In my earlier blog post, I shared some of the benefits of camping with a teardrop. The economic advantages, ease of use and the unique design are strong points to consider when choosing any RV for camping.
However, there are some challenges when teardrop camping as well. There is no bathroom or shower so being close to the campground restroom is usually preferred. With limited space in the cabin, you don't have much room for duffle bags, suit cases or shoes. Getting dressed in the morning, well that can be a bit interesting as you do the "inch worm" to put on pants. This does not work for everyone and it was certainly an inconvenience for us.
So, to address some of these concerns, we decided to add some square footage to our little home on wheels by adding a Side Entrance Tent. There are a number of companies that sell Privacy/Shower tents for campers needing some place to change clothes, get cleaned up, etc. These tents can make a great base for a Teardrop Side Entrance Tent. We bought one from a company called Lightspeed Outdoors and modified it to serve as our little private area to climb in and out of the trailer.
The Lightspeed tent is well constructed with sturdy poles yet still light weight and comes with carrying bag so transporting is easy. One of the great things about teardrop trailers is that they can be set up at the campground in about 10 minutes. The Lightspeed tent fits in well with our teardrop because it too sets up and breaks down in about 1 minute so we can spend more time enjoying camping. The tent is roomy with a 58" square base and the telescoping poles worked perfect because at the 1/2 point, it is nearly the perfect height to sit on the trailer fender.
And, as I said earlier, while not quite actually doubling our square footage, it does help provide a little more room inside the cabin. We now have a place to store our clothes and shoes, answer those late night nature calls, and best of all get dressed in the morning without mooning the entire campground. Incidentally, the extra space we gain in the cabin does get taken up by our Catahoula/Mix dog (Kya - yep, that is her you hear in the background of the video). However, we love camping with our pup so it's OK. Check out the short video of our new side entrance tent...
If you would like to learn more about how we modified this tent, you can read more here. Please feel free to share your camping experiences or questions/comment below. I have a posted set of pictures of most of the steps in constructing this at the link below along with a blog post linked above.
Side Entrance Tent Pictures
Until next time, enjoy the morning moon,
Jay T.
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