Teardrop trailers a hit with campers, travel enthusiasts

Sometimes when Joe and Leslie Kosareff pull into a campground, they encounter anything but peace and privacy.

Fellow campers just can't seem to resist their little tin can of a trailer. With its pudgy little teardrop-shaped body set low on two white sidewall tires, and measuring a diminutive 9 feet long by 4 feet wide, it is the anti-RV.

There is just enough space for two people to cuddle up inside at night and cook out during the day from a rear hatch.

But what the Kosareffs' trailer lacks in amenities it makes up for in efficiency, ease and an indefinable cuteness that is fueling a mini-revival of "The Teardrop Trailer," which was a familiar sight on America's highways back in the '30s and '40s.

"It's like the best of everything," says Kosareff, a builder by trade who began making custom Teardrops after arthritis made it difficult for him to continue with his fine carpentry. "You're still camping but you have the convenience of a trailer. You just hook it up and go."

Longtime campers, the 50-something Camp Meeker couple found themselves tiring of schlepping gear and sleeping on the ground. So after seeing a piece on Teardrop "gatherings" — camp-ins with fellow Teardrop aficionados — featured on the folksy PBS show "California's Gold," a few years back, Leslie turned to her husband and asked, "Could you build one of those?"

"We were at that age when it was just getting too hard to get up off the ground," says Joe.

"And then we were having to deal with air mattresses with leaks in them."

And yet the couple wasn't ready to succumb to an RV when their goal was to get close to nature.

"We're not trailer people," he says. "We're campers."

The beauty of the Teardrops is that they're like a hard-sided tent on wheels. The sleeping compartment includes a full-sized bed and built-in storage and drawers for the accourtrements of outdoor living and simple travel.

The back, in typical Teardrop fashion, opens up to reveal a galley kitchen with drawers for pots, pans, plates and flatware, counter space for a cook stove and a deep cabinet for either a refrigerator or big ice chest.

"It just so easy," says Kosareff, who now custom-builds Teardrop trailers in several sizes starting with a tiny 4- by 8-footer that weights only about 650 pounds. "It's all set up. All you have to do is pack your clothes. If it's midnight when you get to your campsite, you just crawl in."

It's not clear who came up with the first Teardrop trailer. But with their distinctive Art Deco-inspired "Streamline Moderne" design, and their ingenious way of packing comfort and convenience into a tiny space, they became popular during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Do-it-yourselfers quickly embraced the concept, with numerous articles and plans featured in magazines from "Popular Homecraft" to "Popular Science" to "Outdoor Living," says Douglas Heister, a Chico-based writer and photographer and author of the book, "Teardrops and Tiny Trailers."

"They were particularly popular for weekend hunting or fishing expeditions. It was better than a tent and you didn't have to pitch it."

There were some larger-scale manufacturers, such as the collectible Kit Trailers, Gypsy Caravans, Kamp Masters and Kaycraft Campsters.

But just as houses slowly ballooned in size over time, so did campers, until the Winnebago ushered in the era of the larger, more luxurious RV. The market for Teardrops dried up, though some survived because of their ease of storage.

"People put them in their sheds or barns. They didn't rot away necessarily like other trailers might have," Heister said.

Grant Whipp, a hot rod and motorcycle enthusiast from Redding, is credited as godfather of the Teardrop revival. He fell in love with a friend's original 1946 Mondernistic model in the early '80s and built one of his own.

It was an instant attention getter. He started a newsletter and eventually organized the first modern gathering of Teardrop campers, The Tearjerkers. Now there are groups springing up online, on Facebook and around the country.

"People still have the desire to get out and enjoy nature and the woods, but Teardrops are like a luxury form of tent camping," he said.

They're also light and easy to transport with a four-cylinder compact car. You can pull into a car-camping park and don't even have to unhitch if you don't want to, said Whipp.

The Kosareffs spent more than a year designing their little nest on wheels and then another year building it of plywood with a sheath of light aluminum.

Joe can now build one in about four months, working out of a workshop in Cotati. Prices start at $7,500 for a simple 4-by-8-foot model with no cabinets.

He sometimes puts in 14-hour days pursuing his passion.

Now they are regulars at gatherings where similar lovers of compact camping — the Kosareffs call their business "Vacations in a Can" — tour and admire each other's trailers and share camp cuisine like enchiladas and chocolate cake out of a Dutch oven.

They love the freedom of traveling light.

"In the morning you just open up the back, make your coffee, close it up and off you go," says Leslie. "It's really nice."

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.