New aero travel trailer

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by ohmman

I don't see that being a reality. I believe self-driving will be viable prior to battery density getting high enough for this kind of scenario. Once true autonomy is a reality, the trailer will just meet you there. Very sci-fi sounding, but it does sound better than trailering a bunch of batteries to keep your charge realistic.

Why would the trailer meet you somewhere? Why wouldn't you just be in the trailer moving with it? Besides a self moving camper is not a trailer but a motor home. There will always be a demand for just a trailer that uses your existing vehicle to move. If your existing vehicle can drive itself then maybe it can tow the camper too. I would be a bit worring about waking up jack knifed on some forest service road where you have know idea where the car has taken you LOL!

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by slowmover

The trailer is not unfairly priced. It is likely to be on the road in another 75-years after being rebuilt at about the thirty and sixty year mark.

Travel trailers of ordinary construction are good for about ten years.

If it could be used as a range extender I'd like to see the testing. Not a disbeliever, but sceptical at utility.

Hybrid makes more sense. Same as for the trucking biz.

I believe AeroStealth has found one in Germany,which also provides traction drive,coordinated with the tow vehicle,as Mr.Sharkey (on the original Tesla Roadster team) did with his Porsche 944 range-extending Golf/Rabbit trailer.When accelerating or hill climbing,the trailer assists the tow vehicle,so as not to impede surrounding traffic.On down-grades,both tow vehicle and trailer harvest the gravitational potential rather than braking to prevent over-speed.On the road,aerodynamic forces out-shadow rolling resistance,so one could essentially 'double' the capacity of the battery pack.At the campsite,there's no need of a generator.Owning one would be pretty lame,when one could simply rent one for holiday travel,letting others utilize it for the rest of the year (like a washer and drier at a laundromat).
If carefully matched in frontal area,and with an 'accordion' gap-filler,Cd 0.10 is pretty easy to achieve for the trailer in tow,as was found for the Union-Pacific streamline tail car of the 1930s.
For aerodynamic die-hards,it's also possible to have a trailer with negative drag coefficient,although at reduced space utilization.

[slowmover]

I find it more than a little funny the price-balk expressed in posts above. This really is custom-made. I’ve handled shotguns that cost more.

Second, have ANY of you accounted your lifetime expenditures for transportation? I doubt it. Balking at this trailers price is an equivalent to pricing cars based on the monthly note and weekly fuel expenditure. None of you are thinking in terms of being able to see it pass to grandchildren. MORE THAN fifty years service with your family. (Poor men, not rich).

The trailer I own (and the pickup) I inadvertently mis-priced in an earlier post. The truck would retail at $70k. This trailer (modernized) would be nearly $200k at retail. Given finance costs, the package past $300k.

It’s much better built than an Airstream (the entry level choice), but it’s by no means on the level of the revived BOWLUS.

“Camping” is being outdoors. The trailer size isn’t as important. One needs some clothing and some food. That’s it.

And the family car that can pull it needn’t be a pickup. It’s size means it’s easier to store garaged than most others. It’s beauty guarantees there will always be interested buyers from across the planet, not just those 30” from your house.

“Price” isn’t a problem. Quality is always the problem.

Sure, the appeal is limited. But they don’t have to make many. Silver Streak — my brand — never built more than six per week. Airstream kicks out more than that per hour.

The rarity means the used market won’t ever fall far. 50% of retail price may only ever appear due to damage. And that, 20-years from now.

It’s efficiency is the only interesting argument. Light weight doesn’t mean much, but in combination with the aero design . . it’s nice. Not great. Not world-changing. Like a hand-made wooden boat built today that’s a Hacker-inspired design, it’s the pleasure of another era.

So the efficiency is low. Worries over damage and theft preclude ordinary use (trouble-free means also low concerns re these two).

No one will ever buy it for “efficency” (a Porsche Gullwing replica).

I’ve stated it elsewhere and will here again that (in the above sense: efficiency) will be in sourcing an Airstream at the ten-year mark where depreciation has bottomed. Yet it’s new enough that next to nothing will be required (relative to others travel trailers), making it a pain-free acquisition.

A family car that can take multiple hits in an accident, (4K lbs, 122” WB) is large enough for a family, and is otherwise a fleet vehicle ensuring continent-wide ease-of-service (thus Charger/300) is its natural mate. But prospective buyers are in the class where more than one $100k car at home is a norm.

25-28’ is the most popular Airstream size (highest used price) and there aren’t any FE concerns that make larger or smaller much of a difference. There’s a decent minimum size in travel trailers and cars. Less isn’t a savings.

Acquisition Cost + Refurbishment (both vehicles) is where the savings are located for the typical (90%+ of Americans) working class citizen. (Middle Class is $250k annual income plus $500k net assets as minimums ).

The Bowlus is UPPER middle class. When my parents bought their Silver Streak, they already owned a Formula Thunderbird boat and a Beechcraft Bonanza. They’d have fit the expected buyer profile. (Can afford both to buy new and to hire out maintenance to keep as new).

I’m part of the group that can choose one of two of those three, but only used, and nearly all maintenance & repairs are on me. And my income is above average.

Does the Bowlus cost as much as a house? It’s dead center, then, on price historically.

You aren’t the market.

OLIVER and BIGFOOT are where to start for dollars spent well (besides used AS). They need to be upgraded (first thing) to fully independent suspension plus anti-lock disc brakes.

Plan out covered storage. Install a 30A outlet next to a concrete pad plus fresh water & sewer. (This is where to start the entire process). An RV means you can always shelter your family, no matter where you go (the guiding ideal).

The 90% have to think about practicality.

.

[aerohead]

According to one research reported by Hucho,your trailer,at 35-ft is approaching the drag minimum for a lozenge-shaped body,which would occur at 42-feet.

[freebeard]

35ft park model is the ideal tiny house.

slowmover — Is your Silver Streak 7 or 8ft wide?

When I got my 23ft Silver Streak in the 1970s, what I wanted for a tow vehicle was a jet black 1952 Hudson Hornet. But the old couple wanted $1000 (and they probably got it). Ten years earlier a guy at my high school had gotten a Hudson business coupe for $75.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by freebeard

35ft park model is the ideal tiny house.

slowmover — Is your Silver Streak 7 or 8ft wide?

When I got my 23ft Silver Streak in the 1970s, what I wanted for a tow vehicle was a jet black 1952 Hudson Hornet. But the old couple wanted $1000 (and they probably got it). Ten years earlier a guy at my high school had gotten a Hudson business coupe for $75.

Everyone left went widebody in nineties. Avion gone. SS almost gone. AS built widebody on largest trailers from mid 90’s. Look up sales brochures.

Yours rode a rail car?. Crew housing? Most of those we’re 43’. . Can yo imagine the tail swing on a two lane road?

The Hudson would’ve been very cool. My “ideal” of the era was a DeSoto Suburban. Today, drape body over an air-ride half-ton chassis.

[freebeard]

Thanks. The 1952 Silver Streak Clipper was 7ft.

Yours rode a rail car?. Crew housing? Most of those we’re 43’. . Can yo imagine the tail swing on a two lane road?

Don't know, it's been on the county tax roles as long as I've owned it. I might move it someday, but it's in this overlapping Venn diagram of Lane Transit District, Springfield Utility Board and Grocery Outlet that is hard to beat.

My lil brother [RIP] bought and resold three SP Airstreams in the 1980s. He was delivering the third one in California where [I hear] he managed to put a crease down the side.

The Hudson probably wouldn't respond well to a chassis swap with it's step-down frame, but would it be the 1950s equivalent to your Magnum/300/Charger ideal? 3650lb on 124" wheelbase.

[freebeard]

This seems to be the most recent Bowlus thread.

I've been thinking about the Cybertruck (and the potential for a Cyberhouse), and it went from stainless steel being an electrical insulator to thermal insulation.

Aluminum simply has a relatively higher thermal conductivity. On the other hand, stainless steel has one of the lowest thermal conductivities for metal alloys.

Another metric used to track thermal conductivity is the British thermal unit (BTU), which uses a number to represent the ability of a material to conduct heat. Aluminum has BTU of 118 while steel has 17. Comparing both to another material like copper, which has a BTU of 223,

https://onesky.ph/blog/thermal-condu...teel-aluminum/

The gored and riveted construction from the 1930s is compatible with 30x stainless steel.

For the home builder, maybe a single layer stainless exoskeleton with a spray-on cork inner lining?

What is Cork Spray
https://www.corkco.ca/single-post/20...is-Cork-Spray-
Cork spray has tremendous value when compared to stucco. The best way to describe cork spray is, it's a green alternative to stucco. Cork Spray resembles stucco as far as the way it looks but, feels soft because of the cork granules in the cork spray.

edit: To be answered: relative cost of materials.

2nd edit: I cleared this with the relevant individual (caught him enroute to Bike Week in Daytona FL), so in celebation of my 15,000th post, here is the Cyberhouse:



Five (not four) monocoque boxes supporting a triangular grid. Sound familiar? The boxes are projected from triangles at steep pitch, so with, e.g., a six foot edge the boxes would only be 18-24" thick.

With a low-conductivity skin and spray-on cork lining, plus insulated soffits over the entries, it would be a passive house.

[Hersbird]

I think all forms of metal have high conductivity. Something like carbon fiber would better by a bunch, but compared to dry wood they aren't even close to efficient.

[freebeard]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...conductivities

Manganese 7.810[4] Lowest thermal conductivity of any pure metal.
Fiberglass or foam-glass 0.045[5]
Pine 0.0886—0.102

This is in (W·m−1·K−1) (whatever those are) not BTU. Calculator here. But generally, my interpretation is that stainless steel is 1/10th the conductivity of aluminum, twice the conductivity of Manganese and 20x wood or fiberglass. Which is why I recommended the insulation.

3mm of wood isn't going to be very stout.

IIRC White Southern Pine has waxes that phase change at room temperature, but I can't find a reference. And there is some issue with 'setting' the resin for woodworking that might affect the result.