After this weekend of camping in a tent and having the dry everything out after a 3 hour monsoon downpour, I started researching again and if I eliminate the loft I can reduce the outside wall height by 6 inches each because the ceiling will be vaulted. Going out to 24" on center studs, and eliminating the need to hold weight in a loft, Suddenly the camper project becomes viable again. Weight drops by 40% and I am able to get the center of gravity back down to a position where I am no longer afraid of becoming a roadside tragedy.I need to use the full width of the pop up trailer frame and use the end wall as a mount for a murphy bed on the wall that slides out to queen width. Yes this means that in sleeping mode, you are not cooking or entertaining guests, but it makes the whole project actually finishable.
I am going to re-start with numbers for the smaller scale design soon, and possibly will be adding a "wet bathroom" to allow showering.
To put some numbers in perspective, the Ultra light building process was going to have the micro home at around 3500 pounds for the shell and loft. My back of envelope calculations that are over estimating weight, has the trailer shell only at 1500 pounds. more than 50% less weight by eliminating the loft and all the structural for making it safe to hold a lot of weight up there.
And I can shed a some of weight from this 1500 pounds by adding a door and windows as well as lowering the side wall height to around 6 feet.
So the project is back on! Time to start drawing up designs and calculating weight and center of gravity.
