Custom Built Travel Trailer

Roadtech wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

Very few people wish to have a outdoor tent shower or deal with composting or cassette toilets or a complete lack of on board water systems.. Very few people want barebones minimalist accommodations for one or two people, in other words RVs are typically built for family use and will have things that make the family comfortable while out camping. Minimalist camping isn't what mainstream public wants and the big manufacturers understand that and they tend to concentrate on broader market appeal which will sell more and at a faster rate.

My design has all of the comforts and amenities of my previous 27' Airstream International Serenity, just in a smaller package with some very innovative ideas learned over a lifetime of RV'ing. The shower is connected to the trailer in a unique way so as to provide a dry bath without taking up the space of a separate bath and shower. I think a lot of folks would love a dry bath/shower arrangement in a sub 20 foot trailer without sacrificing the square footage to get it. There are no composting or cassette toilets in my plan (Google dry flush toilets). I have an on board water system to supply and collect water to/from the sinks and shower (hot and cold), just without permanent mounted tanks. I think I have some really great, innovative ideas learned over a lifetime to help lessen the negatives with camping in a trailer but retaining the great advantage of un-hitching and having access to your full size tow vehicle for transportation (no other RV system has this advantage in a sub 20 foot configuration). All I need is a company to build it for me...

As I see it, you are attempting to reinvent the wheel, popups often have a sink that has no tank, drain goes to a fitting on outside of the trailer and you use a bucket or portable tank..

Not sure what you think as negative about having on board tanks, they are not a negative but a positive since you do not have to come up with some external tote, tank or bucket to mess around with.

Your list sounds like someone that would rather "tent" camp but still have a hard sided place off the ground to sleep in.

Build it yourself, that is basically and ultimately you will end up doing and I would recommend that will be the most effective way to go about getting your entire wish list.

Buy a small cargo trailer, build a shelf or two, place your microwave on the shelf, place a small sink in a shelf and plumb it to the outside for collection, install your adjustable queen bed base, some batteries, charger and some lights.. That IS what you "want".

You might get a custom builder to build it from scratch to finish but most custom builders that may still exist only make a few builds per yr which most likely will result in several yrs waiting list.. But many "custom builders" have thrown in the towel and gone out of business in the last 15 yrs. Used to be a couple near me, down to one now and that one specializes in building high end horse trailers with luxury living quarters to the tune of $100K+

Since it is done as a "one off" build they will not have templates to make cutting and assembly cost quick effective adding hundreds of hrs worth of additional labor to the project. They will be buying materials in very small quantities specifically for your build which results in much higher materials costs which then gets passed on to you..

I suspect to get someone to build it the way you want it is going to be double the cost of a new Airstream at a minimum and you will have a "one off" design that absolutely no one else in the world would want so if you are forced to sell it down the road you will have a difficult time unloading it for pennies on the dollar.

Your not the first person to "think up" new ideas for RVs so what you think is new and unique most likely has been done and eventually canned. When I was a kid, my Dad found a 1960's slide in TC, had a ice box, furnace with no fan, a sink with a galley siphon pump and the sink water went to a port on the side and had a toilet with 5 gallon holding tank.. Get to campsite, lift the TC off the truck and now the truck is free to go places, no worse than unhitching a trailer..