Every fall, during hunting seasons, they come rolling through town here in western Colorado. Joe redneck can’t afford a motor home, but he’s got a flatbed trailer he uses for gathering firewood or hauling his bomber to the dirt track. Add a few 2x4s, nail up some plywood, staple a poly tarp on top. Result: Instant RV for hunting camp with the boys. Yeah, redneck intelligence (no, not always an oxymoron) results in the “porta-hut” tiny house.
It doesn't look like much now, but this funky used 16 foot car hauler will hopefully become WildSnow Field HQ, an off-the-grid wheeled hut parked near some of Colorado's best backcountry skiing.
Here at WildSnow.com we like a bit more luxury than a plywood box. We’ve been enjoying our slide-in pickup truck camper for road trips. Beyond that, we’ve also gained access to a few parcels of backcountry land where we’re either borrowing the location from the owner, or in our case, planning on eventually building a permanent structure but need something temporary that we mostly use as a day lodge, with occasional camp nights. Basically, we want to park a wheeled RV tiny house for the winter. and we don’t want to use our camper for that (it’s small, can’t take a high altitude snow load, and we like it on the truck). We could buy and park a used travel-trailer but those are ugly and the roof won’t hold the snow either.
Solution, do like those redneck hunters only with some pizazz — build a porta-hut RV camp trailer!
So yesterday I raged all over Western Slope Colorado looking for a trailer chassis to modify as the “rolling foundation” for a portahut tiny house. I ended up with a 16 foot car hauler. We’ll mod this to be about 9 x 16 foot (give or take) base for a rolling portable structure. Presently, we’re planning on a one-story rectangle with a gable roof and sleeping loft. Enough room to be luxurious for 4 people, comfortable for 6, or squeeze in 8 in a pinch. It won’t be the type of RV you’re going to tour North America with. More something you’d move periodically from one parcel of land to another, within, say, 50 miles.
So, this is the first of what we hope will be a fun series of posts about the do-it-yourself building process.
All the portahut RV posts are available via this link.
Amazing Small House Plans. 65-874 square feet – Visit Tumbleweed Tiny House to find out more.
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.
