In case you didn’t notice, tiny houses are cool. They make terrific starter homes, or an instant backcountry cabin “camping shelter.” Case in point: the tiny we helped with last week, bought in western Colorado and installed high in the mountains as a backcountry basecamp. The day was epic. I got to use every heavy rigging item in my arsenal. The Warn 12,000 lb winch completed the install by dragging the house sideways into perfect position. Silverado HD Duramax towed it on the highway and up 8 miles of rough backcountry dirt. The story in photos.
The thing isn’t light, I estimate at around 8,000 pounds with excessive tongue weight. Luckily the highway drive was only about 80 miles. We began the journey at dawn, lots of 2-lane and several steep grades. The trailer has electric brakes, not sure hauling would have been safe without.
We shacked up in Montrose, Colorado the night before the drive. Fascinating to find the best Nepalese restaurant we’d ever been to.
Due to the weight of the house and anticipated rough roads, we upgraded the draw bar (aka ball mount) to class 5.
Once past the pavement, we found the access road had hundreds of low hanging branches to deal with.
This house design has a small rear deck.
Shoehorning is the only word. Truck has a front bumper trailer hitch, we used that for the tight maneuvering, then spun and slid the house using our winch and a come-along.
Rigging. Safety belay lines were attached as soon as the trailer came off the truck hitch.
Pulling house a few feet using come-along. That’s me in the hat trying to act like I knew what I was doing.
Just about there.
Views were opened up with some chainsaw recreation before the house was installed.
Twelve hours of driving, winching, wrenching and jacking got it done. Fun day for WildSnow and friends. Congratulations to them for their new camping shelter.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
