So I Bought a Mobile Tiny Home

[freebeard]

I was going to just find some regular trailer fenders....

Keep sending fender ideas;

Aptera. You have essentially free-standing wheels. A catamaran setup similar to Tech Ingredients' Tesla Catamaran.

You could also airfoil the square axle.

[Ecky]

I'm of the opinion that the point of a mobile home/office is ultimately its function at its destination, and that any aeromods generally should not interfere with that. Many won't. And, as others have said, consider the return you'd need based on how often you'd move it.

The cost effective mods for boxes used by tractor trailers are a good place to start looking.




Side skirts (ideally that cover the wheels) and/or smooth wheel covers, rounded edges, something to fill the gap between tow vehicle and trailer (some kind of rubber or edging is useful for this), and a sloping box cavity in the rear all have good returns.

Here's a small trailer I used some years ago, with which I was able to get 60mpg towing at normal highway speeds:






The "gap filler" was a sheet of coroplast which attached by closing the trunk edge over a hook.





Subscribed! Hope to see what you make of it.

[Hersbird]

Tiny homes are built on wheels to skirt normal building codes, not to actually move around like an RV. Between the weight and the aerodynamics you are in so much worse shape compared to an RV. I also think it might not hold up all that well with many miles bouncing down the road. Then again the cheap RV don't hold up well either.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Tiny homes are built on wheels to skirt normal building codes, not to actually move around like an RV. Between the weight and the aerodynamics you are in so much worse shape compared to an RV. I also think it might not hold up all that well with many miles bouncing down the road. Then again the cheap RV don't hold up well either.

This has also been my observation. Driving over potholes and bumps eventually breaks all sorts of stuff.

[Taylor95]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Tiny homes are built on wheels to skirt normal building codes, not to actually move around like an RV. Between the weight and the aerodynamics you are in so much worse shape compared to an RV. I also think it might not hold up all that well with many miles bouncing down the road. Then again the cheap RV don't hold up well either.

I bought the tiny home from a couple that builds custom orders. To me it seems like their builds get driven around quite a bit.

It may or may not be driven around frequently as a part of the business. Any improvements to the aerodynamics of it would make it safer to drive around, which makes it worthwhile.

As for the fenders, one set of wheels is not underneath the tiny house, so I will need to get creative...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Tiny homes are built on wheels to skirt normal building codes, not to actually move around like an RV.

That's why I'd rather get a trailer, motorhome or campervan if "portability" was an actual requirement, yet sometimes a tiny house on wheels could eventually be a good way to pay a lower property tax.

[freebeard]

IMHO best skirting of building codes is the R-license park model trailer. I don't see a license plate on the unit in question.

How is it licensed?

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by freebeard

IMHO best skirting of building codes is the R-license park model trailer. I don't see a license plate on the unit in question.

How is it licensed?

Probably just the flatbed trailer is liscense. The rest is just cargo.

[redpoint5]

Hey, Photobucket is letting free accounts host photos with a watermark now? I wonder if my ages of posts with photos are functional again?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Probably just the flatbed trailer is liscense. The rest is just cargo.

It might depend on how the house structure is attached to the trailer. Can it be fully dettached?