Thursday was SUCH an exciting day! We finally settled on a trailer that we think will be (almost) PERFECT for our tiny house build. Overall, it's 35 feet long (30'+5' gooseneck), can hold up to 23,000 pounds, and can be hauled by either a large truck or a commercial truck (like an 18 wheeler). Sounds like overkill for a "tiny house", right? Well, we knew we weren't going to personally pull our tiny home from the beginning, so staying under a certain size limit wasn't a limitation for us. There are a LOT of decisions you need to make before purchasing a trailer. Quickly, here are a few:
- How much is in the budget for a trailer? This should be one of the first things that you establish as this usually drives your decision to go for a new or used trailer. Both of which entail lots and different types of research.
- Will you have someone pull your tiny house or will you be pulling it yourself? This depends obviously on how mobile your house will be. We will only be moving ours roughly ~1x per year... if that.
- How much space do you need? If you're going longer rather than shorter, a gooseneck is a good option due to stability when towing.
- Depending on length, how much will your house weigh? There are certain weight requirements you cannot tow with a normal drivers license (as opposed to a CDL). Keep in mind that not only do you need to consider the weight of building components, but also you must consider the weight of trailer itself + personal possessions.
- For some seriously awesome information about weight requirements/decision making regarding trailers, check out this article entitled "The Weight Debate". Some super great info.
Ok, back to the reason we say our trailer is "almost" perfect. What we've learned is that when you go to build a tiny house, do your trailer research far in advance. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Well, we did this, but didn't exactly act on purchasing or putting a custom trailer order in until we were absolutely ready to build. Not what we suggest.
We initially thought a custom trailer would be a great way to go, and it is, but this option is quite expensive. If you find a great manufacturer, they will love discussing the idea of a tiny house trailer, but I'm sure you'll be just as shocked to find (as we were) that can be extremely pricey and lead time is around 6 to 8 weeks.
Because the custom trailer manufacturer was out of the picture, we set out to find a trailer that met our criteria (see list above). We were able to find a trailer right in our tiny town in Mississippi! The trailer isn't exactly perfect, but, because we have access to a welding shop, they will be helping us make some modifications. We'll post pics as this happens!
In the mean time, enjoy the time lapsed video on our Instagram account that we took today while removing the trailer decking! Pics are also below!
Until next time...
-Brian & Sky
