hey there welcome to my channel where I take you on tours of tiny and unique homes in today's video
we're going to check out a tiny house that brings stealth camping to a new level Neil's going to
take us through his cargo trailer turned tiny home which he lives in full time with his girlfriend as
he travels the country working as a travel nurse it's pretty brilliant when you think about it he
doesn't have to pack up all of his things and move to a new location multiple times a year instead he
just packs up his home and brings it with him if you like these kind of videos make sure that you
subscribe and hit that notification Bell so that you know every single time we publish a new tour
but right now let's take a look at Neil's cargo trailer conversion thank you [Music]
hey I'm Neil and I want to welcome you to my home on wheels [Music]
since I was young I saw school buses converted into houses and that kind
of thing it seemed like a very free way to exist
some of the biggest hurdles that I've had to deal with in life the first was drug addiction
after I got sober I got a brain tumor and that was another really large hurdle it taught me to Value
the time that I have and it just really gave me a new perspective on life the only commodity that
we have that's limited is time I'm not going to limit myself in any way if I can avoid it
so I'm a nurse by trade when I initially started traveling I would go and rent an apartment for the
duration of our contract wherever we were I was like this would be so much easier if we just had
our house with us start it and drive away instead of having to pack everything up in a U-Haul
this is actually the fourth build that I've done the third one was in the same shell and I just
built the interior out differently my girlfriend said that she wanted to go too so I was like well
I need to revamp before we head across the country this build out was probably two months [Music]
rig with this layout on the interior for probably eight months
I'd say with all the electrical and the initial trailer purchase and all
the solar panels total cost was about twenty thousand dollars [Music] foreign
30 32 feet long right in that neighborhood it's a 7x14 trailer I really like the look
I feel like it's more leaning towards the stealth rig it looks like a work trailer
total weight at this point I think the last time I checked it it was about 16 000 pounds
so the truck I've had for about two years I'm pulling with a 2006 F250 with a 6.0 in it [Music]
I've got eight total panels on the roof of the truck four slide out and then eight on
the trailer four also slide out that feeds to two 40 amp charge controllers 21.6 kilowatt
hours which seemed to be enough storage for me so far so this is kind of like the front door area
and the way the panels slide out it kind of gives you like an awning for if it's raining
or something while you're unlocking the door we did 360 LED floods and 360 cameras
[Music] foreign
[Music] kitchen appliances we've got air fryer Coffee espresso and a microwave a
little microwave up in that cabinet and then ice maker in here along with dishes and then
our cooktop is propane powered and that slides out there we got a little two burner
so for building the kitchen space coming out from the walls I just use two by twos
to frame it in the countertop is just a project panel from Lowe's relatively inexpensive as far
as full sheets to cover the space that were thick enough to really feel like a counter I'm
not a finished Carpenter so I don't judge too harshly for the sink most of the options that
are available for RVs and Tiny Houses there's not a lot of space to work and we wanted like
a full-size sink to be able to work out of went with one of those but due to the amount of space
that it takes up in the counter you really lose a lot of your prep space so to reclaim that made
this board here that Magnus to the side of the fridge and it drops in you can kind of
reclaim some of that counter space there's also a flip up countertop that's attached to the door
so when that's closed you've got kind of 180 degrees of counter which has been really nice
for the fridge there's a lot of 12 volt options out there but the energy draw on
those can be relatively High compared to just your standard home refrigerator this smaller
one I believe is 120 watts when the compressor is on continuous power pole which is pretty low
from what I could find so we just went with that and it had the separated fridge freezer
which is another thing that we really wanted for having it really feel like home [Music]
for heating we've got the mini split that heats in cools and then we've got a diesel air heater
in the back by the bed in case it gets really cold throughout the floor I ran some half inch
packs for diesel powered radiant heat floors so far it's gotten down into the 30s and that's all
I've had to use and it's 70 degrees 72 degrees interior temperature fresh water system I've
got a total of 80 gallon fresh water and then we got 40 gallon gray we just got a standard
Dometic toilet that feeds to a 40 gallon black tank that's in between the frame rails we have
to go to a dump station I'd say once every three weeks for me that was more convenient
than having to deal with it every couple of days with a composting toilet or that style
for the shower we've got a tankless water heaters propane powered and that uses very
little propane to heat the water I'd say once once a month we have to trade out a 20 gallon tank
the cooktop and the shower both requiring a 20 gallon tank every month or so is was
a pretty good option for us the space in the footprint is the only thing that I was kind
of concerned about looking back is definitely worth it to do a shower even a small one like
this pan is 24 by 36 I believe and that seems to be about the minimum of what I would do
all right let's head down the hall I'll show you the bedroom [Music]
I work nights I'm a travel nurse so we wanted to be able to separate kind
of the living space from the sleeping areas so we put a pocket door in here
so my girlfriend can do stuff in the front while I'm sleeping if she wants to As you move into the
bedroom we've got a monitor for the security cameras if we have to park anywhere kind of
sketchy it's nice to just have eyes on the outside since we went without windows for the build
mini split here blowing directly onto the bed space so the AC works great the two cabinets
here just clothing storage yeah I feel like I have plenty of storage but my wardrobe is
fairly Limited my girlfriend doesn't her car is full of clothes all of our controls here
for everything we've got the fairy lights on the ceiling that took forever totally worth it though
we wanted the bed area to be multifunctional so it's not like just a bed or it doesn't have
to flip down out of the wall we built a slat style so the bottom just slides out and the
back cushion folds down and then you've got pretty large sleeping area I think it works
out to be about a queen for the width and I'm 6'2 and it seems to be plenty of space for me
the bed makes for a pretty comfy couch if you're gonna do this style I would recommend
accommodating for this angle of the back I wasn't thinking about that when I built this one but
having a straight back is very uncomfortable so we end up just kind of kicking the cushion out
but I've seen other designs that have a four or five inch kick out and that seems to be plenty
I really like the drop gate rear so having the drop gate was really convenient for
the build and for using as a porch it doubles your living area really [Music]
this is a system to stabilize and level the rig if you've never lived in a trailer van anything like
that it's kind of a big deal being able to find somewhere flat to park because your whole house
will be at a big angle like you don't notice it as much from outside but when you're in the
space trying to just do your day-to-day having a big slant just makes a big difference so I wanted
a way to be able to effectively level the whole Space in the floor there that's the Locking block
for the driver's side drop leg we've got a valve body for the hydraulic control the back two legs
are the only hydraulic components in the system right now so we got two levers and it's pulled
push them down and push to bring them up and you can pick up the whole trailer pretty much we got
a flat coming through Missouri and just put the drop leg on that side down and pick that whole
side of the trailer up and spun the tire off with the impact gun and we were on the road again in
two minutes it was really convenient I didn't think about that aspect but it was it was great
to have and hydraulics are just cool I wanted a reason to build it in and that was what I landed
on so [Music] thanks for watching this week's video please make sure to like share and subscribe
and I will see you soon with another tiny or unique home tour [Music] [Applause] [Music]
thank you