A fresh new look

As we are getting closer to our official launch of Custom Travel Homes, we wanted to update our prototype to have more the fit and finish of the production units. The teak siding had been amazing, but as with any wood, exposing it to the range of temperatures, humidity, and weather, took its tool. It was just not as tight as it once was. Also, teak is not the lightest of wood species.

As you can see in the picture below, the front of the gooseneck is quite exposed with the AC, storage bins, propane tanks, and I-beams all visible. You can also see the conduit for the solar wires coming down from the roof. We wanted to make that more seamless.

For those of you that visited us in person, you also know that the deck is a key feature of the design and it was admittedly a bit labor intensive to take out. This meant we did not do so as often as we would want. Thus, another priority in this refresh.

First of all, the siding was changed to aluminum through out. Extruded, with a wood texture finish and look, combined with a solid black. We used horizontal orientation for the wood and vertical for the black. Why aluminum? Light weight, strong, and lifetime use without maintenance. And the look is stunning. We got a lot of comments before, but the new sleek look is really turning heads. As you can see we wrapped the front beam as well as incorporated the solar wiring underneath the siding.

To cover the front jacks, we added doors so that we could easily access the hydraulics. We then added a large storage area, enclosing the A/C and propane tanks. The doors are sliders making it easy to open even when we are connected.

For the deck, we welded the entire deck structures into two large sections (they were previously each in sections to make it easier to handle). We added rollers to the brackets underneath and engineered a scissor lifts on wheels and custom made brackets to hold them securely. This resulted in us being able to simply roll out the entire deck, elevate into place. When then have fold down legs that come down to hold them. After putting up one section, we simply move the scissor jacks to the other deck and repeat. It can now be done by one person in minutes - game changer.