This Tiny Mobile Home Is Only 27-Square-Feet — and It’s Electric
- Posted on February 10, 2012 at 1:40pm by
Liz Klimas
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We’ve brought you many stories about tiny houses and other interesting homesteads, such as a hobbit house and the world’s largest treehouse. Here’s another for the record books: a tiny, electric mobile home created by San Francisco artist Jay Nelson. Fair Companies highlights Nelson in a story showing off the 27-square-foot mobile home powered by an electric motor.
Watch Nelson explain his creation:
Nelson says that the vehicle maxes out at 20 mph but he considers it perfect for getting around town. Although he doesn’t intend to use it for long trips, he said it’s “comforting” to have vehicles with the option to sleep in. The mobile home is long enough for him to stretch out, but a bed is surprisingly not its only amenity. It also has a kitchen and loads of storage –relatively speaking.
You can sit upright in the vehicle to drive or stretch out to sleep.
Yes, that's an iPhone dock, which can be used for navigation. The steering wheel controls turning, power and breaks.
The mobile home has an oven and sink (pictured here).
Fair Companies has more on the mobile home’s construction:
He bought the PVC pipe chassis online, along with an electric motor (he discarded his initial pedal-powered design because of the San Francisco hills) and began to build the vehicle in his driveway.
To create the pod covering, he used plywood that he fiberglassed (a technique perfected while building surfboards) to create a bulbous, geometric shape. The result is a vehicle that looks like nothing else on the road, aided by the crystal-inspired multi-faceted windows.
He calls his tiny mobile home the Golden Gate and with an electric motor range of 10 miles, it can go basically anywhere within San Francisco (7 x 7 square miles) [...]
Fair Companies reports that this isn’t the only mode of transportation that Nelson has attached a bed or some semblance of a home to. He started with his Honda Civic, which he attached a sleeping compartment to the top of for when he and his girlfriend road-tripped across the country. He also built an 8-foot-long boat house from a dingy he bought off Craigslist. The top part of the boat house is removable.
Nelson built the compartment on the top of this Honda Civic for a road trip he and his girlfriend took across the country.
Boat house, which Nelson decided is too small for the ocean endeavors he would like to take.
What’s next? Nelson is going to build a camper on the back of his truck. His plan is to build a shell that slides on and off the flatbed easily to make it a camper or revert back to a work vehicle.
Concept design for the camper that would slip over the flatbed of the truck.
Even though Nelson seems to have a passion for constructing small, mobile homes, he considers them temporary. “I like coming home to a house. You know, the comforts of home.”
[H/T Treehugger]
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Comments (83)
GotLead
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:34pmThis is what you call a POS. Get a real job stupid Liberal.
Report Post »mils
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:55pmI disagree..this is in ingenuity and, I don’t recall his using any public money
Report Post »Liberal or conservative, I don’t understand why it would matter.
Zipit
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 5:51pmAh yes! The moulding of a socialist turd.
Report Post »3monkeysmomma
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 7:02pmIf he’s not using your tax dollars, then what do you care?
As long as the government isn’t forcing it on us or forcing us to pay for then it great to experiment and find market driven solutions.
Rock on, Jay!
Report Post »Armed Patriot
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 7:34pmDo what you want with your time and money. Dont really care, but does this guy remind anybody else of Jeff Spicoli??? “All I need are some tasty waves a cool buzz and I’m fine.”
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 7:55pm@ gotlead I think what you are trying to say is idiot for buying the Agenda 21 / humans are destroying theplanet so humans must be inconvenienced then destroyed indoctrination. while I applaud his ingenuity, I am alarmed by his need to come up with such a thing and then again it does illustrate our obession with things and that what kinds of stuff and how much stuff do we really need…..as youca nsee – I am torn as to how I feel or react to this
Report Post »Quiata
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 8:36pmOh, come on….he’s doing something creative, original, and fun AND WITHOUT GOVERNMENT FUNDING. I wish there were more people like him, and dogs like Johnny.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on February 11, 2012 at 9:22am@kaydeebeau
I’m torn, too. I don’t really care if someone wants to live that small, but I fear all these stories coming are are just to create a precidence that it can be done. Soon, I fear, they’ll be forcing us all to live in houses that have been subdivided to create 4 living spaces out of one. Take a 1600 sq ft house, and force 4 families to live in it.
Report Post »tlucky
Posted on February 11, 2012 at 11:43amHe will be getting public money one day. Probably stimulis money.
Report Post »LouC57
Posted on February 11, 2012 at 1:41pmThis is just stupid. Might as well go live in a “hotel” in Japan, with the cocoon claustrophobic sleeping quarters.
Report Post »last frontier
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:33pmIf Obama would have given this guy 500 million instead of Fiskers we could have all had a free boat and a motorhome, to go along with our free condoms.
Report Post »georgepatton
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:30pmEntitled: THE THINGS YOU SEE IN THE WAL-MART PARKING LOT!
Report Post »cuinsong
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:18pmI love this story! This couple is what America is all about! Follow your dreams and live life to the fullest!
Normally a story like this would have some lib telling me I need to be more green etc.
But I have no problem with this kind of creativity!
I think this song reflects the kind of spirit and love they share called “Sunny Day” http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_11314300
Report Post »GotLead
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:37pmtraveling america together and your not married is called forinacation. just saying
Report Post »moreteaplease
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:10pmThis makes the VW bus of the 60′s look like a Winnebago.
Report Post »ShyLow
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:46pmAt least he’s not spending his time on the internet trying to dupe people into beleiving that Romney,Newt and Santorum are true conservatives…I guess enough people have been duped enough already…the Crony-Capitaltist I just mentioned are going to use the Fed to keep housing prices so high that people will be forced to lived in make-shift homes…I’m thinking about getting an all-wheeldrive Chevy-Astro and living down by the river…Trick it out like The A-Team…Just me and my PS 90
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:47pmHave you checked the price of housing lately?
Report Post »ShyLow
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 5:18pmCouldn’t pay me to live in Detroit
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 7:15pmWell, I guess I’d have to agree with you there.
But seriously, there are some great deals in some great areas right now.
Report Post »THX-1138
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:24pmAs long as he‘s not getting any Tax Payer Dollars I’m cool with this. To each his own.. But when I go camping it’s usually in the woods… Just sayin…
Report Post »bassist237
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:21pmIt’s not exactly street legal…
Report Post »docvet
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:09pmWell, OK, but I kinda got used to indoor plumbing (or at least a roof over my john). Just spoiled, I guess.
Report Post »Phoneguy
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:04pmPee in the sink, drains to the street, sweet for those in san fran.
Report Post »markthespark
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:00pmThe official OWS model is powered by defecating in the gas tank in between trips to police cars…
Report Post »Progressive_Buster
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:13pmOne of the funniest things I have read on here since day 1. THANK YOU!!!
Report Post »TheVoice1
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:54pmLol !!!!!!!
Report Post »welovetheUSA
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:58pmElectric is run by coal and oil…………..our electric bill this past mont was for 400.00……..our fuel bill 600.00…………get Obama out of this white house.
Report Post »markthespark
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:58pmThis is the new Obama-energy-efficient design for Government Motors to build!
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:24pmYep! It’s called the “DOLT”.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:54pmAh, yes… the Improved 2012 Model… of the Homeless CardBroard Box!
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:27pmY’know LUKE, it kind of looks like a spit wad.
Report Post »ShyLow
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:52pmDecent hotel-room sized condos sold for $12.000 dollars or less for single people…that is what this country needs right now…I hope a good building contracter is listening…I want to emphasize buying and not renting…God’s people do not rent,they own…Rent leads to government subsidies which drive up housing costs and leads to higher taxes…Renting is modern day slavery
Report Post »ShyLow
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:55pmwhat’s that affordable housing nonsense you be talkin about ShyLow…renting 1 bedroom apartment for $1200 hundred a month is the American way…Get a 5th job and you can even get a brand-new car designed to be thrown away after five years of use
Report Post »ShyLow
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 4:08pmDon’t worry ShyLow…Someday someone with the ways&means will be setting in a cozy hotel room with all the basic essentials,and say to themselves…”You know…I could probably build this for those in need at a very reasonable price” Someday
Report Post »Buster_Highman
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 7:07pmRenting is slavery? Try moving when you’re tied down to a 15 or 30 year mortgage that is more than your place is worth. Renting is freedom outright. Never more than one year’s commitment at a time.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:51pmI just wonder how long of an extension cord it takes.
Report Post »ValdostaMRA
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:41pmNEVER SMOKE POT…you turn into him! Hey baby, wanna come back to my 27 sq ft motor home and do it…I’ll let you pee in my sink and then we can cuddle…/LOL hahaahah
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:52pmDon’t fart or you will ruin the mood..
Report Post »afishfarted
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:59pmwell now that you mention it, I’m m reminded of the episode of Beverly Hillbillies when Jethro buys a piece of crap rusted out pull behind mini-camper and tured it into his playboy pad. Took it to the beach and accidently floated away, proudly claiming it was now a houseboat.
Yeah—this is kinda like that. stupid
Report Post »Secret Squirrel
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:35pm.
He’s a “San Francisco artist.”
TRANSLATE: unemployed Obama voter.
I wonder if he makes a bullet proof version for Oakland?
Report Post »shirtsbyeric
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:54pmThe art of not working and living off of entitlements.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:29pmAnd when he’s out on the road and some texting kid crashes into him…They can bury him in it!
Report Post »VISITORNUMBER3
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:18pm“The steering wheel controls steering, power and “breaks”? Shouldn’t that be “brakes”? But then again, maybe not, ’cause this thing looks like it’s ready to “break”.
Report Post »atechgeek
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:09pmWhat a difference from the inventors of years past and today. Maybe next our kids will invent the wheel. What a shame.
Report Post »VISITORNUMBER3
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:21pmI get your point, but this guy technically didn’t invent anything. He just produced his variation of stuff that’s already been invented…
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:45pm@ATECHGEEK
That’s funny.
He should just cut a hole in floor and power that thing “Flintstone” style.
Report Post »trinity9
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:38pmNow THAT is funny– I can totally picture it. Then he can ride it directly into the ocean and flip it over onto the surfboard.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:04pmThe future mandate of Obama if he gets his way.
Report Post »Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:03pm“Gee, isn’t that quaint? NEXT?!…”
Report Post »TheObamanation
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:02pmHe might want to choose a different line of work … He’s really bad at this.
Report Post »smood8
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 1:43pmYeah so now we can all live like the rest of the world in tiny homes and they’re even green!! who needs a family when you have a green, in, home?!
Report Post »CatB
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:03pmMight as well commit a crime and go to jail .. added bennies .. 3 square and free healthcare.
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:03pmStimulus money heading his way soon.
Report Post »CCRYDER
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 2:03pmYou didn’t read the whole article – this guy doesn’t expect to live in this small space as stated:
“Even though Nelson seems to have a passion for constructing small, mobile homes, he considers them temporary. “I like coming home to a house. You know, the comforts of home.”
Not that this will be a popular form of travel when electricity rates “necessarily skyrocket” as our dictator-in-chief previously expoused back in ‘08 talking about his cap ’n trade plan. Oh yeah, don’t forget to run out and by your new, improved Chevy Volt.
Report Post »CultureWarriors
Posted on February 10, 2012 at 3:31pmThat is what you call a liberal redneck!
Report Post »