So I Bought a Mobile Tiny Home
 

You might remember that I was looking for an RV for my wife's business. We bought a tiny home instead because it was actually much cheaper!

I attached some pictures. What aero mods should I make? It was obviously not built with aerodynamics in mind. It does not handle well at high speeds. For those interested, the truck got ~28 mpg on the way there to pick it up and ~12.5 mpg on the way back.

First off, congratulations !
I'd be really interested to find out what the truck would get with an empty trailer the same size, but with the same amount of weight as loaded with the home.
As far as aerodynamics, this is a hard one !
The home is asymmetrical.

Not sure what aero mods I would try, but it's interesting.

My dad tows his Jeep on a trailer roughly the same size. He told me he gets ~16 mpg towing it, but the roads he tows that on are much flatter.

Edit: We were thinking that the Jeep + trailer weighs about the same as the tiny house.

Is it moved often enough to be bothered with aero? The reason it's not very aero is because it's a home, and not an RV (not that those are particularly aero).

Same mods available as anything else; boattail the rear end, and fill the gap between truck cab and roof of home.

Personally, I wouldn't bother, but I'm very interested to see what you come up with.

As of right now, it will not be moved much. However, that can change as the business evolves.

Next year we will be making a move outside of the state. I would love to not feel so unsafe while making a 10+ hour drive.

Is it worth it? I would say yes.

I'd love to see a tuft test!

What's the purpose of the inset window beside the entry door?

For the aerodynamic drag, review the posts by slowmover. ecomodder.com/forum/member-slowmover.html

His guidelines include[d] IIRC meticulous pre-flight planning, no slop in the steering gear, etc. You might want to name your tiny home office Slowmover. You could paint it on the back.

I have the following planned for the tiny home:

1. Full belly pan

2. Fenders (they will not stick out past the side of the house)

3. Possible side skirt in combination with locking cubbies

4. A small box cavity (maybe 6-12 inches)

I will post updates here, but not sure when because we have a lot of work to do on the inside.

Neat to see what becomes of the project, but none of that addresses that fact that it's broadsiding the oncoming wind, and then leaving a huge vacuum behind in the wake.

I'm reminded of this thread from 2015: ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/camper-build-using-old-hi-lo Hersbird's Hi-Lo. The thread is subject to link rot. Maybe a PM would shake some loose?

TWhat I wanted to point to is the pilasters on the front. They seemed to be successful, but the only surviving picture you have to know what your looking for.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-he...1-imag0247.jpg
Permalink #65

The idea came from some research paper, I used it in this design for a pickup truck camper

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...01-2-04-41.png

It's a hack, to radius the front corners without cutting into the structure. If you own the thing outright, cut the right front top corner off and have a symmetrical gable on the front.

tiny aero
 

Naked, without the tow vehicle in front, approx. Cd 0.90.
A frontal area is necessary to begin any numbers-crunching. Measure everything.
She'll have to investigated as a 'system' as well, so we need all we can get for the tow vehicle as well.
AeroStealth's F-150 / Cougar Fifth-wheel is indicating around Cd 0.26 as a 'system, @ 100 Square-feet frontal area. 9.5-mpg @ 100 km/h.
I hope you know someone with an industrial-grade sewing machine, or an awning company.
An extremely light, aluminum-framed, stretched-fabric nose and boat-tail could easily be fabricated for such a simple structure, and serve as sun-shade when not mobile.
Awesome project!

Why not using it as extra storage space too?

extra storage
 

Nothing would preclude it, but if carried on the road, it would all have to re-engineered as load-carrying structures, which could endanger attachment points unless supported all from below.
Also, the polar moment of inertia could be dangerous if some oscillatory motion ever got initiated, perhaps impossible to dampen, and recover from, once initiated.:o

I'd be willing to bet one could cut the roof down the middle, convert it to a gable; and heal the split with a trolley top.

What would be lost in the high side of the ceiling?

Given the shape and size, I would get inspiration in commercial dry van trailers. Round front edges using PVC sewage pipes with one quarter cutted out, use foldable box cavity/boat tail, put a deflector on a truck.
Tent-like front cone (teepee tent??) with its base attached to front wall and tensioned by rubber rope attached to the truck might be worth trying too.

Nothing can change the fact that it is just really big. A few things can help a little bit which is what I'm after.

That is a good idea, but I think it is built the way it is to handle a large amoint of snow on top. Plus, I would have to convince my wife that it is a good idea.

I haven't done anything yet. So far my time has been spent getting the inside ready to paint. There is a lot of work to do on the inside so it might be some time before I can get to the other things.

There is all that opportunity below the floor line.

What do you have planned for the fenders?

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...42-mudflap.jpg

This was done for a pickup truck in 2013(!). But you have all that room to work with so you could do big spats. The construction is a metal C-shaped bracket and a piece of conveyor belting cut into a trapezoid. Fastened on two sides so it can flex on impact.

You'd want wide belting.

Six minute delta: The top is probably a simple construction. The most useful top is a trolley top. You have half of one already. :)

edit: One way to skin the cat: I estimate a length of 21ft (to make the math easy). Acquire an arcylic tube 6" x 7' and cut it into three 120 degree sections epoxy those onto a flat metal truss. Such that the acrylic is a stressed member and the metal is sized to make a 21ft ridge/skylight. (The truss doesn't hold the edges up, it holds them apart)

I was going to just find some regular trailer fenders and modify them so they would fit.

Keep sending fender ideas; that is one area I am not too sure on what to do.

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

You could also airfoil the square axle.

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.

https://dcisolution.com/wp-content/u...ailer-Tail.jpg


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:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...pslhk0twwv.jpg

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...pstyj3iaiv.jpg


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

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...psidokoklc.jpg

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...pspfj8tp2y.jpg

Subscribed! Hope to see what you make of it.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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

Maybe it's just me but I don't think you need ecomodder advice. You need trailer pulling advice. From what I have seen and read, they will not be kind. You are doing it wrong. If your business grows, get another tiny home trailer. Drive it to its destination once. Don't be making a habit of towing a thing that was designed to be moved once.

It is permanently fixed to the trailer.

Why not, as they say, both?
[I give up, trying to put a link in a quote]

Because ecomodding it infers frequent towing of it. Save that money towards safer, saner objectives.

[Side glance at XFi weekly driver]

Oh well.... slowmover, having gotten himself banned, is no longer here to defend his bonafides.