Your dream Tiny Home can turn to a nightmare if it is not on a road legal trailer!
The following article was kindly supplied to Kiwi Tiny Home - Lifestyle Magazine by Lloyd Darroch, Director at Aakron Xpress Ltd based in Auckland.
Legal Disclaimer - Kiwi Tiny Home recommends you independantly do your own research into tiny home trailers, and trailer suppliers and check with your local council before buying or building any tiny home on or not on a trailer. This article should be used as a guide for further research into trailer options and not considered as an instruction manual.
Why build on a Trailer?
If it is just sitting on blocks or skids your local Council can insist that it meets full housing standards, having a Building Permit and a Resource Consent, maybe even requiring a Geotech report for the site and so on. And if you don’t comply, they can remove it or destroy it. Heavy stuff!
You can avoid all that drama and expense if it's mobile on a road legal registered and warranted trailer. NZ Courts have twice determined that in that situation it is legally a 'motor vehicle' (just like a caravan) and cannot be the concern of the Council.
Let me explain a bit about our tiny home trailers and some of the issues you need to be aware of:
Commonly our basic Aakron Xpress trailer has a chassis that is 2m wide with a central bearer, so your floor joists are supported every 1m, which stops 'sponginess'. The wheels are outside the 2m chassis, so the over-all width is just under the legal maximum of 2.55m
However, 'loads' on your trailer can be up to 3.1m wide while still allowing you to drive along the road unhindered, and only needing a flag at each corner, or lights at night. Any wider and you need pilot vehicles and permits etc. Other restrictions you may need to watch are; a) height overall cannot exceed 4.3m, and b) if your rig is over 2500kg including the trailer itself you must have 'break-away' brakes fitted if you wish to drive it on the public roads. The height of our trailers above road level is around 600mm depending on size and weight rating.
Break-away brakes add $1750 (incl GST) to the cost so some buyers choose to shift their tiny home on the back of a truck on the rare occasions required. Even with break-away brakes you cannot exceed 3500kg so be careful to use light-weight construction materials like foam sandwich panels and light-weight steel framing if you can.
Think like an aircraft builder, not a bricklayer!
Building on Steel?
Steel bends; so, do not rely on the trailer to keep your home flat and square. Like all buildings it should be properly braced to the normal building code, so in practice it is your home that is keeping the trailer flat! Not the other way around.
During construction you can use the trailer as a 'foundation' or chassis but do make sure it is level and stabilised while you build on top.
You can choose to use timber joists to span the trailer chassis, or we can build a steel frame for your subfloor (welded in place or removable) so you can just fix your ply decking to the subfloor we provide and build up the home from there. If you want to use timber joists, we can provide angle brackets at each corner and in the middle for you to bolt the joists and floor to the chassis. That way it’s still 'removable' so can be considered ‘the load'.
Aakon Xpress
Our basic Aakron Xpress tiny home trailer comes complete with tandem axles, equalising suspension, (important for coping with bumps and potholes) cable brakes, 8 ply commercial grade low profile tyres rated to 900Kg each, LED lights, a galvanised jockey wheel, and Rego and WOF. Construction is using 'pre-galvanised' box steel with all welds cleaned and treated with two coats of zinc-rich 'cold-galv' paint.
Hot-dip galvanising is better and available, but that's an expense that 99% of customers don’t choose to accept; it adds about $1200 to $1800 depending on size.
Importantly all Aakon Xpress trailers carry a 10-year structural warranty. Watch out for cowboys who don’t!
Typical prices
If you want us to build the sub-floor as well as the chassis, then you need to add the two appropriate prices together from the attached tables.
For example, an 8m trailer with brakes for up to 2500kg GVM would cost $6028 + GST = $6932 for the basic chassis including everything as above. To achieve a GVM of 3500kg you need to add break-away brakes at +$1750. If you wanted us to build the sub-floor decking as well at a width of say 2.7m that would add a further $1508 + GST = $1734.
We can also supply genuine heavy-duty stabilising jacks rated at 2700kg each for $180 including GST, as well as a full range of trailer parts if you want to build your own.
Download our price list as of 18 June 2020 here
Visitors are always welcome to visit our factory behind Harvey Normans in Wairau Park, on Auckland's North Shore, to see examples and discuss options and ideas face to face.
You can contact me on 021 725 718 (or ask for Cassie or Jonathan on 09 427 4613) and I am available almost any time and always happy to help with advice.
Hope you found this information helpful
Lloyd Darroch
Director
Aakron Xpress Ltd
Our Address - 149 Wairau Rd, Wairau Park. (behind Harvey Norman)
