Bruue1 wrote:I'm thinking about designing and building a few camper prototypes for production. Keeping efficiency and repeatability in mind with the design. I think I could do three prototypes in the next two years funded by me. They'll be foam covered in canvas. Similar to my wood endoskeleton, foam exoskeleton camper but I want to use recycled composite material instead of wood on the inside this time. Aluminum frame. Light weight, small, durable and nothing that can rot or rust (except the exterior canvas).
Three campers: A Tear Drop, A Pick Up Truck Camper and a small 4 person Travel Trailer (basically copying the one I built).
I'll file an LLC, I know I'll be contacting the DMV and asking them what inspections are required, etc... I haven't made that call yet.
I'm curious if anyone here knows what is required to get these campers titled as "New" from MFD rather than "Homebuilt". New ones can be financed and insured and are therefore much more sellable.
FYI: In case you're interested, I'm envisioning a for profit company that uses sustainable practices and puts a percentage of its profits into building temporary housing/shelters on wheels. As many people on this site have said before me I think these foam boxes on wheels would be a great solution to low income housing and emergency shelters. In the years to come I can foresee an increasing demand for this type of housing. Of course its a dream right now, but, everything has a beginning. The journey matters more than fruition.
So any thoughts on DMV regulations for "New" titling?
Any thoughts on construction? Production?
What sort of composite materials am I looking for for the interior frame? for the interior sheathing? Cabinets? I want it durable and something people can live in 365/year if they have to.
Any thoughts/comments at all would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
I'll add my $.02. even though you got some good replies already.
As was said have an engineer design your frame and final plans.
Find someone to make your frames, wired and painted. Your bring them in and add the axles and wheel. Another company CNC cuts your wall, floor, and roof parts. Another company builds the cabinets. Your production is put everything together. I know it's probably not what you were thinking and if I was making campers I would want to be making all the parts in-house. Its just not practical unless you have the capital to invest upfront. Do you have much production capable equipment now? I don't follow the foamy builds so am not to up on them but what you need to avoid is dry time. If something takes 4 hours to dry does all work stop on that camper? Then you need room to store campers waiting to dry. More space = more overhead.
Thats great you want to use sustainable products. But the down side is they cost more and sometimes a lot more. You can sell the as sustainable and charge a premium price. A lot of people don't care and will buy a cheaper camper. The people I know that live a green life and would be drawn to sustainable building life a simple live and probably can't afford a premium camper, thats if they have a car to pull it. I was looking for some 5/4 X 6 recycled plastic boards, could find what I was looking for but similar, I thought they were pricing gold bars. It was nuts what they wanted.
I'm guessing you never worked in low-income housing? I have in South Chicago. It was a government project taking duplex houses built after WWII that were gutted to the concrete walls and floors, even the stairs were poured inlace concrete. We were putting in the top of the line Carrier HVAC equipment, with electronic air cleaners, humidifiers all the best. I could buy at cost and still couldn't ford this stuff for my own house. It was 500-600 units, the requirements to get into the housing was high, job, kids in school with good attendance and grades. We would have to service the occupied units until the job was done. It was amazing how trashed some units would be, broken light fixture, broken toilet that has been leaking for month. One unit I went into the door was broken off the fridge and there was a towel over pat of the door. I will say also some units were kept up great. So from my experience if you are going to give/sell something made of foam to low-income it's life span will be measured in months.
I'm still building my first teardrop and have had two people ask if I could build them one. I would not build cabin and frame from scratch to try to sell them, but I have been thinking of just building the cabin and they could buy the trailer from Northern or HF get it plated and bring that over and pick up a build cabin that would just be moved to their trailer. I would get it so far, inclosed with cabinets maybe doors and then list it on CL as an uncompleted teardrop. Most people can varnish, or paint and sand, let them do that stuff I'll do the hard part. Keep it simple and may be able to turn them out in four month or shorter if say you can cut the material for 3 cabins as a timeout only assemble one at a time. I wouldn't have room to work on more that one at a time.
Good luck
Todd