrop, but in Casual Turtle Campers style — dead simple, cedar, domed roof, lots of windows, etc. In fact, it’s quite a bit roomier than most teardrops — and by leaving the entire trailer area as living space, the cabin feels damn near palatial! Not really, but it is a nice little space that two people and a couple dogs could be perfectly comfortable in.

As an unsolicited build, I had planned to insulate and finish out the interior myself — but then I thought it might appeal to someone looking for either a dead simple, lightweight little camper, or someone looking for a project. One could add nothing to it and have a very comfortable, capable, simple camper — or features could easily be added to their desires — storage, gear hooks, bed platform, etc. And I’m perfectly happy to discuss building out an interior for someone.

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Here are some of details: It’s built on a very nice, custom 5′×8′, fully boxed trailer frame with 13″ tires from a great manufacturer here in northern Colorado. The cabin’s frame is mostly western Hemlock (1.5″×1.5″), with Western red cedar siding. The bottom of the cabin has a 90-mil PVC membrane covering, and the roofing is a fully adhered, 60-mil, ivory-colored TPO membrane — thermally welded at the seams. It has four opening windows with screens, and two large fixed windows (forward bulkhead and door) for pretty good through-visibility. It weighs 840 lbs., with about 110 lbs. of tongue weight. There are more specifications/details on the website — casualturtlecampers.com.

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I really like this camper, and I can see using it just as it is — or with a more developed interior. Either way, its a great platform for someone looking to get into a very easily towed, comfortable, unique little camper. At 840 lbs, this model could work with a wide variety of tow vehicles. The forward bulkhead is short enough (66″) to tuck in well behind most crossover and small SUVs. I even towed it around town with our little Subaru Impreza.

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I’ve included a couple photos of the camper with my big ass in it — I’m 6’2″ and 195 lbs, for scale. As a shell version, the walls and roof assembly are left open, showing the OSB roof deck’s bottom side — though it could easily be insulated and closed in. If anyone has any thoughts/ideas/questions please email me at casualturtlecampers@gmail.com. I’d be happy to discuss this camper or something similar/different that you might be interested in. And I’m also happy to discuss full or partial delivery from Fort Collins, CO for a rather nominal mileage-based fee.

Thanks for having a look — and please share it with anyone you think might find it interesting. Any ideas on a name for this new model would be welcome, too!

Price — $6,250

Thanks a lot guys — I’d really appreciate your readers having a look at this new model. I’m probably going to beat up on some of the other giants of this handcraft/tiny home/cool shit world for blog mentions, too — but for some reason I really like when your audience checks it out and leaves comments. Happy holiday season from Fort Collins.

–Peter Pavlowich
Casual Turtle Campers

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