I'm still building my trailer, haven't put it through a true test yet.....
I highly recommend
always running "playhouse and pretend your actually using it" test on whatever it is you're going to do before adding it to the trailer. Only takes a few minutes and you'll always find errors or things that need improving more easily that way.
There are a few things I wish I could change in my build that I wish I put through a more active-use testing procedure
1) Plan have a few inches of extra space in the galley. Gas or water plumbing will be less of a headache this way, and you can always find something to fill that extra space with. Just a
tiny bit of wiggle room.
--> My trailer is an extremely tight fit for some things I'm adding. I'm not exaggerating when I say a single millimeter of extra space in some portions would have made my build so much easier. It can be tiring building to such tight margins
2) Ensure you have enough space to add drawer slides to
completely clear whatever is going on to be pulled out like a drawer. For example, an oversight I made;
- I planned on having a cooler that was 18 inches front to back.
- I made my trailer with 18.5 inches of space for the cooler. Seems like enough room!
- I figured an 18 inch drawer slide with an extension of 19 inches would be fine. That's 1 inch of extra space after all
- Here's the oversight - my cooler has a lid that's 3 inches tall which opens on an exterior hinge beyond 90 degrees.
- I needed an 18 inch drawer slide with 23 inches of extension. Those don't really exist except on things like ATM machines or fire engines.
- No other solution seemed reasonable. I couldn't rotate the cooler around and have the opening be towards the inside of the trailer and somehow unlatch it with only 1" of space. I also did not want to hunt for a smaller cooler with only 13 inches of space.
- My solution was to spend $999.96 (and these were the cheapest available!) for 2 sets of super extension drawer slides so I could use my cooler in a normal fashion. That price included $200 in shipping from the UK, I'd imagine shipping to New Zealand would be much more expensive.
- I had to buy two sets because my stove also needed an additional 5 inches of space for attaching the wind-guards. ugh.....
- I wish I had an extra 5 inches. I could store so much more and save a lot more money
3) Make a galley table height comfortable. You don't want to have to cook on a surface that's as tall as a bar table with your elbows high up in the air. Custom is a true luxury, make it a comfortable height to work on.
4) Before you finalize the CAD portion of the trailer, figure out what door and window you want. Ensure you have the correct dimensions available and the proper
5) Proper headspace! Make sure the taller of you two won't hit their head on the ceiling or the door frame.
6) A headboard in the front for extra storage. This also provide a secondary benefit, more crucial in my opinion, of providing a comfortable place to lean when your sitting down in the trailer. You're not just going to be sleeping in the trailer, you'll find yourself
relaxing in the trailer. If the bed ends directly on the front wall, unless you have a sizable pillow providing lower lumbar support, then you'll be sitting at a 90° angle. It be like sitting on the floor while resting your back on the wall, it's not very comfortable. Take some time to find a cozy amount of 'lean' you'd need.
--> I have a lot of lower and mid back pain. Things like this are important to me and foremost in my mind. For many people this may be overkill but pain gives me a skewed frame of reference for these things.
--> Your front wall is curved, so you won't be sitting at a 90° angle, you'll be curving yourself like the letter "C". Find a way to make that comfortable for sitting.
--> Take a look at the photo below. My headboard, located on the top of the photo, is situated so it supports my back and is set the correct distance from the front wall so my head is also supported. It's a comfortable place read a book, slowly drink a cup of coffee or have a conversation. It's where I do my trailer planning now, it's provides the right amount of tilt in a seated position.
7) A suggestion from Tony's book - A door placement where the distance between the door's center and the headboard is the same distance between the headboard of your bed an where you sit down. When's the last time you laid down in bed and hit your head on the headboard? It's not something you really think about, you just
know where to sit when you get ready for bed. I'd center the door on this distance, this will eliminate any crab-walking to get in and out of the trailer.
--> This is an excellent place to make a portion of your trailer out of cardboard or scrap wood or whatever. Pretend a wall in your house is the front of the trailer. Place two sticks on the ground the same distance from the wall, basically representing the door placement in your CAD file. Try sitting down between those sticks, pulling your legs up, and rotating to a sleeping position. How easy is it to get to a sleeping position with that distance from the wall? Put a few things like this through a test and see if you like it.
I'm designed my trailer primarily around being able to move around, cook and sit comfortably. That was what's important to me. You'll have to figure out what's important to you. Don't overthink everything. Figure out what's crucial to you both and build around that. Everything else will fall into place.
