The caboose cabin | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

I really like the layout given the minimal square footage. However, at $241.25/sf it just doesn't seem like a good alternative to built in place versions, and that's before delivery and utilities are calculated in. I understand that they have taken the time to make it more creative than the typical Park Model or standard mobile home but I don't feel that the substantial mark up is justified. I'm curious what their projected demographic is. Thinking maybe something along the lines of the retirement crowd just looking for a house that they can move around as they see fit. As far as the younger crowd it certainly has it's draw but it doesn't seem to offer enough for the price point IMHO.

Maybe I can strip down my trailer and rebuild it to their floor plans

Something along these lines but I am not a big fan of his design... just reminds me of a portable from when I was in grade school. He tore down an ancient trailer to the bones and just rebuilt on that. It is essentially like starting a small house with the piers, beams, and floor joists all set.

Their Website

Looks like the difficult part is having the same final weight to accommodate the curvature of the trailer. You may have seen trailers going down the highway with some slight arch to their shape (along the trailer). This is included so that when the trailer is fully loaded, it will not sag. Consider for a moment the old arches of Rome. Much stronger when fully loaded than a traditional square door frame.

These guys did it but chopped it down or started with a shorter trailer. I'm not a huge fan of the tiny house movement because the idea of a mobile home is not something new and trendy but I guess it just goes to show that no ideas are new anymore. At least they did a better job with the design. I really like the inset porch.

Their website

I suppose they limit their width to the DOT mandated 102 inch maximum (45' length, 13' 6" height). But, unless you are traveling around with it a lot I'm sure you could get away with something slightly larger and just move it around as an oversize load in the event that you need to move it at a later date. My intention is just to build it for use on site so I will likely modify it to be 14' or 16' wide to avoid the narrow corridor feel. The caboose that you originally posted is 15' 6" tall, 47' long, and 10' 6" wide so it would have to be hauled as an oversize load anyway.

Here's another one that I have in my growing design file too. Simple framing, nice variation in roof yet still relatively straight forward to frame. No massive spans either.