# Bike-Towed Mobile Home Commune System



## Hillbilly Castro

I got a pretty wild idea working out here in W. MA. I've built my second bicycle trailer mobile home and am refining it this month to be stronger and lighter. It's eight feet long, two and a half feet wide (will be three feet wide after I overhaul it), and three and a half feet tall. I built it on a trailer from Bikes At Work that can tow 300 pounds pretty easily. The thing weighs maybe 80 lbs, and "drafts" behind my windbreak when I ride. (pictured below)







Six people in all, I plan to rent three quarter acre plots of land within 10 miles of the Erie Canal trail in upstate NY, on which I'm gonna put Hexayurts (pictured below)






The Erie Canal Trail is perfect because it is 325 miles, most of which are not on the highway, and much of it is paved (the rest is crushed stone). In each wall, a door will be added so that bike trailer mobile homes can pull up, connect to the yurt, and open their doors into the center of the yurt. Like a wheel - the yurt is the "hub" and the trailers are the "spokes". 

Each of us will build our own bike trailer home that we'll own outright, and then we can travel between the three "hubs" as we please. Eventually, I want to include many more people and build many more hubs in different places. Inside of each hub, there will be an off-grid shower, a kitchen, a library, and a common space for relaxing. I'm gonna set up composting toilets and gardens on every site. All of us will collectively purchase buckwheat, since that's grown in upstate NY a fair bit, at farmer direct rates ($0.75/lb instead of the 2.85 usually charged in bulk bin stores), and it's super filling and nutritious. Adding to that, roadkill, foraging nettles and other wild greens, and preserving fruit and nuts from the various stands of productive trees in the area. We'll all be able to live a seminomadic lifestyle while having to work only a month or two a year.


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## janktoaster

Wicked idea, whereabouts in western Massachusetts are you? I have connections in Northampton / Amherst. This idea really interests me


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## dprogram

I love this idea. Those urts are great but will not hold up to the wind without some sort of framing...also stake them to the ground if you can.


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## Hillbilly Castro

janktoaster said:


> Wicked idea, whereabouts in western Massachusetts are you? I have connections in Northampton / Amherst. This idea really interests me



I'm around Amherst. If you want, you can see the trailer I posted. It's a total prototype, and some drunk fuck kicked the side of it, so it's a bit bent at the moment, but the base is solid. (the weakness of that insulation has led me to realize that I need to face it with something sturdier like coroplast for the long haul)



dprogram said:


> I love this idea. Those urts are great but will not hold up to the wind without some sort of framing...also stake them to the ground if you can.



I've read they hold up surprisingly well in winds, but of course I'll be staking the fuck out of them, and adding a rain fly over the top to preserve the material for the long-term. Framing, maybe, but I've emailed Vinay Gupta a bit, and he seemed to indicate that if I build them with 3" polyiso and chamfer the edges a bit, I should be solid. I want to built a pallet floor insulated with cob and straw bales as well.


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## Traveler

Kevin Cyr makes badass campers. Check them out, maybe get some ideas. http://www.kevincyr.net/index.php?/project/camper-bike/


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## Matt Derrick

This sounds pretty amazing, and I think this could be huge. 

I'm curious tho, how does the bike trailer work? What's the inside like? Is it super hard to pull behind the bike? What materials are the trailer made out of? Super curious about do many things... Please keep us updated!


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## Matt Derrick

Oh and the hexiyurt thing would make a hell of an StP camp like we were talking about in another thread


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## TheWindAndRain

That's super freaking cool man.



Buffalo said:


> I want to built a pallet floor insulated with cob and straw bales as well.



Careful about mice and fleas. I lived in a structure I built in kansas with a pallet floor like that and got overran by deer mice.


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## Hillbilly Castro

Matt Derrick said:


> This sounds pretty amazing, and I think this could be huge.
> 
> I'm curious tho, how does the bike trailer work? What's the inside like? Is it super hard to pull behind the bike? What materials are the trailer made out of? Super curious about do many things... Please keep us updated!



There is an axle-mounted hitch that the trailer shop fabricates - it's a ball jointed sort of thing. The yoke on the trailer is the "female" component to this hitch, and you just line them up and toss a pin in it. It's actually wicked, wicked easy to tow. I've towed 200 lb friends with surprising ease, and the shelter only weighs maybe 30# on top of the 40# trailer, so it's even easier to tow. Gotta be careful though - if your tow load is behind the hitch, the axle becomes a lever, and your load actually lifts up your back wheel! I learned this while towing a heavy friend while taking a turn down a slight hill. I ended up jackknifed with my friend's whole weight against my bent knee under the seatpost. My leg still hurts and I was on crutches for a bit.

Sometimes I park this thing in public and just hang out in it and talk to interested folks, and the most frequent observation is "dang, this is a lot bigger than I'd guess it would be!" and it's true. I can sit fully upright and have a couple inches overhead, and my girlfriend and I can lay in it pretty well (one of us has to be on our side if the other is on their back - this is why I'm widening it, because for folks to want to use this, they'll need to be able to share their bed. This ain't a monastery shelter system.) so when it's just me it's very spacious. Even with two, it's not bad. 

The trailer is built from polyiso foil-backed rigid foam board insulation. Honestly, that shit is impressive. The shelter gets to body temp in a few minutes and stays there if I don't ventilate. Once you find the "sweet spot" in ventilation, the right airflow makes the temp what you want it to be. I'm still learning that. And $15 for an 8' x 4' sheet of 1" thick ain't bad. I got a lot of ideas from Brian Campbell in Portland OR. His builds blow mine out of the water, though you can't take your bike off his builds because they *are* your bike, so no way to get around when parked. Here's a site with all his stuff on it: http://pardo.net/bike/housebike/000.html and below is my favorite of his builds:






Notice he's got 3 or 4 derailleurs lined up there on the bottom - he claims some pretty ridiculously high speeds in this machines, which actually might be legit - having 60 gears would have some serious drive. I'd like to build this type of gear system onto a pedal-powered barge...

Anyway I slept a bit in the camper last night and while the space was comfortable and ample in room for my legs and shoulders, I've *gotta* get some sort of an air mattress going. Plywood is fucking uncomfortable.


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## Tude

That's pretty cool! PM me where you think you are looking to camp near erie canal.


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## Matt Derrick

Buffalo said:


> There is an axle-mounted hitch that the trailer shop fabricates - it's a ball jointed sort of thing. The yoke on the trailer is the "female" component to this hitch, and you just line them up and toss a pin in it. It's actually wicked, wicked easy to tow. I've towed 200 lb friends with surprising ease, and the shelter only weighs maybe 30# on top of the 40# trailer, so it's even easier to tow. Gotta be careful though - if your tow load is behind the hitch, the axle becomes a lever, and your load actually lifts up your back wheel! I learned this while towing a heavy friend while taking a turn down a slight hill. I ended up jackknifed with my friend's whole weight against my bent knee under the seatpost. My leg still hurts and I was on crutches for a bit.
> 
> Sometimes I park this thing in public and just hang out in it and talk to interested folks, and the most frequent observation is "dang, this is a lot bigger than I'd guess it would be!" and it's true. I can sit fully upright and have a couple inches overhead, and my girlfriend and I can lay in it pretty well (one of us has to be on our side if the other is on their back - this is why I'm widening it, because for folks to want to use this, they'll need to be able to share their bed. This ain't a monastery shelter system.) so when it's just me it's very spacious. Even with two, it's not bad.
> 
> The trailer is built from polyiso foil-backed rigid foam board insulation. Honestly, that shit is impressive. The shelter gets to body temp in a few minutes and stays there if I don't ventilate. Once you find the "sweet spot" in ventilation, the right airflow makes the temp what you want it to be. I'm still learning that. And $15 for an 8' x 4' sheet of 1" thick ain't bad. I got a lot of ideas from Brian Campbell in Portland OR. His builds blow mine out of the water, though you can't take your bike off his builds because they *are* your bike, so no way to get around when parked. Here's a site with all his stuff on it: http://pardo.net/bike/housebike/000.html and below is my favorite of his builds:
> 
> View attachment 16778
> 
> 
> Notice he's got 3 or 4 derailleurs lined up there on the bottom - he claims some pretty ridiculously high speeds in this machines, which actually might be legit - having 60 gears would have some serious drive. I'd like to build this type of gear system onto a pedal-powered barge...
> 
> Anyway I slept a bit in the camper last night and while the space was comfortable and ample in room for my legs and shoulders, I've *gotta* get some sort of an air mattress going. Plywood is fucking uncomfortable.



That is fucking epic. Would you mind keeping us updated as this comes along? I'm considering doing something similar.


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## lyvphreeoardye

what did you use for the framework of the shelter on the trailer? I have a bike taxi/cargo bike that I want to build a removable shelter pod for.


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## Hillbilly Castro

I used aluminum angle bars! Easy to work with. Get them thick enough and they won't bend.


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## Art101

Love the Idea.Was wondering if you couldn't do the upper frame in a 2in pvc filled with expandable foam for rigidity might lessen the weight even more. Just an idea.


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## Hillbilly Castro

If you fill PVC with expandable foam, does it strengthen it considerably? Most PVC I've handled has been either too heavy or too weak. Never lightweight and strong in comparison to thicker cuts of aluminum.


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## Art101

I ay do some experimenting with some 2in over the winter to see. Will make a tarp frame just to see how well it works. We used to use it a lot when I was doing sci-fi conventions for frame work for doors and such and stood up pretty well.


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## WithinuWithoutu

Traveler said:


> Kevin Cyr makes badass campers. Check them out, maybe get some ideas. http://www.kevincyr.net/index.php?/project/camper-bike/


The Camper Bike is pretty amazing, at least what can be gleaned from the few pics. Wonder how sturdy/solid they are when moving inside...


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## Durp

Awsome dude! If anyone wants to build one of these and wants some help, I have tools space and know a lot about construction. I shfit around quite abit but at the moment I'm in the pac nw. Pm me.


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## WithinuWithoutu

JimH1991 said:


> Awsome dude! If anyone wants to build one of these and wants some help, I have tools space and know a lot about construction. I shfit around quite abit but at the moment I'm in the pac nw. Pm me.


Very cool. Maybe we'll make our way north towards you when the weather gets better there...


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## wavyhill

Buffalo said:


> I got a pretty wild idea working out here in W. MA. I've built my second bicycle trailer mobile home and am refining it this month to be stronger and lighter. It's eight feet long, two and a half feet wide (will be three feet wide after I overhaul it), and three and a half feet tall. I built it on a trailer from Bikes At Work that can tow 300 pounds pretty easily. The thing weighs maybe 80 lbs, and "drafts" behind my windbreak when I ride. (pictured below)
> 
> View attachment 16777
> 
> 
> Six people in all, I plan to rent three quarter acre plots of land within 10 miles of the Erie Canal trail in upstate NY, on which I'm gonna put Hexayurts (pictured below)
> 
> View attachment 16776
> 
> 
> The Erie Canal Trail is perfect because it is 325 miles, most of which are not on the highway, and much of it is paved (the rest is crushed stone). In each wall, a door will be added so that bike trailer mobile homes can pull up, connect to the yurt, and open their doors into the center of the yurt. Like a wheel - the yurt is the "hub" and the trailers are the "spokes".
> 
> Each of us will build our own bike trailer home that we'll own outright, and then we can travel between the three "hubs" as we please. Eventually, I want to include many more people and build many more hubs in different places. Inside of each hub, there will be an off-grid shower, a kitchen, a library, and a common space for relaxing. I'm gonna set up composting toilets and gardens on every site. All of us will collectively purchase buckwheat, since that's grown in upstate NY a fair bit, at farmer direct rates ($0.75/lb instead of the 2.85 usually charged in bulk bin stores), and it's super filling and nutritious. Adding to that, roadkill, foraging nettles and other wild greens, and preserving fruit and nuts from the various stands of productive trees in the area. We'll all be able to live a seminomadic lifestyle while having to work only a month or two a year.



Sounds awesome!


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## Matt Derrick

this project looks awesome, but after my recent defeat on the west coast (hills killed me) i wonder how far you could really go, especially when there's hills involved.


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## zipty6425

Buffalo, Your a badass! I don't care what anybody says. I can barely pedal around the weight of my own body. Okay, the dude who can pull one of these around town, is one cool mofo as far as I'm concerned. Props!


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## SovereignTree

Thats a good idea. I have been thinking that a large group tour together visiting communities along the way helping and learning about sustainable projects would be awesome too.


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## xpolx

Seriously impressive rig and project <3


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## Ratchet

Im in w mass amd am collecting building supplies to build a bike camper-trailer myself presently. Im a home-bum but it could b used for emergency shelter (great for stealth camping) as well as regular camping.


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