Update: On my RV Building Plans....

myrvplans1 wrote:

Huntindog wrote:
A couple of thoughts. Are you stuck on 15'?
It occurred to me that since most building materials are 4x8 standardized, that making the TT box 16' would likely yield some savings in labor, and not add any to the cost of materials. Most of the materials cut off over 15' will just be thrown away, and you would be paying someone to do it!. An extra foot would not be noticed at all when towing, but could make a substantial impact on the interior, at basically zero cost.
It may not work out to exactly 1 foot of extra room, and you would have to have the cargo trailer selected in order to plan it that close.
You would hate to be a inch short in the materials.
But some detailed construction planning couild pay some dividends.

In another post, we talked about how to handle the rear door. IIRCC, you said that the trailer builder could just wall it off.
I think that keeping the doors, if they are the swing open type could have some advantages.
First off it would keep the stealth mode consistent with your desire to not look like a camper.

Next is it would make the construction a LOT easier. If the rear is walled off, then everything will need to be brought in thru the small entry door. This will slow things down considerably and drive up the labor cost.
You could make a sort of false wall back there for when the doors were open, or have a screen wall like some toy haulers have. Might be nice sometimes to have some extra ventilation
Another thought: If you got a ramp rear door, you could use it as a patio. I have even seen pics of a toy hauler with this setup with the ramp hanging out over a lake, so that they could fish off of their own "dock" It looked pretty cool

Finally with the raised floor plan, if the rear doors were still there, you could access the area under the floor just by opening the doors. The possibilities here are endless. You could install some of those long slide out drawers like some camper shell kits have. One could even store one of those fold up canoes in there. Obviously, some of this space will be occupied by tanks etc. so thinking this out in advance would be necessary.

THANK YOU HUNTINDOG! I've been waiting all day to respond to your post. I really appreciate your feedback. Good stuff.

1) I think you're absolutely right about having to go to 16'. They seem to make the base cargo trailers in even lengths. The extra 12" could help out in a few areas. (When they say something like an 16x8 cargo trailer are they referring to a 16' box length or 16' from the rear bumper to the tongue hitch?)In the TT world, they generally measure from tongue to rear bumper, though sometimes the model number may be the box size.(really can't depend on that though as their is no consistency).
I am pretty sure that in the cargo world, they go by box size, though it may vary by manufacturer.
Best to make this a inquiry as it is a big difference likely 3-4'.

2) I like your idea about keeping the ramp door as a patio or to appear more "stealth-like." But, I ask the question... with an awning a/c and vent on roof, 2 windows and propane tanks haven't I overplayed my stealth hand? There are a bunch of guys online that built stealth cargo conversions with no windows (People want my head on a pike cause I only have 2 and they think I should have more), so I'm not sure I'm gonna fly under the radar even omitting the RV swirl graphics. How far you want to fly under the radar is totally up to you. I just mentioned it as a side benefit to your already mentioned desire. The further you stray from this, the faster it will be recognized for what it really is.
Though you just mentioned that as far as resale goes (I am not advocating that as a primary goal) that even though this TT may have a very limited market as a TT, that it could always be sold as a cargo trailer. This wouldn't be true if there was no cargo door. It may well be cost prohibitive to retrofit a cargo door, as some of the support structure for one may not have been installed at the factory.

3) While initially I was describing it as a "raised floor plan", it's not exactly that. There was an artist rendering error in my first set of drawings which showed it as a skyscraper on wheels.... it's since been corrected) I told the artist to "draw the vehicle so the floor plan laid out over the wheel wells creating sort of a basement".... he took that to mean add a basement area in addition to the area above the wheel wells. The trailer now comes in at around 11'-11.5' in height.... about 4" higher than my previous 31' TT.I wasn't thinking of overall height at all.
I was figuring that you were designing a flat floor from front to rear just to eliminate the wheel wells from intruding into the living quarters. Is this not the case?

If my thinking was correct, then there will be a basement of sorts. This area could be utilized many ways. Accessing it from the rear cargo doors is one way to do it.

As I mentioned before, in a typical RV build the walls are one of the last things to go up.
I toured the Sabre plant and saw this first hand. I even have pics of it. It looks really weird to see a almost compete TT with no walls. The plant manager explained that the walls would just get in the way in such small units.
Think about how restricted the access will be in your build with only a small side door.
I think that the increase in labor hours due to this will be pretty substantial.

Thank you again! Regards, -Darla