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Expanding Tiny House on Wheels with Huge Slide Outs: Expands with the Touch of a Button!


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This is a tiny house on wheels with huge slide outs by Zero Squared in Canada. It’s called the Aurora. I think these are the largest slide outs I’ve seen yet on a tiny home on wheels (and they expand at the touch of a button). What do you think? Is this something that you would want in your THOW?

The Aurora Expanding Tiny House on Wheels by Zero Squared!

Learn more: http://zerosquared.ca/

Our big thanks to Shannon Novak of ZeroSquared for sharing!

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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!
{ 12 comments… add one }
  • Michael
    October 23, 2017, 8:03 pm

    I have been always a big fan of slides and downstair Murphy bed. This one is a great example how space can be maximized.
    The R-values are impressive.
    However, I am wondering how they keep the slides watertight without any additional cover like RV’s have. Beside that I am asking myself how they guarantee air tightness over the time being.
    Beside that it appears to me that weight is kind a high for a SIP construction and I guess they are using very solid hardware for the slides.
    Anyway, overall its a great construction and for my taste reducing overall height would be optimize this THOW for permanent travel.
    Thank you

    • James D.
      October 24, 2017, 1:50 am

      What RV slide outs sometimes have is a retractable awning that helps prevent debre from landing on the slide out and getting stuck in there when it slides back in… It’s not really there to prevent water from getting in…

      Rather, all slide outs rely on gasket with rubber based sealant that slides into place when the slide out is extended but that eventually wears out and thus needs to be replaced periodically over the years, especially if you use the slide outs a lot as that ads wear and tear…

      Such sealants are similar to what are used on windows and doors to keep water out, but still allow them to be moved.

      While the weight of course should be considered for the extended out size. The slide outs means you have a larger total size and thus a greater total mass.

      Though, you are correct that the hardware is a large part of that added weight.

      Each slide out has sliding steel beam supports that it rests on and the trailer chassis not only needs room to place them but needs to be also reinforced to support the whole structure when extended and thus is much heavier than a standard trailer chassis.

      Keep in mind the trailer chassis functions as the foundation and it has to support the full weight of the structure above it and the stresses of the cantilevered slide outs, which need to be perfectly straight all the time or you can’t slide them back in…

      Then add the added materials of the slide outs, the hardware that moves them in and out, the additional wiring, and plumbing that has to move with the slide outs, etc. and it all adds up…

      This is why you usually see most RV’s with relatively small slide outs and only really expensive and beefy/heavy RV’s with the large ones…

      Though, if you want an awning you can always add one to the slide outs for added protection but they can be damaged by high winds and won’t protect the sides of the slide out…

      • Michael
        January 30, 2018, 5:17 pm

        James, I would not add an awning but put a hard side cover which covers the windows when under way.
        Looking on their pricing it seems to me a bit high when it comes to options and you can easy go above 100k which is out of range for many.

        • James D.
          January 30, 2018, 7:40 pm

          Awning I was referring to would be for protecting the slide outs and would be integrated into the slide, covering the part that actually moves in and out… Not for covering the windows…

          Agree on the price but it’s not a cheap design they’re offering…

  • October 23, 2017, 9:00 pm

    How about slide ups? Whenever I see a loft bedroom I think the ceiling is too low. A slide up would be great for those of us who are claustrophobic.

    • Alex
      October 24, 2017, 1:33 pm

      That’s a great idea!

    • James D.
      October 24, 2017, 9:15 pm

      Slide ups are a option too, though, either something you’d only see on much lighter structures like campers or normally even higher cost than slide outs for larger structures.

      Existing examples include Will Smiths custom built Travel Trailer that uses both super slide outs and whole length slide up to provide a total of 1200 sq ft, but that thing is worth $2.5 million.

      There’s also a company that does semi truck auto repairs that has a similar trailer set up to make an instant garage they can park anywhere and have set up in minutes to work on the trucks and it basically just expands to a big enough size to handle parking the truck inside.

      For affordable solutions that’s more relevant to Tiny Houses, Incredible Tiny Homes in Tennessee is experimenting with Slide Ups… They already did one for one customer that was more a proof of concept but it worked and provided about 5′ 10″ of headroom.

      The next time they do it they plan to increase that several more inches to get it closer to 7’…

      It’s not intended for everyday use but something for setting up a house on a permanent location that you plan on staying at least a few years.

      It’s basically a pneumatic jack system that can lift the whole roof section.

      There are other ways to do it as well…

  • LYNDA PERRY
    October 23, 2017, 10:07 pm

    Love the slide outs!

  • Tom Osterdock
    October 26, 2017, 1:06 am

    I liked this one when they covered it, 6 months to a year ago. Like james talked about, I am interested in a slide up of 2 ft. James pretty much talked me out of doing a slide out since the maintenance can be extensive.

    • James D.
      October 26, 2017, 8:00 pm

      2 feet is definitely do-able, that’s pretty much what ITH is planning to do, and in terms of maintenance a slide up is much easier to manage.

      It helps that you pretty much never have to worry about water leaks because the upper section will act like an umbrella and gravity ensures no water can slip under and up through the seal…

      A possible side benefit while traveling is the upper section can cover the windows on the lower section and thus shield them during a move, though, it could be harder to get into the house until after the roof is raised.

      But you can still also consider fold outs… Companies like Ten Fold Engineering are showing what could be possible with them, and it’s a lot more than just a fold out deck…

  • steve may
    June 4, 2020, 3:14 pm

    If your based in Canada why show prices in usd?

    • Natalie C. McKee
      June 5, 2020, 1:28 pm

      Tiny House Talk is an American site, so we typically post prices in USD to make it easier on the majority of our readers who are from the US.

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