How Portable is a Tiny Home? Our CO to NY Adventure

We are asked this question often. . . how portable is a tiny home? Or. how portable is YOUR tiny home? Well. . . it took us a while to write this post for many reasons. But mainly, we put the portability of our tiny home to the test by driving it across the country from Colorado to upstate New York at the end of May/beginning of June. Here is how it went:

Our intended route from CO to NY with stops at Wally Worlds across the US. Why Wally World? Free overnight parking.

After a late night of trying to get the tires back on and a rainy week in CO, we ended up with a muddy mess.

The interior of our tiny house secured for the big move. Almost all of the cabinet handles were designed to fasten with a rubber band.

After a tow out of the field, we were on our way.

About 100 miles east of Fort Collins, we had our first setback. Somehow we had the unbelievable fortune of breaking down in the driveway of an older gentleman’s ranch in rural Colorado who happened to have a “tire rack” and all of the equipment to change a tire. After a few hours, we were back on the road.

Welcome to North Platte Nebraska! We stayed for the night and planned to get on the road the next day. Sadly, we had more tire issues. Dondi searched around and found a used set but it was Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and all of the tire shops were closed ’til Tuesday.

We decided to enjoy Memorial Day weekend since we were “stranded” in North Platte, NE. We found a beautiful lake a few miles away and spent some time relaxing in the sunshine.

Good Year opened early Tuesday morning, put our tires on, and we were off on the road headed east.

On the road in eastern Nebraska. After another pit stop in western Illinois for a set of new tires, we were back on the open road. We “cruised” at a speed of 40 to 55 miles per hour the whole way to New York.

Just when we thought things were going well, we hit a 4 foot wide pot hole in Chicago and broke a shackle on the trailer frame. Bummer! We found a local auto body shop that welded the shackle back onto the frame and we were back on the road.

Six days later. . . we finally made it to NY but we were not home yet!

The final straw. We made it 35 miles from Ithaca and broke down in the Lows parking lot. They were kind enough to let us stay for the night until the next day when we found a shop to fix another shackle and a bent axle. NY roads sure took a beating last winter and did a number on our trailer!

We finally made it to our new house in Ithaca. Because the ground was wet from all the rain, we didn’t make it far.

One last attempt to pull the tiny home to the back of the property with three pull vehicles. Needless to say, it didn’t work. We made it as far as the front lawn and that is where the tiny home stayed for the night.

Luckily Dondi’s dad showed up with his tractor!

The tractor worked like a charm to pull the tiny house back to its spot on our new property.

Seven days after our departure from Fort Collins, our tiny house was safe and sound at its new location in upstate New York. To Erin (33 weeks pregnant) the trip was a bit of a nightmare. To Dondi, it was an adventure with a new challenge at every turn. Now that we’ve had a bit of time to reflect on our “adventure” we have very different memories but nevertheless, it was an adventure. What did we learn from the experience? Add a 3rd trailer axle for a long haul with a tiny home and definitely put NEW tires on the trailer before the trip! Until next time, Erin & Dondi