Big Step #3 - Prepping the Trailer Foundation

 

The Plan for the Trailer

Our trailer was acquired after we bought a used 1996 Jayco Fifth Wheel RV on Facebook Marketplace for $500. We (well, actually…Hank!) had to completely demo the RV down to its frame. But even after all that work, to me the price was a steal considering many custom-designed bumper-pull tiny house trailers can cost well above that price. Ours is 36’ in length and 8’2" in width and has a GVWR of 15,000lbs. It has two straight beam axles and a gooseneck tongue. Below is a pricing guide from Iron Eagle Trailers, a company that custom builds tiny home trailers. As you can see, even their 10-foot trailer without all the extra options comes in at over 5x what we bought our trailer for!

https://www.ironeagletinyhousetrailers-mobile.com/pricing-dimensions

Hank finished the demo of the RV, completely removing everything to leave just the frame of the trailer. Now that we have just the bones of the trailer, we need to customize our gooseneck to hold the weight of what will soon be our tiny house. 

As mentioned before, the trailer is rated at 15,000lbs GVW. This is the total weight the trailer would be able to hold, including the actual house, the belongings and people inside and the trailer itself! I would like to increase that to 18,000lb at least. If we can, 21,000lbs would be even better.

We plan to use lightweight materials in the build, but we don’t want to be restricted by weight limitations during the build process, nor do we want to be limited to what we can bring into the trailer after the build is complete - whether it be people or personal belongings. Just to have and hold fresh water will cost us at least 417lbs in weight if we limit ourselves to a 50-gallon tank. Not to mention people weight – which we have a family of 7 – that is over a thousand pounds in just flesh and bone! Also, keep in mind during the winter, any snow that can accumulate on the roof adds to that: 1.66lbs for every inch. On our 274sf roof, a 4-inch snowfall equals 1819lbs! If we calculate a possible snowstorm like the one we had in 2011…we could see 27-inches land on our roof, that is 12,280lbs of snow!! That can damage the trailer axles and tires. Realistically I know we cannot get our trailer up to a GVW to manage that and so precautions such as raking snow from the roof and using additional posts under the frame would be taken, but I would like the peace of mind knowing we have plenty of a variance between the GVW and the dry weight. We feel it is better for our home foundation to be stronger than not, as we plan to live in it for many years! If I am assuming the dry weight of the home will be 12,000…we might be cutting it close if we don’t strengthen the trailer to hold more than what it is already rated for.

Here is a list of some things I have considered for the needs of our trailer:

Lower Bed Height for ease of entrance and comfortable living.

·         Add drop axles to lower the bed height 4” and improve stability on the road

·         Flushed or preferably recessed crossmembers

•     Consider what room we will need for insulatio
•     Consider what room we will need for wiring/plumbing in the floor

Strengthen the Outer Perimeter for wall-mounting

•          Add sill plates to the frame on which to mount the walls
•          Include sill plates on front and rear frame as well
•          Concentrate the weight of trailer at the outside edge
•          Replace any C-or I-Channels with tubing to resist twisting of frame
•          Pre-drilled holes for easier wall mounting
•          Holes for passing electrical/plumbing lines through flange into wall cavity

Add Custom Features to the Frame specific for building needs

•          Use smaller, lighter crossmembers in the center to reduce weight of trailer
•          Add 16” on center crossmembers to flooring
•          Flushed or preferably recessed crossmembers for subfloor build
•          Include bump outs on ends of frame for storage of mechanical/utilities
•          Add sealed galvanized steel flashing to underside of trailer
•          Extend the upper deck 1-2 feet in front
•     Consider thermal bridging point
•     Consider what room we will need for insulation
•     Consider what room we will need for wiring/plumbing in the floor

Safety Features and Weatherproofing

•          Third axle for additional weight capacity
•          Add square wheel fenders with flashing
•          Add leveling jack placement for parking the trailer
•          Electric brakes on every wheel
•          Sealed LED lights

Because there are lots of changes I want done with our current trailer frame, I felt it would be best to get into contact with a company that can actually designs custom trailers. I called a company called Terry’s Trailers, located in Moore, OK. They were not surprised by our needs (which is nice) and told us to come on in, they’ll take a look at the trailer and we can go over the details and we should be able to get help with the customizations our trailer needs!

At this time, my only concern is the price of customizing the trailer. I don’t want it to be more expensive than purchasing a custom trailer brand new. Since the purpose of OUR tiny home is to serve us by providing us financial freedom, I don’t want us to spend too much money to strengthen the trailer. But I do believe the trailer is the most important aspect of the build when it comes to strength and quality and safety, since it is our home’s foundation. As long as I don’t go into any debt to fix it up, I may consider putting more money into it than what feels comfortable, but I think in the end, it will serve us well.

As of now, there are three things now we must figure out before we can even get the trailer to the shop! We must get a new tire of it, as one is completely shredded at the moment as you can see, we need to also rent a truck with a hitch since we don’t have one ourselves, and we need to find the time between our work schedules to get it there. Once we can get those things sorted, we will take it to the shop in Moore to discuss customizations and get a price quote!

I know this has been a sort of slow process, as we are working around our work full-time schedules, family, and our budget…but as always, we will keep you updated on the project!