Hello, Trailer!

Woohoo!

Today was trailer day! Rob from Iron Eagle Trailers told me my trailer was finished late Friday afternoon, so we went ahead and drove down to Gresham, Oregon (right next to Portland) on Sunday, stayed at a motel there, and picked up my trailer this morning.

My trailer.

The first real, solid piece of my house.

My future Going Home!

I opted for the 20' trailer--the middle of Iron Eagle's range, size-wise, and the shortest length I could fit all my design requirements into. My fear, nevertheless, was that I would lay eyes on it and find that it was humungous. After all, the 18-footers at the Caravan Tiny House Hotel seemed pretty spacious! Would two feet longer be too much? Would I be overawed by the immenseness of the trailer and the visions of the vast (tiny) house that would one day sit atop it?

...

Nope. Thankfully, it looks just right.

I love it!

So there it is! That's the footprint of the Going Home. All the essentials of my indoor life will fit inside--and no more than 11'6" above--the bed of that trailer. And... it's perfect.

And it's mine!

This feels like a pretty big deal.

By the way, there were two other PAD Series tiny house trailers waiting to be picked up in front of the Iron Eagle shop when we got there, and Scott--the guy who came out and helped us--said there were two more inside and another down in the lower waiting area. Pretty brisk business! And Rob had told me that winter was their slower season!

My trailer is exactly 8' by 20', not including the 48" tongue. The Iron Eagle PAD Series trailers are normally 8'4" (102") wide from edge to edge of the width extensions welded to the perimeter of the bed, to allow as wide a house as possible without exceeding the DOT's 8'6" limit. However, as I learned in November at the Portland Alternative Dwellings workshop, they can make the extensions narrower in 2" increments. The two other trailers awaiting pickup both appeared to be fully extended, but I asked for mine to be 8'0", since most of my materials will be available in 8' lengths (less cutting = better!). And what's a few inches, after all?

The fenders still extend to 8'6", though, so it's a pretty dang wide thing to haul down the road.

See ya, Oregon. Thanks for the trailer!

Once the papers were signed, the final payment handed over, and the trailer connected to the Sienna by Scott... we were off. Off into the dark, gray, but unseasonably warm (57ºF!) northern reaches of Washington.

My dad did all the driving for the five-hour trip, for which I am immeasurably grateful. Me? Yeah, definitely in denial about the fact that I'll eventually have to buy and/or learn to drive a monstrous pickup truck to tow to final product. Boo.

And when we got it home, of course, there was only one thing that could possibly have happened: a visit from the welcoming party!

"Thanks for the toy. It's... interesting." - Lightfoot

As you can see in the picture above, I opted for the fender flashing and the leveling jacks. Good choice? Unsure. I think the fender flashing is for sure a good idea--it's a barrier to water that lands on the exposed surface of the fender, so it can't travel into the walls--but I didn't really look into the leveling jacks. Maybe I could have gotten them added later for less than the $260 I paid to have Iron Eagle install them. Maybe not. What's done is done.

And what's undone is still undone, but hopefully not for long! The next steps: purchase materials for the floor, build the floor, research siding (thinking horizontal corrugated steel with an accent of a different texture--flat?--and color), and get serious about contacting the (semi-)local SIPs manufacturer (two emails so far haven't elicited a response).

Onward and tiniward!