Vehicle for Change
  • Home
    • Letters from Earth
    • Host the Vehicle
    • About
  • Story
    • About Aurora
    • Blog
    • People
    • Gallery
  • Universal Design
    • The Vehicle as Prototype
    • Design Gallery
  • Materials
    • Shell & Insulation
    • Floors, Walls, Furnishings >
      • Floors
      • Walls
      • Upholstery
      • Sealants & Finishes
  • Interior
    • Floor Plans & Cross Sections
    • Flexible Furniture
    • Appliances
    • Storage
    • Lighting
    • Color & Culture
    • Feng Shui
  • Systems
    • Purification
    • Electricity >
      • Thermoelectric generator
    • Water >
      • Plumbing
      • Greenhouse
    • Climate Control
    • Waste
    • Mobility >
      • Vehicles
      • Fuels
      • The Road
  • Contact
    • Mailing List
  • Finances
    • In Kind Donations
    • Loans
    • Spending Plan
    • Current Financial Status
  • The Book
  • Resources
  • Road Life

Trailer Heaven

4/29/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last week  I spent a couple of hours with Jim Groveau, head designer at Advantage Trailers, a small trailer company in Carol Stream, Illinois.  Jim and his team will be building me a 32 foot gooseneck trailer the same size as this one, though it will look very different.  They can start construction as soon as I pay them $26,000, which is half the cost for this phase of the Vehicle. 

I read enviously of people who are able to build their tiny homes for under $20,000. They are able to use scavenged wood, standard plywood and propane for heat and cooking, all options that are closed to me. 
Instead, I will have walls of aluminum, and heat my house with a solar powered mini-split heat exchanger and a $4500 virtually smokeless wood stove called the Kimberly.  Advantage Trailer will install my water tanks and lines, build in a whole series of external access storage lockers, including one for my solar batteries and install a drop down deck with an electric strap system to raise and lower it. Once they get started, it will take about 10 weeks to finish.  After five years of feeling like this project was creeping along, suddenly it's zooming!

PictureMeeting with Jim at Advantage Trailers.

I am also in conversation with Marc Rudnick, of the Cambridge based Community Builders Cooperative, a worker owned construction co-op.  Right now Marc is advising me, looking at drawings of the interior, and waiting until I'm sure what I want, before we get formal about his building it for me.   
Picture
Community Builders Cooperative
Now it's time to reach out widely and let people know what I'm doing and why
0 Comments

Spring update

4/1/2015

0 Comments

 
Many things have changed over this long, extremely snowy winter, including a lot of my plans for the Vehicle.  In a few weeks, I'll be meeting with designers at Advantage Trailer Company in Illinois to finalize plans so they can build me an enclosed trailer shell.  This is a gooseneck trailer with a complete metal shell--the "skin" of my little house.  

I'm looking at a solar powered mini-split for heating and cooling.  The mini-split is a magical machine that extracts heat from cold winter air!  I'm also planning on a small wood stove for cooking and back-up heat. 

I've abandoned the fancy, experimental insulations I was considering, and am going for closed cell rigid foam and thick walls, to super-insulate my space. 

Those are the headlines for now.  More details to follow. 
0 Comments

    Author

    Aurora Levins Morales is a chronically ill and disabled writer, historian, visual artist, and activist

    Archives

    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    Consultants
    Design
    Fuel
    Trucks

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly