My Five Teardrop Galley Essentials

These are some of my favorite Teardrop galley essentials.  They're in no particular order.

I’m combining two items into one because they belong together. A happy little morning couple:

1a. Bodum French Press.

I don’t need to say much about this item.
We use it at home.
We use it camping.
Quick, quiet, easy.

1b. Hario MSS-1B Mini Mill Slim Coffee Grinder.

I love this grinder.  It’s small, durable, and it breaks down into three pieces for easy packing.  It’s a no brainer.  Put the beans in and turn the handle to grind.

Yes, you have to work; it’s powered by you. But, if you’re a camper, you already know that camping is a lot of work.  It takes about 3 minutes to grind up ½ cup of beans. Two minutes if you’re a speed freak.

I am not a true coffee geek. But, there are a few geek-worthy things to note about this grinder: you can adjust the grind from coarse to fine with a turn of a nut, it has ceramic burrs, and hand cranking creates minimal frictional heat, which can affect the taste of your coffee.

Note from Amelia: A lot of Amazon reviews complain that the Hario hand grinder is “too hard to use.” For comparison purposes, it’s as difficult as mixing Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough with a wooden spoon. If that hurts you, then don’t buy this grinder.

Note from Leah about Amelia’s note: People who complain that a hand crank is “too hard to use” are wussies. Those same people probably complain that walking up three flights of stairs is harder than taking the elevator. Stop whining, and start cranking (and take the stairs).

 2. OXO wooden reamer

Holy crap, this thing is fantastic!  This could get more juice out than a mechanical juicer.  In fact, when I get home I’m going to test that theory out.

Whether you’re juicing oranges for mimosas, lemons and limes for a marinade, or grapefruits for a cocktail, this is what you want to use.

Ream that citrus!

3. Camp Chef Stove

We decided long ago that if we were going to camp, then we were going to be eating well. There would be no crappy food while camping.

This thing is powerful. Each burner is 30,000 btu’s. This is more btu’s than in most of your kitchens.

I highly recommend buying the side shelves for this stove.  Extra counter space is always welcomed when camping.

4. Coleman oven

How I have gone this long without a camp oven is beyond me.  Baking bread, and muffins, roasting vegetables, and making meatloaf while camping? Yes, please.

The oven collapses into itself.  It packs flat and weighs around 7 pounds.

Controlling the heat is what you have to keep an eye on. At home your oven goes on and off to maintain a consistent temperature.  You are the thermostat control while baking with the Coleman oven, so adjust the temperature as needed.  

I found that 350 degrees is what I need for a loaf of bread.  I would bet that the thermometer it came with isn’t the most accurate, so don’t rely too much on it. Baking is more of a feel anyhow, isn’t it?

5.  LL Bean nylon tarp 8'x10'

The most awesomest tarp ever.

What makes this tarp great is that it’s ripstop nylon, not that crinkly stuff you get at a department store. 

It took me a few times to figure out how and where to set this up, but I’ve got it down now.  The tarp goes over the hatch. It has an overhang about a foot and a half on each side, and overhangs the back by about five feet. It’s an excellent sitting area to get out of the sun, rain, or away from the neighbors view, which is always my favorite.  It’s our own little lanai.

There's so many more things, but these are my current top five favorites. 

-Leah

Mind the gap

Alright, time to address the gap between the bottom of the galley and the hatch.

I ripped a few pieces of wood to 3/16" thick and laminated them together creating a shim to fill in the ridiculous gap at the bottom.

The gap is at the last 8" of the hatch and increases from 1/2"  to  1-1/2" at the bottom.








The curve is very slight so it was quite easy to bend the wood to shape. You just attach it to the hatch itself, let the glue dry, then take it off. This is what it will look like:

I primed and painted the shims with marine-grade paint. Did I mention it was exterior grade???

There were still some gaps, so I ripped a few more pieces and glued them in.  This is what it looks like:

I made graduated steps to fill in the remaining gaps, applied exterior caulk, then screwed it down with exterior grade screws. Notice the theme there: exterior grade everything.

Now I need to install the weather stripping on the hatch, and I should have a pretty tight seal.

I need to figure out how to keep the hatch closed now. Currently I'm using a hasp and it's not lining up anymore.

Yeah, what the hell is a hasp, right? I didn't know until 5 minutes ago myself.  It's that piece of hardware in the picture on the right. It swings over the other piece (which isn't there) and locks. Hasp. I learn something new and trivial every day.

Anyhow, the male part can't go on the hatch where it used to, so I bought a gate hinge. Let's see if I can MacGvyer something up.  I'm betting that I can.

Time for a cocktail!

-Leah

Paint, paint and paint

Time for some Rust-Oleum Topside marine-grade oil paint. I applied five coats.

This stuff is great. It goes on thick and acts as a leveler for uneven surfaces.

This stage is complete.

Next up: dealing with the gap at the bottom where the hatch and galley meet.

-Leah

 

Rain diverters for the hatch hinge

Now that the hatch hinge is sealed on the ends, it's time to make a rain diverter.

It's really easy to make, all you need is a piece of aluminum angle iron and a few tools.  You cut it with a band saw, hack saw, or tin snips, and then smooth it with a metal file.

I shaped aluminum angle to the side profile of the hinge then cold-welded it onto the hinge and side. You want zero water infiltration at the sides, and this is one way to prevent it.

The better way is keeping your hinge long enough to overhang by about 1/2" on each side - but, I'm way past that point!   -insert swearing here-

Again, it's not pretty, but it's not going anywhere and water shouldn't get in.

I used JB Weld. It's an epoxy that's incredibly strong in every condition you throw at it, at least any condition a Teardrop trailer can throw at it.

It feels like I might be in the home stretch of reapirs now.

Progress is good, progress is good (repeat).

-Leah

Fix the hatch hinge

Well, this looks fantastic, doesn't it?! Not.

I'm not really sure how this happened.  There should be no hole there. It looks like I made the cut for the hatch 1" too soon.

However it happened. It's bad - very bad - and it's like this on both sides.

My answer was Bondo.  I blocked the inside with a piece of plastic and filled in the hole.

Bondo is an incredibly stable filler. If it works on vehicles in every climate, it'll work on the Teardrop.

Not the prettiest repair in the world, but the hole is gone.

Making a rain diverter is next. It will function like a gutter on the ends of the hatch hinge.

Did I hear someone pop a champagne bottle? I'll be right there...

-Leah

Time to prime and paint

The galley and hatch having been drying out for 2 weeks now. 

Today I sanded and primed the bottom and sides of the galley interior.

Next up: Marine grade oil paint, more caulk, and addressing the gap in the sides where the hatch hinge is, which I've been avoiding.

-Leah

Water damage repair

I found more water damage on the bottom of the hatch.  I chiseled out the rot and let it dry for a few days before filling it in.

I keep coming back to the same thought: What the hell was I thinking not finishing bare wood?

What. The. Hell?  -sigh-

The good thing about building something from the ground up is just that - YOU built it.

You know how everything goes together and how everything could come apart. You get too see all the flaws and all the successes of your build.  So when something goes wrong or breaks you know how to fix it.

I know exactly what to do and not to do next time I build a Teardrop.

I patched the hole with exterior grade filler. I'll cut a piece of wood to fill in the remaining void. That piece will be primed and painted on all sides and then epoxied in.

Time for some champagne, because I like bubbles.

-Leah

More hatch repairs

Here we have our major offender: the hatch hinge that was cut too short, and a gap rivaling the size of the Delaware Water Gap. Time to scrape and sand. What was I thinking? This is a HOLE!

Are you judging me? Well, it won't be more than I judge myself, so bring it on!  :)

Our second offender is the bottom of the hatch where it just doesn't have a good seal; there's a gap at the sides.

I started laminating thin strips of wood to fill in the gap a bit so this is phase one.

Live and learn, live and learn...

-Leah

Water damage be damned!

Well, I'm dragging my feet on this and we're leaving for Florida for a one month trip on January 2, so it's time to get my rear in gear.

I moved the Teardrop into the shop to assess the water damage in the galley and it's been raining ever since, so good timing on that.

At first I thought I might get away with doing a "little" repair, but this is like washing one spot on a dirty white wall. You just can't do one spot. There's no easy fix here.

First, I let a fan dry it out for 2 days.  Then I got out a scraper and some chisels. Fun times.

Water is getting in on the bottom of the hatch - gotta fix that.

The top of the hatch is leaking, too! Boo, leaks, boo!

I had to let it sit for a week and stare and think and stare and think some more before I moved forward.  I've removed all rotten and wet wood. Next steps are filling voids with Bondo or exterior wood putty, and sealing every crack and every spot where two pieces of wood meet, then painting the galley sides and floor with marine paint.

I also have to address the lower half of the hatch not making contact with the trailer when closed; There's a gap of about 1/2".

More soon -

Leah

Improved galley doors

Now, why didn't I think of this sooner? Why?

Hinged doors are not a good idea for many reasons. Most hinges aren't designed to bang down the road at 65 miles an hour, sooner or later they'll break. Secondly, they opened inconveniently right over the counters, making the counters less useful. Silly, silly me.

After a year of having to move things around every time I needed to open a door I came up with this.

Drawer slides. Yup. Full extension that slide up and out of the way.

Well, isn't that just swell? No more counter juggling.

There's a cotter pin at the top that slides out to hold the door up.

The middle door is still hinged. I like the look of it, and that door is very, very light (Butternut). Less chance of the hinge breaking.

Now on to adding more shelves...

-Leah

Counters

Back to the galley...

I installed countertops and started making the doors for the galley.

Also, I'm figuring out where the 12 volt panel and battery will go.

The electrical panel is from West Marine, it has 3 circuits on it and cigarette lighter that I'll use to plug an inverter into.

Coming along.

Leah