I wish I knew of you guys before I built this!

[rivernstream]

There's a video of this guys whole build that is truly inspiring. He's a champion whitewater slalom kayaker who built this with a buddy over a couple of months as a mobile home to take on the Kayak circuit in Europe. He built this on a ford transit frame that is quite popular in the U.K.


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[Kick Me]

Keep in mind that wind force goes up with the square of speed.

Yes, 1/2 * rho * v^2 * Cd * A, the hard part is that pesky Cd term. It seems to be .567 from the front (based on fuel economy) but that's with Scooby in front, so the calculations might be off. Still, if we use that as the coefficient of drag, and use the side area, a 40 mph crosswind generates 712.64 lbs of force! To compare, I'm estimating the force on the front of the trailer at 75 mph to be at 313 lbs. After looking more carefully at this I'm definitely going to be extra careful on this trip, particularly since we will be going through canyons where the wind can do stupid things. Luckily, we will be leaving bright and early in the morning and arriving at noon, so hopefully the wind will stay down until then.

There's a video of this guys whole build that is truly inspiring. He's a champion whitewater slalom kayaker who built this with a buddy over a couple of months as a mobile home to take on the Kayak circuit in Europe. He built this on a ford transit frame that is quite popular in the U.K.

I'm gonna have to check that out - I like the Transit vans, though I probably wouldn't tear up a brand new one. Once they are all a few years old it might be fair game to play with

The sad tale of the Penguino I.

Very foreboding to read indeed - looks like you got some warning shimmies before things went south though? I'm hoping that's the case - I haven't had mine shake yet, but if it does I'm going to pull over until the wind is gone. And if I ever replace the axle in that thing I'm going with an 8' wide one!

[Kick Me]

The sad tale of the Penguino I

Just had a thought - the square end on the Penguino I would generate turbulence. It's why cars designed for fuel economy tend to taper the rear a bit, and why they put those fold-out panels on the back of semi-trailers to improve fuel economy.

That turbulence sheds vortices, usually left, right, left, right, but often it's random (solve the navier stokes equations for $1,000,000 and you'll be able to predict it). That could cause it to start to sway.

Because I built mine with a tapered back end (can't take credit for the idea, that's just the yurt shape) it would likely only shed very small vortices, which might not get the trailer bouncing back and forth quite so bad. That might explain why I don't get any shimmyshakes!

I don't know - I'm still gonna be careful and not trust my dumb luck to keep me safe

[noseoil]

Had the pleasure of meeting Ryan this morning & seeing his creation. To say it's unique doesn't do it justice! It's an amazing use of materials, ingenuity & applied science all rolled into a yurt on wheels. I hope some of you may be able to see it some time & meet with him. It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning for me & he's a very interesting guy. Looking forward to another visit with him in the future.

[rivernstream]

Did he bring it back to the states?


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[Kick Me]

Had the pleasure of meeting Ryan this morning

It was a pleasure to meet you as well Tim! After this trip I look forward to taking a peek at your trailer as well. I looked through your build and you sir, are an artist! Maybe one of these days I'll clean mine up a little bit... then again maybe I'll just embrace the funky! haha!

I am a little bit intrigued by your galley though, as well as some of the others I've seen. If I had put the shower in the front of the trailer I bet I could have done a slide out galley there - maybe make it workabile inside too if the need arose... Man I need to retire! haha

Did he bring it back to the states?

Built here in Tucson, but I am curious as to what made you think it was elsewhere? Was it something I said?