re-formatting an old housetruck to pull a housetrailer

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Truckingturtle
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re-formatting an old housetruck to pull a housetrailer

Post by Truckingturtle »

I have been dreaming about what my next home on wheels will look like. Here are a couple of drawings I have done. This will be my fifth housetruck project and I plan to use my previous experiance on the road to make it my best ever. I want to start with a good foundation-a 35' step-deck tandom-axle commercial hauling trailer-allowing easier access since it is lower to the ground, and able to take the weight of a wooden house on it.

Image

My fourth housetruck sets behind my cabinet shop right now, and I have come up with a plan where I would shorten it and convert the housetruck into a sleeper cab. Since it is illegal to have passengers in a trailer on the highway, the sleeper cab will give me the extra room I need for other passengers, and a place to sleep so it can be used for short jonts away from the housetrailer.

Image

The lure of being out on the open road again is something I think about often. There's nothing like being able to go and see all those wonderful places that you can drive to, and still "be at home" in your own house! It's the mobile lifestyle that housetrucking is all about, not being parked in the same place all the time, or where it was built.

Roger
forgottenhighway

Post by forgottenhighway »

Roger,
Do you own that great Westcoaster cornbinder ?

Cheers, Pat
forgottenhighway

Post by forgottenhighway »

Roger,
Sorry, i realized too late you are the owner of the way-cool Federal. I will send Sharkey a pic of a Federal for you to check out.
Cheers, Pat
maldoran

your book and motivation

Post by maldoran »

hi, i bought your book two years ago and have been motivated to build ahouse truck, gypsy wagon on a 1938 IHC, Please look at photos.yahoo.com/kaputafj any ideas or feedback welcomed. kevin or birdacre@hotmail.com
Stan
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Post by Stan »

Since it is illegal to have passengers in a trailer on the highway
Depends on the State. In some States it is legal if you have "communication" between the tractor and the trailer.
Stan Clayton
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dadeo
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Post by dadeo »

and you can add on your boat:
Image
(in some states this is legal too)
forgottenhighway

Post by forgottenhighway »

I would pay money to see them back that rig up :roll:

Cheers, Pat
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dadeo
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Post by dadeo »

1943 M3A1 WHITE SCOUT CAR (PRIME MOVER)& 1947 SEMI TRAILER BUS
Image
interesting reading: http://www.busandtruckmuseum.org.au/exhibs/015.htm
JimLee

interesting housebus

Post by JimLee »

When I was a kid growing up in St. Louis, there was a pow camp outside of the city I think on highway 40 just before the Missouri river bridge.
There were several of these trailer buses pulled by early post war chevrolets.

I always thought they were neat.

Some photos of my stuff:

http://photos.yahoo.com/jimlee138@sbcglobal.net

cut and paste.
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dadeo
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Post by dadeo »

ok heres a couple images for inspiration, from India:

[edit] Sorry, but I'm going to step in here and brandish my moderator's stick. The photo that ~was~ posted here was *way* too big, both in terms of pixel width and file size. 1.2Mb images don't belong in this forum. While I have a direct hookup to a T1 line, some folks are still using dialup, and such a large image would take too long to load, slowing the entire page to a halt. Instead, here's a link to the interesting, but large photo of a double-decker passenger trailer in India. It's worth a look if you have the speedy connection, just to view the nasty smoke that everyone is being exposed to, and the lady riding sidesaddle on a scooter... -Sharkey [/edit]

and
Image
I dunno, was the trailer a double-decker bus at one time???

and of course, the infamous "Camel Busses" of Cuba:
Image
soused moose
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Post by soused moose »

Hi Roger (and everyone else)
Love those drawings of your new project.

This is very cool to see them because I'm working on doing something very similar to your design.
We've been stockpiling trailer axles , wheel , tires and all the other neccesary bits & pieces to build the frame for a 35 foot homemade 5th wheel trailerfor a few months now....and when I come up with the needed funds ...I'll pay a welder to to put the frame together.

The 'House ' portion will be in the classic Old School Rolling Home style...lots of beautiful wood.
And we'll tow her with our School bus...which I'll cut down to a smaller size.
I'll cut off the roof and most of the sides that are left on the smaller version of our bus...and replace that with a wooden 'house' that will match the look of our trailer...

Wowser ...guess Great minds do really think Alike :P

Michael & Millie
Truckingturtle
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Post by Truckingturtle »

Michael- glad to hear from you! I see you like the trailer idea also. Is your idea to be "on the road" or simply pull your trailer to another location and park it? I want to be on the road as I have many friends all over the country, so I will eventually be looking for a newer truck to pull my housetrailer with. Even with the high cost of gas, being on the road appeals to me more than being parked in one place for a long time. This is why I choose to have wheels under my house. It will be interesting to see how our two "dreams" turn out.

Roger


Also...to dadeo...

The pics you posted are unique and neat, but those "beasts" are not my style. I'm also not into the metal look of these vehicles and the BIG ones wouldn't be very practical if you want to be very mobile. What can I say...I'm a cabinet-maker/custom woodworker by trade and a housetrucker at heart. So, that affects how I perceive what an old traditional house built on a trailer or a truck looks like.

Roger
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dadeo
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Post by dadeo »

Totally, I understand. And thanks so much for your book, its been a great source of instiration, a sort of reference book for dreams!
dadeo
soused moose
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Post by soused moose »

Roger , I've gone back and forth on this for awhile...
At first I figured on just finishing up the conversion on our bus 'Latcho Drom'...move out of Alaska back down to Eugene.
Where we'd get jobs and squat for awhile.
Then I remembered what it's like to try to find a halfway decent place to stay in a School bus conversion down there...and decided a really nice looking trailer would get a better reception.

I tracked those folks down on the net who made that trailer Weighzalot ' that you have pics of in your book and they said people mostly treated them great and they only found that camprounds in Arizona turned them away...the rest thought their rig was really pretty .

Being back on the road again appeals to me also...Millie & I lived for a lot of years doing the Hippy Trails thing and I miss it.
So...yup. We do intend to travel with our trailer.
I'll keep our School bus ...in its shortened version as a tempory solution to towing our trailer around...then I'll look around Oregon & Washington for some newer affordable 'Big Truck' that will do the job better.

I've got to say Thank you for your book also ...its a masterpiece.
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dadeo
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Post by dadeo »

sorry Sharky, and all people with dial-up.. I'll take it easy in the future. I'll either re-size the picture and put it on my web page then link to it.... or just post a link.

Dadeo
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