My little camper now winters in a large shed which, for a trailer of mainly wood construction on metal chassis, is a big improvement over being left outside covered by tarps.  This year I got it up the ramp using this winch system I devised… with barely  6” door clearance on either side, backing it in using my car was a fiddly affair last year and risked damage to the shed, the trailer or even the car since the ramps are not engineered for that.

It’s fairly obvious from the photos what is going on to winch the teardrop up the ramp and into the shed. Something common-sense but not pictured and less obvious is this: take the battery(s) out of the box first… mine total about 100lbs and while the electric winch doesn’t mind, it makes it a lot easier for me to manoeuvre once inside the shed.

In addition to being weather-safe storage, using a shed has the added bonus of being able to visit your beloved Teardrop camper over the off-season, and perhaps even do maintenance work or upgrades. It need not be a shed… my Teardropping friend Dave uses one of those shelters with metal framing and tarp-like fabric shell. A shed is better for keeping mice and other visitors out, but I’m sure he has clever solutions for that too. In any case, once your little trailer is in place for the off-season my suggestion is to jack it up onto blocks or stands and to reduce tire pressure.

Dunno why I left putting it to bed until the first weekend of November. When I got home late September after just shy of 4 weeks on the road, I certainly felt like I had satisfied all Teardropping desires for the current season. In addition to that big trip, I did a couple 5-nighters during the summer on Manitoulin Island and at the River & Sky Music Festival near North Bay. And I began the camping season with a gloriously bug-free outing to Killarney Provincial Park in the first week of May. I do volunteer for a seniors group and The Ladies recently gave me this cute (and sassy heh!) pair of socks 🙂

My Big Trip in a Tiny Trailer has become an annual autumn excursion, each one getting longer in distance and duration. This year’s iteration, the fourth such road trip, was 26 days and 2800km. I create the majority of content for this blog during winter, and I’ll certainly be writing about some of this year’s experiences and destinations in due course, but I’m working on an overview and choosing a couple photos from each stop… so if you’re feeling down at the notion of winterizing your camper maybe one or two of these spots will start you scheming your Teardrop meanders for next year already. Watch for that to be posted sometime this weekend but for now here’s the map: