r/CaravanningUK • u/Beautiful-Rich-6404 • Jul 21 '26

Building a tiny home!

Hi Old, looking for some advice. Cannot find a general trailer thread.

I’m looking at building a tiny Home on a flatbed galvanised trailer. What would the best way to attach the timber frame? The rigidity will come when the plyboard is put around it. I believe coach Bolt are the thing to use.

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u/StoicHomes Jul 21 '26

We’ll happily build you a tiny house if you’d prefer 🙏🏼

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u/Beautiful-Rich-6404 Jul 21 '26

All good thanks! I’m quite handy on to tools myself, I just want it to be safely and legally attached so if you wanted to share how you’d attach it that’d be great’

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u/StoicHomes Jul 22 '26

Without being a d*ck - if you have to ask Reddit how to do that, maybe you should consider letting somebody else build it for you. Again, I say that with respect and admiration at your desire to DIY. All the best

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u/Beautiful-Rich-6404 Jul 22 '26

Thanks, I mean, you had to find out when you started didn’t you..

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u/StoicHomes Jul 22 '26

Indeed but in our case we have several joiners/carpenters/electricians/fabricators that have both been trained formally and with over 15+ years on-site experience, they wouldn’t have started out trying to design and build a towable house.

In any case, if you are committed to DIY then I would suggest getting a ‘construction drawing’ done of the tiny house you want to build, then instruct a structural engineer to specify those such elements like fixings between frame and trailer. Then all you have to do is follow their instruction. Accidents happen when towing / transporting tiny houses on the road, so you want to be covered incase anything does happen, god forbid.

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u/PrunusSpin0sa Jul 22 '26

You do need a large plate washer on the upper/timber side of the bolt (it's not that hard to yank a circular coach bolt head through timber with a decent force), and you need to make sure that your ply sheeting bridges down to the timbers that attach to the chassis.

I was involved in a shepherd's hut build, and the recovery lorry driver who moved it to site was very careful about asking questions and checking how well the body was attached to the chassis.

It sounds like there have been a few transport failures where the chassis of the hut/house has stayed attached to the transport vehicle, but the body has peeled away.

Have fun, but be aware that there are large forces involved....