PhieldBug

News March 2024: PhieldBug is now 100% open-source. This means that the plans and instructions are published under an open-source hardware licence for anyone to use to build their own, completely free.

Thanks to everyone who bought and loved a factory-built PhieldBug or a kit over the last decade. We’ve enjoyed building them and watching them depart with happy owners. We wish you all happy travels. Factory and kit PhieldBugs are no longer available, sorry. But we can help with packs of ready-cut parts, if you need them.


PhieldBug is an ultra-light micro teardrop trailer. Built from a CNC-cut timber and uPVC kit of parts, with a galvanised chassis.

Added Lightness*

PhieldBug offers something very special. And that something is lightness. PhieldBug weighs just one third the mass of a typical micro teardrop. The empty weight of the entire vehicle is just 150kg, with the noseweight being as little as 15kg.

So virtually any car – including classic cars, low-powered air-cooled campers, and even lightweight kitcars – can pull PhieldBug with very little impact on performance and handling. We tow them with classic Mini’s, for example. PhieldBug follows in the slipstream behind a camper-van with minimal increase in drag. And as a bonus you won’t even need extension mirrors.

The light weight means that almost anyone can easily manoeuvre PhieldBug around a campsite by hand.

We created PhieldBug because we were so baffled by all the heavyweight micro-teardrops out there. We figured that, if we had wanted the pain of towing and pitching a half-tonne trailer, then surely we’d just buy a regular half-tonne caravan, wouldn’t we?

Maximum Fun

PhieldBug’s minimum-bother recipe is perfect for a quick camping getaway. It takes moments to hitch, is effortless to tow, and is a cinch to pitch. On arrival just wheel PhieldBug into position, adjust the nose-leg to level the floor, and you’re done. Pop up the optional awning – with  just three pegs. Then out with the deck-chairs and get a brew on.

PhieldBug provides a well-ventilated cosy camping space which is instantly available… so no more arriving at a weekend event and having to put up a damp and draughty tent.

PhieldBug can also be used as a second room for the children to escape into when on a longer trip in a camper-van.  And the kids just love having a room of their own. PhieldBug takes up no more space than an awning – which we find is how most campsites will price it when towed by a camper.

Simplicity

We’ve dispensed with the heavy side panels, the heavy roof, the heavy metal trim, and the heavy fittings that bedevil other teardrop designs. In the place of all this weighty stuff we have instead fitted… air. PhieldBug’s roof and walls and doors are 25mm thick. But most of that 25mm is just a weightless air-gap. This double-skinned timber-and-plastic construction creates an immensely rigid structure, and the air trapped between the skins provides insulation.

The exceptionally light weight of our monocoque pod design means we can also dispense with other heavy and complex components: the jockey-wheel is gone to be replaced by an adjustable ground-anchor; brakes aren’t required; and the chassis is a simple lightweight T-form.

Driving Licence After 1997? No Problem

PhieldBug can be legally towed on any standard UK driving licence. (Yes, even if you qualified after 1997: a trailer endorsement is only required for unusually heavy car/trailer combinations – see here for details.)

Trikers

PhieldBug is legal for towing behind a trike in the UK (subject to the trike manufacturer’s towing limits).

*With thanks, of course, to the extraordinary Colin Chapman 🙂