trailer travails

TRAILER TRAVAILS


Okay, lucky for Creekmore, I was finally able to steal an idea off of him. It had been awhile and he was in danger of being put on the “NOT helping a brother out” list, a list that I’m sure you’ll agree you do not want to be on. I like Creekmore myself, an affable fellow, so it would have pained me to add him to the list. But if forced to, I would have. Hey, I don’t make the rules around here. He was moving to a better location, but thinking about getting another domicile. A mobile home or a cabin. This definitely makes my ass chap, because here is yet another travel trailer pioneer “trading up”. Remember the fellow who wrote the $5k trailer homestead book? In the second edition he had moved to a mobile home from his trailer. A mobile home is just a fake house. Not bad, a good alternative to renting an apartment. But once you are in a travel trailer, it seems silly to go to a mobile home. You are trading a sturdy shoe box for a rickety carton, as it were. Of course, there was also the cabin option. I wonder if the girlfriend is moving in and demanded a “real” house.

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This article isn’t about Creekmore and his becoming henpecked. I mean, sure, I’m a bit jealous, but once I start focusing on other people then I’m not as important. No, this is about “trading up” housing and getting yourself in trouble in the future. And, yes, before you go there, I’ll most likely be going to the underground cabin. Not because I don’t like living in a travel trailer, but because I can’t afford to shore up and roof over the trailer, it’s too darn long. I’m moving to a smaller dwelling to remove the heating issue from our Oil Down future. I’m not moving to a larger unit and sacrificing something in the process. Having the option of moving in the future might not be much of an option for most of us. So, while the travel trailer is easily moveable and the mobile home is not, that is only a secondary consideration. Primarily, since the travel trailer is made to move, it is far better quality than a mobile and much cheaper used. But, even more importantly, why move out of a trailer and spend money doing so? All you are doing is buying more interior storage for worthless crap. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy outside storage instead?

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I’ve moved out of trailers a time or two to satisfy the old ball and chain, and eventually moved back to another trailer. A lot of money wasted in the process. Again, I’m not concerned with Creekmore and his specific situation. I’m just pointing out a travel trailer is underappreciated as the house of the future. Don’t get rid of it, move into it. A trailer is perfect for off grid living. The 12v is already installed. You have holding tanks for water and sewer. It uses far less heat to warm, energy to pull, electricity to light, and requires no furniture to buy. It is the off grid home, where all of us will be soon. And it is frugal, where all of us will be forced soon. When you get rid of the travel trailer, a half-way step towards leaving the Oil Age, you are complicating living through grid down tomorrow. Granted, a 12v cabin is better insulated and energy efficient. Hell, most things are more energy efficient than a travel trailer. They really are only suitable for mild weather. Here, I’m talking about moving from a trailer back into town. Back to rentals. Because a trailer was cramped or the wife insisted. If you are already on your own land, of course you build a real house. But if you will lose a town home or a rental unit, the trailer will save your butt. If you can’t move out to land now and build, have that trailer ready to live in somewhere.

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Once you build a real house, after living in that trailer, keep hold of it. When company comes, weeping and crying that they are fat selfish worthless marshmallows and wasted thousands on cell phone bills instead of buying a few hundred worth of storage food, you can put them up in that cold ass trailer. I mean, sure, throw them a few wool blankets. You’re not a total heartless bastard. But they can stay huddled in bed 18 hours a day staying warm while you lounge around in a passive solar cabin. Any trouble, and in the stew pot they go. How did you like that Prius, bitch!? Also, since the Baby Boomer retirement coupled with the Katrina emergency housing acquisition debacle, trailers are damn expensive anymore. The market saw its chance to rape the customers, and did so. Which means that as the economy slows, far less trailers are made and sold. In the near future they will be worth more since more folks will be too poor to live in “real” houses. I don’t see the new trailer market being viable as the middle class shrinks. When a former two income family goes to one half income, even the smaller trailers at $18k are way too expensive. And, don’t forget to factor in the dearth of consumer credit.

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Heck, I have plenty of neighbors who might even be planning to become used trailer salesmen in the near future. The lots around me are lousy with used ones. Either that or they were meant for extended family from Mexico ( back when there were jobs for them ). My guess is that these folks are smarter than most of us gringos. They know what will sell for a premium in tough economic times. Do you? Are you sitting pretty right now, looking down your nose at trailer trash from your expensive apartment? That stupid redneck will be much better off than your Yuppie self very soon.

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