The Trailer!
Jan 25
Wahoo! I got the email that the trailer was ready to be picked up on January 24th. My anticipation to get started on the build had reached its max, so we went to get it the first thing the next day.
The trailer I ordered was through Tumbleweed Tiny Houses and was the 20' Low-Wider. I decided on 20' because it was the mid-range for tiny houses on wheels. Anything smaller seemed too tiny when walking through them, but the 26' houses, which many people have, seemed too big. I don't plan to move this house around a ton, but I will be driving it out west and potentially moving it now and then.
Typically the trailers from Tumbleweed are shipped which costs an additional $600 to PA, but fortunately they have an east coast supplier out of Chambersburg, PA, 1.5 hours from Lancaster. I only discovered when picking it up that how it works it that Tumbleweed works with the supplier, B Wise Trailers and has them build the trailer based off of Tumbleweed's design.
I borrowed my grandfathers 1999 Dodge Ram and Mom and I went to get the trailer. At this point the trailer roughly weighed 2,000 lbs. Neither my mom or I had ever towed a large trailer so this was an exciting adventure. The trailer guy, Shawn, was a great help. He walked us through everything with the trailer and how to hook the trailer to the hitch of the truck. You're given the trailer registration and VIN and they send you on your way. Driving home was easier than we expected. 20' is long and the trailer is wider than the truck, but driving on highways mostly and taking wide turns, things went smoothly.
The challenge we knew we had was how we would get the trailer into my neighbors backyard, but we got it in there. :)
I decided on a new trailer for many reasons. As the 'foundation' of my house I didn't want to risk not knowing what my trailer had been through and how long it would last. I could have found a trailer for probably half the price of my Tumbleweed trailer, but there's also a lot of prep to get a traditional trailer ready to build on. That plus probably new tires I have read can cost almost equal the cost of my trailer, and would require an additional 2-3 weeks of work.
En route to get the trailer!
