Hobo's Hideaway was my very first teardrop camper. It was also the first time I towed a teardrop style camper behind my trike. Further, I totally designed this thing. Put all of that together and I felt the need to do a ton of testing. I started with basic weight and balance. I put this thing in as many configurations as I could think of. For example, how much effect did having a cooler up front vs running empty. I even done weight and balance variations on wether my pillow was in the front vs the rear of the camper. Sound crazy? Not to me.

When I first thought about putting a teardrop behind my trike, I went on the hunt for any information about towing this type of trailer. But.... yea.... I found nothing but a few pictures of people doing such a thing. Unfortunately, this was really no help for me. But, my loss is your gain. What I mean to say is that the lack of real information about this helped motivate me to share what I have learned from this experience.

Next I moved on to road testing. My first testing was just moving slow around the neighborhood. Afterwards I brought it back in to inspect welds and give everything else another look. Each trip that followed was a little longer and a little faster. One thing that shocked me about this phase, this thing caught people's attention. Having towed other campers, I am used to people asking questions at every stop. But this trailer seemed to draw even more than normal.

After road testing to safety, I moved on to overnight trips. My first trip took me from South Texas to Nebraska. The weather was brutal! Temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a great test for the air conditioner. This testing also allowed me to refine the fit and finish of my design. Change a couple things before I moved on to the big road test. This one would take me the long way to South Carolina.

The big trip spanned a couple weeks. It took me through nine states and I spent significant time in both the Ozark Mountains and the Smoky Mountains. It was a total of 3,870 miles. Eight campgrounds, so lots of setting up and tearing down my campsite. One really big storm, followed by a long rainy period. This left me stuck in my camper for a full 14 hours. Not pretty, but good news... no leaks. At one point I wondered if the camper would get blown over. In short, it handled it much better than I could imagine.

So over 6,000 miles of testing, in many situations, and I only have positive things to say. Gas milage for my 2021 Harley Davidson Tri Glide averaged a solid 30 mpg (verses 35 mpg without a trailer). Hills... no problem. Visibility... acceptable. Stoping... not great, but very normal compared to other trailer towing I have done with motorcycles. Comfort.... normal for a teardrop. Yet, the best I have ever experienced motocamping. I will be sharing a ton of information about this experience on this site. So... keep looking for updates if you are interested in doing this type of thing yourself.