Featured Teardrop: Crybaby Teardrop Trailers

Crybaby Teardrop Trailers is a small teardrop building company in Huntington Beach, California that designs custom trailers according to owners' specifications. What really caught my eye with this company was not only their fun name, but that one of their designs featured a galvanized tub for a galley sink. How cool is that? I chatted online with the owner, John and he gave me more information on the company.


 Tell us a little bit about Crybaby and what you do.

Crybaby is a small mom and pop teardrop building company. We build completely custom teardrops from start to finish for our customers. We've built the standard teardrop in just about every size and configuration you can think of but the more creative we get, the more we enjoy doing it. We've done things like a toy hauler teardrop, a teardrop customer uses to travel to events and instead of a galley the hatch opens for a custom product display, things like that. We're doing two now that are pretty exciting: an off-road teardrop and one the owner is decorating as a either a "nautical" or "spaceship" style complete with round porthole windows, a beer tap for a pony keg and a rag-top "moonroof".


What do you think makes Crybaby Teardrop Trailers unique?

We are completely unique because, unlike some of our bigger friends, we don't do cookie cutter. Every customer's teardrop is slightly different and unique whether it's wider doors for a disabled customer or custom cabinets. We don't carry any stock to sell or already made trailers, so our customers can be a part of the process from when they order their trailer all the way until their "baby" is finished. Most of all, we're a family run business: my brother, my wife, kids and I are involved in every single trailer. We strive to be artisans and we take our time doing it right.


 Tell us about your trailer options and details? What can customers order or what do they specifically ask for?

Because we do everything under the sun, we don't really have a list of options or price list. Our customers come to us with their ideas, we figure out how to do it and how much it will cost. They can order just about whatever they can think of. That being said, our base model, a 4x8, starts at $3,999. Adding things like extra windows, a second door, a sink, cabinets can run anywhere from $75 and up. Sometimes our customers just bring us cool stuff they've found, like old windows, and ask us to incorporate it into their trailer. One of the huge things for us is to make our trailers affordable for families and to let people decide what they really want in their trailer and how big they want to go. We want to offer a great value for money. As for options, most of our customers really want that second door and window — the sinks with the instant hot water tanks are really popular options.


 Do you see any interesting trends in teardrop trailers?

The biggest trend we've seen is the off-road teardrop. We started building ours and we've had interest that's just off the hook! It's amazing how many people are interested in a trailer that they can take to places that only tent campers have been before. It's the new frontier and a super way to get out beyond the campgrounds into the wilderness.

  
Where did your company name come from?



Our company actually started because we are a big blended family. My wife and I had three children each from our first marriage and we love camping. My wife and I also love road tripping and we had upsized into a big trailer to take the whole clan out and about. But when it was just us — without the kids — that big trailer was a production to get out, not to mention the gas to get it anywhere. We wanted something more economical, environmentally friendly and easier to just pick up and go with.  We ended up tent camping or sleeping in the truck a lot.

Then, when my wife was pregnant with our youngest "us" baby (lucky number 7!), we decided we needed to get ourselves a teardrop again as a second trailer. I'm a master home builder and a carpenter by trade and had built many teardrops over the years as a hobby and helped a lot of my friends restore and/or build their own, so I knew exactly what goes into building a quality teardrop. My wife wanted all the amenities too: the iPod hook-ups etc. But when we went shopping for a teardrop, we were astounded by the prices for what we wanted. So I started building my own because I knew I could do it for a lot less and before I was even finished people were trying to buy it out of my driveway. It was amazing! So when our baby was born, I was looking for a way to stay closer to home and I started taking orders and the demand has been overwhelming! We just moved into a brand new shop in Huntington Beach. It all started because of youngest crybaby, so Crybaby Trailers just fit as the name.

 
Do you camp in a teardrop trailer? Where do you like to go camping? 



We love camping. In the winter we go to the desert. Mojave and Jawbone are favorites, and in the summer, we'll enjoy beach weekends at Bolsa Chica State Beach here in Southern California or up north of Santa Barbara. One our favorite summer trips was to Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona — the kids just loved Slide Rock! We're hoping to be able to do Glacier National Park and/or Yellowstone with the kids for our next summer adventures. We’ll do it with the kids and the teardrop!


What do you like most and least about teardrop camping?

In my view, there's nothing bad about a teardrop! My favorite thing about the teardrop is how easy it is to get there and how it can go so many places that you can't with the big trailer and is so much cheaper in gas. My wife will tell you she likes to have the bed because in the winter it can get cold. My wife does say the one thing that bugs her is that the teardrops don’t have bathrooms, but we've come up with a solution for that. We've designed a side attachment for the Teardrop that can double as a shower and privacy for a port-a-potty.

Photos by Crybaby Teardrop Trailers

12 comments:

  1. Horrible builder do not purchase from them. We did and it was a nightmare!!!

    Have to rebuild the trailer. Parts missing, items we purchased never installed, crappy craftsmanship (shelves made out of 1/8 inch plywood), no fuse box or main breaker. It leaked!!!!

    Our 2 month build he promised took 8 months. We purchased it to camp for our anniversary, never got it in time. We had to ride over the top of him or he wouldn't work on it. Horrible!!!!!

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  2. Tabitha. Your Crybaby Trailer comes with a one year warranty, feel free to bring it back.

    While we acknowledge that your trailer did take longer to build than originally predicted (as a completely custom builder sometimes a trailer takes longer than planned and delays the start of the next trailer) part of the problem was your insistence on the use of non-standard materials, such as flooring for the ceiling, and the addition of items mid-build that created challenges. In an effort to provide outstanding customer service, you were not charged for any of the additional time involved in resolving the issues your choice created. In regards to the items missing/never installed, you are referring to the original windows which were discontinued. You were provided with a alternative window, which you approved and you were issued a full refund for the difference in price.

    If you had bothered to ask last time you were in, we could have shown you where to find your 30 amp main breaker and 4 fuses located behind the ice chest in the gallery area. Additionally, the small galley leak caused by the sealant that you insisted that we use -- which required a weeklong curing time-- was fixed the same day you brought the trailer in.

    Despite your continual negative attitude and hostility, we truly believe that you have an exceptional trailer for the price and we stand behind our product and warranty.

    We will not be asking Christina to take down this post, because we feel that we have nothing to hide. You are the exception not the rule and we are unhappy that it appears that you cannot be satisfied.

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    1. Thank you for the quick update on this issue, Heather. It's a struggle sometimes dealing with having a blog become a sounding board. It sounds like the customer should have come straight to you with any issues first.

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  3. I have gone to them with these issues. I have photos of all that is wrong with our trailer along with the long list of receipts from chasing issues. I will be more than happy to share these photos and all the repairs we have already done to it. The shelves were made of 1/8 plywood stapled in, as soon as we set a small LED lantern on it the bottom fell out. The same thing happened to the front cabinet. They did not seal the galley we did take it back to them after that leaked and they scratched the hell out of the sides. The stabilizer jacks don't even reach 1/2 to the ground fully extended, the tongue jack we are having repaired this weekend by a machine shop because he did not use a proper one for the weight and it has bent. I've had to use a razor to cut glue that was just slopped on off. I am still waiting for the refund for the slider windows that were part of the build that were not installed.
    I never approved the windows or the doors, we came down and you had already installed them and told us it would take at least another 2 months to get new ones in. We were already over 5 months on the build.

    I am not hostile I am stating fact which can be backed up with photos, documentation, and receipts. I am giving an honest review of our experience with this company and their complete lack of professionalism and below average workmanship.

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  4. If you would like to see the video proof please check out the video.

    http://youtu.be/iFD8JW4SLCE

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  5. Wow. I would love to see a response to your last 2 post. I was thinking about using them for some work and I met the owner.

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    1. I'm returning my trailer after it is leaking like a siv. I took delivery 3/6/15 and returning it after only three weeks of use. I have had to stay in hotels when I should be camping.

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  6. If you'd like to see more I have been documenting the issues and blogging my progress in fixing the trailer correctly. There is still a long way to go. Our galley lid is over 2 inches shorter on one side making it impossible to seal correctly so I will have to rebuild it and put a proper hinge that actually will fit. http://crybabyteardrop.blogspot.com/2014/06/windows-doors-and-table-oh-my.html

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  7. Here is the video of our galley lid.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6pdebXmJwQ

    This was a video I took within the first week of the trailer being home.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eumdlpjQSw

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  8. We put down a major deposit on a trailer from this builder. After reading Tabitha's comments and other issues from other customers, we started to not feel comfortable with the build. The builder offered us a full refund. The trailer that he was building for us has been sold and we have not gotten our deposit back. It has been almost 5 months and he has not contacted us after many attempts from us.

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    1. We too lost a lot of money from Crybaby. We purchased many of the upgrades they offered but when they delivered our trailer many were missing and we never received reimbursement for them. vw707 did you ever get your deposit back?

      I can't believe they are still allowed to continue to sell these nightmares, I have received so many complaints from others and yet they still advertise on Craigslist.

      It has been a year since we received our trailer and for every issue I fix three more pop up. We can't mount a spare tire under the trailer on the rack we paid over $250 to have installed because they just screwed the rack into the plywood so any weight will pull the screw right out.

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  9. I see how this trailers have been different by other trailers. I would like to use this as an insights in changing my own trailers. Thanks a lot for posting this.

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