You’re going to build a what???

My tiny house is officially on hold for a while. While looking for brake shoes to replace the broken ones this morning I found that they’re an old, out of date design, and will cost £50 per wheel to replace. Worse than that though, the guy at the trailer place finally managed to uncover some information about the suspension hubs that are on my trailer and the news isn’t good.

When I bought the trailer I was told it was rated to 2700Kg which is quite a long way from the truth. The absolute max these hubs can take is apparently 2000kg, and they may not even be rated that highly. The hitch is rated to 1700 and the manufacturer won’t sell me an upgrade unit without having proof that the hubs can match it.

Replacing the hubs and suspension unit would cost in excess of £700, plus another £250 for the hitch. This is in addition to any welding work still to be done on the trailer. I’m looking at £1000 just to get the running gear sorted and the trailer still wouldn’t be ‘as good as new’.

I’m currently evaluating my options but I’m seriously considering what I should probably have done in the first place, which is increase the budget and instead of finding a trailer designed for another purpose and modify it to my needs, just have a trailer custom made to be exactly what I want. To this end I’ve sent out enquiries to some trailer manufacturers today to have one built to my design, with a full 3500kg load rating, an 18′ length (2′ longer than the current one), all new wheels/suspension/brakes/tires etc, a brand new chassis with the load bay built to take a flat floor and extended around the wheel area for the house which I can then get on with building straight away.

I’ve had one reply already with a price of £2500 + tax (15%) and I’m waiting to see if the others are significantly higher or lower. It would take 5-6 weeks to be built which would put me well into November before I could do any work on it, so I also have to decide whether to get started straight away or try and get whatever work I can find over the winter and start again in the spring.

As you can imagine, I’m incredibly fed up and somewhat despondent right now, but I’m trying to see this as a good thing in that I may end up having a really good foundation to build on and one that I know will last me many, many years to come, even if it does put me an entire year behind my original schedule and add 50% onto my budget. I’ll let you know my thoughts over the next few days, but I think this is probably the best way forward right now.

Peace, out.

John came down for a couple of days and we worked on the trailer brakes. Pulled the hubs off and cleaned everything out as they were in quite a state, gunged up with dirt and grime to an almost unrecognisable degree. A can of suitable solvent and a roll of rags later and they looked much more reasonable. Almost no wear on the bearings so back in they went along with a large amount of high temperature grease.

In the process I discovered that one of the hubs didn’t even have brake shoes in it which, after some of the other things I’ve found as I’ve worked through the trailer renovation, doesn’t come as much of a surprise, and another set of shoes came apart in my hands as I removed them. I’m off to the trailer spares place tomorrow to get some new sets.

The other puzzle to the brakes is that the actuating rods seem to have been connected backwards, as I can’t find any way that they could work in the correct manner in their current state. I’m hoping to have a look at a trailer or two at the spares place and see if I can figure out the correct way to put it all together.

I also took the other 6 batteries over to where they’re currently living and swapped them onto the panel. The first 6 seem to have charged up to where I expect them to be after the past couple of week’s sunshine which bodes well. Another couple of week on the panel for the new set should put them in good shape too and then they can all be tied in together and left to stay topped up until such time as I can put them in place. Which reminds me, I should think about designing a folding stand for the panels to ensure they stay securely positioned.

I’m thinking I may just rent a welder for a couple of days and do the trailer welding myself after my holiday. Nick taught me the basics and I reckon that if I work on the side supports first, of which there are 14, then I should know whether I can safely tackle the main structural members after that. Otherwise it’s going to be winter before I’m getting anywhere and the delays are just driving me nuts. Besides, it gives me a chance to play with things that make fire and sparks and, after all, what could possibly go……… oh!

Peace, out.

I don’t normally put things in this blog that don’t relate directly to building my house, but as I’ve mentioned one of these before, I thought I’d include this great little show of how you can build small and green for very little money.

The bad news is that my welder is definitely knackered, so I’m looking at alternatives to get the trailer fixed and finished, probably I’ll just either hire a welder if my brother can make it down soon or I’ll just find a friendly welder to come over and do the welding for me.

In the meantime, I finally got half the power system up and running. The batteries have been in storage for a while, which isn’t the best thing for them, so the first 6 are now wired up and connected to one of the panels. It’s only temporary, which is why the cabling looks shoddy, but at least they’re under charge and being taken care of properly. In a week or so I’ll have the other 6 in place too. I can then monitor them to see what condition they are in as I have a couple of spares if any of them have been damaged by their storage time. All the cells were reading between 1.98 and 2.02v, which isn’t too bad, but we’ll leave them on charge for a week and then remeasure them when I take the next lot up.

One of my next jobs will be to design and build a decent support frame for both panels. They’re going to stay on a ground based frame so they can be moved when needed. If they were mounted on the roof and I had to park the house anywhere that I can’t get the best angle I’d lose a lot of power generating ability. The solar hot water panel will be on the roof as this is less susceptible to angle changes.

I’ve also managed to pick up a few days work this week and next, so that will pay for a short holiday I’m taking later this month and put a bit of money back in the coffers for continuing the build. However, it also means I won’t be doing much on the house for the next week or so.

Swings and roundabouts.