Little House on Wheels - Possible?

[Ranchmouse]

Has anyone ever built a Little House on wheels successfully?

We have a little piece of land in BC (Cariboo) - no water.  Local building guidelines (even outside village boundary) include requirements for full concrete foundation & full septic field (installed by licensed contractor), unless... our building is on wheels.  
Drilling (min 100 ft) for water, digging & laying a concrete foundation, and contracting for a septic field are way out of our $$ reach.  I just want to build the smallest Little House....
Is there anything we can do!?!?  

Any helpful suggestions would be very welcome!!


Ranchmouse

[Amanda_931]

How much rain do you get?  Some of the the Earthships^tm in the Taos area seem to support life quite nicely if there are 10 inches or so a year.  They do have to work at it, big cisterns, probably big roofs, working hard to catch every possible drop of water, including all of the snow.  And re-use their water two or three times before it ends up in the septic tank or constructed wetlands (for summer use).  I thought that the Earthships^tm book on the subject read like an expensive (it is), slick paper advertisement for a new car.  But I'm finding myself thinking about the ideas.

Yes, of course there are little houses on wheels.  Heck, I live in one! a travel trailer, better designed than built, I think.  But there are nice teensy, lots of exposed wood, etc. ones as well.  Very tiny, ship-like.  

Here's one.  Seems like he's moved from Iowa to California.

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm

And there's a Canadian company that makes a house on wheels that you can unfold into something fairly nice (and semi-permanent when you get there)  that we have linked to from here and I can't find!  Unfold doesn't work for a search, and it's not quite what happens anyway.  Somebody here even looked at one.

They weren't cheap, mind you.

[John Raabe]

If you did not need to have the house move on the highways you could put wheels under any of the Little House plan projects as they include an alternate foundation with a skid foundation beam for a movable structure. The plan calls for double 2x12 beams at the sides of the building. If you tripled these I would think you could successfully mount wheels under it and support the weight on these beams.

I am not saying that this is all you would need to do to make such a cabin road ready, but it would meet the letter of the law if what is required is resting the weight on wheels. And, you can add a thrid pair of wheels if it turns out you have a longer building that needs extra support.  

[glenn kangiser]

...and many times you can get mobile home wheels, springs and axels for next to nothing after they set a mobile or modular in place --most axels are pulled out.

[Amanda_931]

I'd hate to live in one for a year or two, but these are really pretty especially inside as built--and I love the idea of an outside kitchen--in good weather.

http://www.kuffelcreek.com/teardrops.htm

Although I must say that one of John's little houses with wheels stuck under them sounds like the least expensive and most liveable.

Unless you find that that Canadian job was the right combination of affordable and quick to get on the land.

Can you build a pole barn?  If you were to decide to do rainwater harvesting, you'd need quite a bit of roof area.

Some people a couple of miles from here seem to--take your pick--have built something like a travel trailer inside theirs/have put siding on an actual trailer.  Cute little chimney sticking out (maybe not very safely) of the metal of the pole barn.  These are the guys with the zebra.

[mikeschn]

I'm noticing more and more, people that build teardrops, build or buy something a bit bigger, for something more than a weekend.

Something like this for example...



I also like the tumbleweed house on wheels, which Amada pointed out, if you're not going to be on the highway much.

Save the teardrops for your weekend vacations... Even a Lil Diner is too small for much more than a few days...
http://www.mikenchell.com/Lil_Diner_Photos/

Mike...

P.S. For lots more information on teardrops, check out my forum here
http://www.mikenchell.com/forums

[JRR]

Mike,
Do you know of any trailer plans for the following:
. Upright
. Toilet, shower, and bed(s)
. No space or loading capacity used for kitchen, dinette, sitting, etc ... just to be used for sleeping and; ah, you know, "moving" ...
. Heat, ac ... could be a combo unit.
. 3000 lbs max.

[bil2054]

Ranchmouse, take a look at some of the Gypsy caravans.  Many of them are real works of art.

Are you planning to live in your "house on wheels", or is it a weekender?
I purchased a cheap motorhome last summer, (will cost as much or more in fuel to drive crosscountry than I paid for it!),8'x25', which I plan to live in while building the Victoria Cottage.  It has sleep space for (technically) 6, a shower and toilet, stove, storage, etc.  Plus, when the holding tank is full or the water tank empty, you crank 'er up and drive to wherever needful.
First construction phase  will be the porch deck for the cottage which I will park next to, thus doubling my living space during the project.
Regarding water supply, could you use a tank instead of drilling a well?
Good luck!

[Amanda_931]

We love those "sleeps six"  

The trailer's supposed to.