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3-in-1 Transforming and Expanding Shipping Container Shelters


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Right now I’m showing you these 3-in-1 transforming/expanding shipping container shelters designed and built by MSS.

The units are easy to ship since they’re the size of a shipping container so you can have it moved just about anywhere pretty easily.

Once you have it on site and deployed you’re able to triple the size of the unit in just a few minutes. This isn’t necessary for most of us, but I think it’s fun and worth taking a look. Watch the videos below to see how it works. Enjoy!

Expanding Shipping Container Shelters

3-in-1-transforming-expanding-shipping-container-tiny-home-01

Images © MobileShelter1/YouTube

3-in-1-transforming-expanding-shipping-container-tiny-home-02 3-in-1-transforming-expanding-shipping-container-tiny-home-03 3-in-1-transforming-expanding-shipping-container-tiny-home-04

Images © MobileShelter1/YouTube

Video: 3-in-1 Expanding Shipping Container Tiny Home

Version 2: 3-in-1 Shipping Container Shelter

Version 3: 3-in-1 Expandable Shelter

Our big thanks to Debbie Gannon for sharing this incredible 3-in-1 transforming shipping container tiny home with us!

If you enjoyed this 3-in-1 transforming shipping container tiny home you’ll absolutely LOVE our free daily tiny house newsletter with more! Thank you!

This post contains affiliate links.

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 14 comments… add one }
  • Chris
    October 17, 2014, 10:39 am

    I really like video 1, the folding shelter. Are they in production? Any for sale?

  • Marsha Cowan
    October 17, 2014, 12:03 pm

    Whoa! Maybe I’m crazy, but I like those things- well, the concept anyway. Didn’t get to see any really good shots of the insides, but the outsides looked good, and you can’t argue with the logistics of being able to travel easily with it, then set up a house three times its size when you arrive where you are going. Pretty cool! Would like to have seen how many windows they have, and to have seen close ups of the seals around all the moving parts. Is the electricity already in place? Do they have plumbing? Interesting concept…

  • Kelly Libert
    October 17, 2014, 2:05 pm

    Cool idea for those who prefer a portable home. In that vein, what kind of trailer does it require and what kind of truck to pull it? I imagine that a heavy metal shipping container filled with belongings and accoutrements weighs a whole lot more than a wood structure. For practicality purposes, it is not so portable if it requires a flatbed truck equipped with a crane.

  • Michael
    October 17, 2014, 6:37 pm

    The foldout container is best because when you would like to have more space but wanna be still mobile towing it with your own truck. You can put bathroom, kitchen and closets in the middle. The downside your furniture needs to be folded. The military version shown is quite expensive and you can’t find them second hand.
    There is a company in Texas which is building civilian ones including a trailer but they aren’t as rigid as the military ones to withstand hurricane force winds.
    I would prefer the rigid one but the price tag exceeds 65,000 dollars.

  • Dug
    October 18, 2014, 8:53 am

    Superb idea seeing as shipping containers will naturally fit securely on almost all commercial flatbed trucks available on the open market these days!! In the vein they are naturally able to be transported virtually anywhere in the world by ship (it is a “shipping container” after all 🙂 ) and then by lorry !! (if ice road truckers can take the self same shipping containers to the outer reaches of Alaska, through the roughest, coldest and harshest conditions the worlds weather can throw at us, all be it a standard non converted shipping container) then I am sure the bulk of us could ship these anywhere we choose with a little pre planning and forethought.
    As for these particular ones being military and this not available on the open market? I would suggest respectfully that that’s boulderdash frankly as ALL military equipment regardless of cost or original uses, comes up for auction at some point in its useful life cycle via storage auctions, you just have to be in the know to gain that information (the cost of an auction catalogue is all one requires on the day of said auction to legally bid upon, and thus hopefully end up owning one in “military grade, extra hurricane force trim” to take home at the end of the said auction.
    But what a superb idea as I said at the start of this post, easily replicated for either as harsh weather and obviously not so, with endless verifications inside kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms all easily build able from a wholly empty shell including first fix electrics and plumbing in virtually any position you could wish for internally by simply supplying the fitted plumbing and suitable electrics to diy fix a toilet, sink or shower too, and of course a kitchen or even a shower, steam or sauna too given a little extra thought too, as I say the end less choices could make for some pretty rad properties at the end of the day!
    And lastly they by nature of their start in life could very easily be transported many on top of each other with minimal extra security (just view the main shipping lanes in Europe and beyond where you will immediately spot lots of “ships” full of “shipping” containers likely 6 or 8 high possibly more depending on its start and finish locations making this a natural rapid ready rehousing proposition for disaster struck regions surely!!
    And more exciting than all of that IF the price could be taken back far enough to viably produce a home/diy version we could possibly start seeing these units on holiday parks or odd scraps of land the world over in areas of natural beauty or spectacular sports or such locations simply for their size and shrink abilities whereby when the holiday or extended vacation is over they are simply packed back up and either taken back with the owners or better still packed back up and either easily stored one on top of another until again wanted but as a worse case scenario packed back up 100% secure from break in or vandalising which would make it to the average holiday home owners worth a sabstaintial sum over the top of what an equivalent sized property is currently worth.
    Without thinking about it, I can see numerous markets for such a property even just up here in the Highlands of Scotland for holiday or the native dwellers seeking safe, secure comfortable homes a winner all round at the right price I would hasten to add and one that would interest me if affordable I am sure of that much, saving years and years of expense, costs and ongoing repairs.
    Bravo to its designers now let’s just have a mass market affordable version please

  • joe
    October 18, 2014, 10:27 am

    These look good but moving them isn’t something you do on a regular bases. We use them for storage on the farm and it takes a lot to get them where you want them. Its not somthing a tipical TH owner could do themselses. The highway truck and crane will desimate the landscape for a few seasons after placing it and the cost is significant. As a perminant placement it might be ok but it appears to have little insuation so hear in the north of Canada it is good for hehaps three or four months of the year. So its a novelty at best, hard to heat, cool and difficult to move unless your the government. But well worth seeing as a semi perminant opption. Thanks

  • Gaz
    October 19, 2014, 1:37 am

    I was living in one of these nearly twenty years ago. They were also common in the post 1982 Falklands I belive. Made by a firm called Corimec (http://www.corimec.com/inglese/corimec.htm).

  • danny
    November 28, 2014, 11:56 pm

    im thinking make one out of wood maybe or atleast just add a wood inner frame for insulation . its nice if your not moving around much because if you ever need to move it you can. but unlike a trailer it can sit easily for a bit

  • Lisa E.
    December 29, 2014, 3:37 pm

    Interesting concept. I would have liked to see the inside. I also wonder about insulation. This might be nice in a place like Hawaii, but what is it like in northern Minnesota in the dead of winter? (Would those moving parts still move? Would you be freezing like crazy for lack of insulation?) Also, someone mentioned a $65,000.00 price tag. For that kind of money I could have a rocking wood THOW with all the trimmings (under-counter dishwasher.)

  • January 3, 2015, 3:49 pm

    Check out our homes they are patented, we offer the first code compliant slide out home, And by the way the swing arms and braces used on the lighter colored container are an infringement on our patents. Ecobuilthomes.com

    • Alex
      January 3, 2015, 4:31 pm

      Wow. nice!

  • michael
    January 7, 2015, 4:45 pm

    Love it. Reminds me of the U.S. Army portable operating room. I sooooo want one for a little but tuff as nails home.

  • Camy
    November 12, 2016, 11:33 am

    Don’t let us in dark. Please, tell us if it is for sale and how much it cost.
    Thank you!
    Camy

    • Natalie
      November 14, 2016, 11:54 am

      Hi Camy, I don’t think it’s for sale. Just a concept right now. — Tiny House on Wheels

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