From Texas

[deafdrummer]

Hello everyone,

I live outside of Cleveland, TX in my travel trailer (18 feet, 8X13 in the body), and I would like help in determining what I need to do to convert my travel trailer to a very light weight tiny house while keeping the weight under 3,000 lbs. I'm considering stripping the trailer down to its frame and rebuilding with better materials with a PROPER roof design.

I've been living on the road for over two years, and I finally got a travel trailer that I live in (for 17 months so far). I'm not worried about "downsizing" because my travel trailer is this small and has EVERYTHING except laundry and dishwasher. It is small, but I am small-bodied even though I’m 5’8”. Even then, my 20”-wide bed and the common shower stall with a seat is cramped, but I’ve learned to live with it, and I’m home much of the time, doing extensive reading on comparative studies on religion and doing some writing for my boss. I am considering the possibility of converting this travel trailer into a tiny house or a “better-built” travel trailer by getting rid of the delaminated sidewalls, the roof, and the redundant interior design.

The travel trailer weights 2785 lbs dry, with a gross capacity of 3734 lbs. However, my Jeep has a towing limit of 3500 lbs, so I always watch what I have in it and keep personal things to a minimum if I can. I want to mention that it has an aluminum frame, so I want the new trailer body to conform to this framing, and we can do something about the roof. I want a much simplified design, like no running double floors to house plumbing like they do in these RVs (running the plumbing and inside-outside electrical wiring through a pretty floor conduit matching the wall it is built onto, so that I can open it and service it anywhere along the lines, anytime), getting rid of redundant furniture designs (furniture that I can fold up and put in the Jeep if I have to), and possibly converting things like the gas stove to an electric model or a camping stove-with-propane-bottles type, the gas furnace to an electric space heater, ejecting the microwave (I don't even use mine and it's unplugged to cut out the irritating display light at night), dropping all the fluid tanks and the water pump system (since there will no longer be boondocking under any circumstances anymore, doing something with the malfunctioning water heater, eliminating the bed fold-out up front, and building a very simplified version of the RV roof that doesn’t require resealing (necessitating a move of the location of the AC unit to a vertical wall and getting a window AC/heat unit. I have roof leaks and 3 of my sidewalls have delamination on the outside.

Another option is to buy a used cargo trailer with the dimensions I want and do a conversion on it. I know I can't do new trailers because they are way beyond my budget, and have similar ideas for it as I do the rebuild route for my present travel trailer. However, if I go the cargo trailer route, this means that I would continue living in the present trailer while I do the conversion.

When I first moved out of the big city, I put nearly everything I had into storage and worked in various places including a ecology ranch, an organic produce farm, house sitting, working renaissance faires, and now writing. I stayed with friends and family until I got my travel trailer. I went to work at the three renaissance faires in Texas with it, and now I’m in southeast Texas on a friend’s property, and I’m seriously considering settling down (I will be 50 in January) so that I can either convert this travel trailer to a house or step up into a tiny house. I have most of my things in storage, and I only have with me what will fit (limited wardrobe, only the tools I need to work on the TT as needed and the Jeep, only electronics books on the computer, and buying a week’s worth of groceries when I go to temple and resupply on the same day, and taking the trash to the gas station once a week).

It is absolutely freeing, although I have to be mindful of repairs as needed, which cost money to fix. I can just hitch up to the Jeep and go anywhere I need to go, anytime. I would also have to be thinking about giving up the freedom to be moving anytime I want, since a tiny house would require a driver for me because my Jeep simply can’t pull that much weight. I am wondering whether it’s possible to convert the TT to a tiny house of the same size and relatively similar weight, since redundant/unnecessary interior engineering will be taken out and simplified.

I'm looking through here for ideas on conversions. Thank you...