It’s easy to fall down a teardrop trailer rabbit hole on social media. They’re cute and small, and you can pull them with anything, but they can get pretty expensive. What if, though, you didn’t have to buy a little trailer? What if you could make one without a ton of expensive tools or high-level skills? It turns out that you can, and it’s called a Foamie!
This video from YouTuber Xyla Foxlin is far from an exhaustive how-to on making a Foamie trailer, but it does show that you can build one for less money than you probably think and in less time than you might expect.
The core of any Foamie build is pink insulation foam, usually XPS. It’s rigid, easy to work with, and not crazy expensive. Of course, raw foam wouldn’t last long in the wild, so covering it is essential, and while the gold standard method for doing this would be fiberglass, that’s expensive, and the chemicals involved can be kind of gnarly.
What Is PMF?
Enter “Poor Man’s Fiberglass” or PMF. It’s like fiberglass except you use heavy canvas instead of glass mat and wood glue instead of fiberglass resin. Is it as durable or long-lived as fiberglass? Nope. Is it way, way cheaper and durable enough? Yep! Or at least that’s what the internet is telling us.
There are lots of accounts of PMF trailers lasting for years with regular use. We’d imagine how and where it’s stored has a lot of influence on that, though, so your mileage may vary.
How Much Does a Foamie Save? Weight, Cost Comparison
The big appeal of going the wood glue/canvas route is, as we mentioned already, the cost. What exactly is the cost difference, though? According to some exhaustive Google research, 2 gallons of Titebond II wood glue will typically run you $40–60, with 9-foot by 12-foot canvas drop cloths going for around $10 each at most big box home improvement stores.
Conservatively, we’ll call this $100 for the basic materials, though you will need to prime and paint it because PMF is not UV-stable on its own, so we’ll add another $75 for that, bringing our total to $175.
If you want to go with fiberglass, you’ll first need resin. Resin prices seem to vary pretty wildly, but 2 gallons of marine resin from TotalBoat will set you back $320, and 25 yards of 6-ounce fiberglass mat from the same retailer will cost $150.
You still need to prime and paint fiberglass, so we’ll add the same $75 as before, leaving us with a total of $545. Add in the cost of a respirator, which is mandatory if you’re working with resins, and the gap widens even more.
As far as weight savings go, it’s negligible. If anything, PMF is marginally heavier than fiberglass, but because a foam-cored PMF trailer uses only a small amount of wood in its structural framing elements, such as blocking and framing, it’s an extremely lightweight way to build.
Not counting the trailer chassis and wheels, a 5-foot by 8-foot Foamie trailer will typically weigh under 400 pounds, which means you could have your neighbor’s asthmatic goat tow it in a pinch. No big truck or SUV is needed, which is a key part of Foamies’ appeal.
Finishing Touches
Using plywood as the base of the trailer to mount it to a cheap trailer frame (Xyla uses one from Harbor Freight, but finding a used one would be cheaper) leaves you with a super-lightweight, super-affordable travel trailer. Now you need to paint everything inside and out to your preference and kit the trailer out to your desire.
Windows seem like a great idea, and you’ll need a door of some kind. Xyla goes with pre-made trailer windows and door, and it 100% seems like the move. You’ll end up with a more professional-looking and functional product than if you try to slap some together out of plexiglass, hopes, and dreams.
Given her self-imposed time and budget constraints, Xyla’s foamie came out really awesome. We’d love to see more of a buildout inside, but the tongue box/bench is a great idea; ditto the door for the storage area at the back becoming a table. The awning design is especially cool, too, given how simple it is.
Is It Worth DIYing?
Is going the cheap DIY route worth it compared to spending more and getting a more finished product? We think it is. The cost savings can be 50% or more versus the cost of even a cheap manufactured teardrop, and if you’re going DIY, you get to build exactly what you want and to prioritize the features that mean the most to you.
It’s cool to see something like this that’s truly DIY, where you end up with something totally useful that’s not a million miles off from the expensive thing you’re trying to replicate. The possibilities with this style of construction seem almost limitless, too. Now, if you’ll excuse us, it’s time to blow our whole weekend putting together cut lists and shopping carts full of supplies for one of these.
