Tiny houses come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are truly tiny, coming in at less than 100 ft.² others are quite large, pushing the limits of the flexibility of the word tiny! Many tiny houses are built in the traditional way; on a foundation, like any other house.
Others are built on trailers with wheels for much greater mobility. One particular style of mobile tiny home that many perspective dwellers might find attractive and useful is the gooseneck tiny house. But what does this kind of house look like, and what does it provide in terms of specific benefits for its residents? Importantly, are there any serious drawbacks to this style of tiny home?
What is a Gooseneck Tiny House?
A gooseneck tiny house is a very specific type of tiny house design that is based on a different type of trailer than most tiny houses normally use. Gooseneck tiny houses tend to be longer than most other tiny houses, as well as featuring increased storage space.
A gooseneck tiny house can still be designed in a variety of architectural styles just like any other tiny house. The “front” door will almost always be located on the side of the trailer, like a normal RV entrance door, but it is still just as possible to get creative with “front porch” designs built into the back end of the trailer.
Gooseneck tiny homes built by licensed manufacturers can receive RVIA certification, which means they are permitted to travel on public roads, and that they will be accepted in most campgrounds and RV parks. That’s because for legal purposes, with that certification, they are recreational vehicles. They just happen to be RV’s with wood or metal siding architecture!
It’s possible to build a gooseneck tiny home without getting RVIA certification, but all the usual caveats apply. Doing that precludes the possibility of travelling with it very often, if at all, and generally only allows it to be an off-grid retreat that still must conform to building codes.
In that case, it’s worth questioning whether you actually need to build your tiny home on a trailer in the first place. Building a home on a foundation, while being obviously less mobile, provides far more latitude for customization.
That said, on the inside, a gooseneck tiny home can contain all the amenities of any other tiny home. That includes beds, appliances, heating and water systems, lighting, and an abundance of storage space. In fact, as noted above, a gooseneck home often has even more capacity for storage space than most other types of mobile tiny home.
The reason these kinds of homes can provide that particular benefit has to do with the nature of the gooseneck trailer itself.
What is a Gooseneck Trailer?
A gooseneck trailer is one that hitches to its towing vehicle from above, rather than with a purely horizontal hitch at the back bumper, on the same plane as the rest of the trailer. What this alternative configuration usually means is that the hitch is in the bed of a pickup truck.
This arrangement results in the trailer having a particular shape and structure, from which it gets its name. At the front corners of the trailer bed, large steel supports rise a few feet upward. They connect to steel beams that arc towards each other, over the gate of the truck, and back downward to where they in turn connect and end in the hitch. Additional triangular supports and cross bracing strengthen all the connections.
The result is a trailer that ends up looking like a goose with its neck arching forward.
What are the Benefits of a Gooseneck Trailer?
Considering that it would be much simpler to manufacture a simple flatbed trailer with a hitch right in front of it, there’s a very good reason to go to the trouble of designing and building a complex trailer like this. It mostly has to do with the fully connected vehicle’s stability.
You see, a gooseneck trailer’s connecting hitch point is a ball installed in the bed of the truck, directly above or in front of the truck’s rear axle. This arrangement moves the trailer’s center of gravity forward, closer to or even within the bed of the truck itself.
The resulting vehicle is far more stable and maneuverable than more traditional trailers. By moving that center of gravity forward, the vehicle is much less likely to sway, jacknife, or tip over in the wind or in a sudden turn.
This means that a gooseneck trailer can safely support much heavier loads than most other types of trailers. For tiny house owners, that means a bigger and more spacious tiny house with more room for appliances that you’d otherwise have to do without, or additional living space for more people. Gooseneck trailers can thus be an excellent foundation for a tiny family home.
What are the Benefits of Owning a Gooseneck Tiny House?
In addition to the benefits of the trailer itself, building a gooseneck tiny house comes with a slew of convenient living advantages.
The main benefit is that the trailer’s gooseneck extension provides a significant amount of additional buildable living space compared to standard trailers. The goose neck extends forward as far as eight feet over the bed of the towing truck, adding seven feet of buildable space.
The potential uses for that space are open to the imagination. Most often, it ends up being used as a loft bedroom with significantly more headroom than you’d find in your typical tiny house. It can also sometimes be used for home office space, or additional storage room, and many other possibilities.
Because it sits above the goose neck of the trailer, that space generally sits two to four feet above the main level of the tiny house’s floor. That means you may usually need only a few steps to be able to access it comfortably, rather than the ladder options common to smaller tiny homes. The steps in question would usually double as additional storage space.
Whatever design option you end up choosing to put in such a space, the key advantage is always the fact that it doesn’t take up space elsewhere in the house. That means you can enjoy more headroom or an entire free room, which could mean having two whole bedrooms in a single tiny house, or just additional amenities, like room for laundry machines or a full-size refrigerator.
This reminds us that one of the other important benefits of the gooseneck design is the fact that, as mentioned before, it can safely carry a great deal more weight than other designs can. It owes this benefit to its increased stability and maneuverability. With a lower center of gravity, there’s less risk of the trailer tipping over, even when it’s carrying more heavy stuff.
For you, the tiny home owner, that may not mean just having more appliances. The home can be customized according to your particular needs. Perhaps you need more workshop space and storage for a hobby you’re passionate about. Maybe you need an office from which you can work remotely. The sky’s the limit!
Another important design possibility is the common strategy that owners can employ of housing their tiny home’s utilities, such as propane tanks and water heaters, in the gooseneck section of the trailer. Most often, these are housed on the exterior of that same section, for easy maintenance.
Tiny homes that feature this utilitarian design choice can often still leave plenty of room for a bedroom in the interior of the same section, though. The tanks and other components are still partially shielded from the elements, both by the gooseneck overhang itself, and by the triangular steel support struts holding it up. There’s very little risk of damage, though this option may not be best in colder climate zones.
Overall, this combination of benefits means that a gooseneck tiny house will often provide its owners with some of the largest and most potentially luxurious mobile living spaces. They make it easier to carry around more space for more people, and more of their most essential belongings.
What are the Drawbacks that a Gooseneck Tiny House Brings?
Although a gooseneck trailer makes for a much more technically maneuverable tiny house, that doesn’t mean that it’s actually easier to get around. The increased length compared to most other trailers means that it can actually be substantially more difficult to actually angle it into place when parking. If you have ever seen a truck driver maneuver a semi trailer into a loading dock, then you more or less have the picture. It can be… tricky.
And speaking of parking, that increased length alone is enough to sharply reduce your available options. Parking a tiny house on a residential street can be dicey enough, given local ordinances, but even in the most permissive jurisdictions, you’ll have a hard time parking something that big on the street for the long term.
Likewise, many RV parks may not even have enough room to allow a trailer of that size to park at all, to say nothing of staying put for the long term. You’ll almost certainly have to have your own land to park your home on in the long run.
Quite possibly the biggest drawback of all is that because of the sheer size increase compared to other types of mobile tiny houses, a gooseneck tiny house is substantially heavier by default, and especially so when it’s filled with additional amenities that take advantage of its greater stability.
A gooseneck tiny house must be towed by a much more powerful vehicle than an ordinary tiny house. By design, SUVs of any sort are already ruled out, since the gooseneck hitch has to attach in the bed of a pickup truck or behind a semi tractor. And indeed, many types of smaller pickup trucks just won’t cut it. You will have no choice but to use a truck that can haul as much as eleven tons of weight behind it, or more, as many gooseneck tiny houses weigh in around 21,000 pounds.
All of this adds up to much greater costs, as well. Besides the vehicle, the house itself will often command a premium of $10,000 or more over other designs.
How Do You Know if a Gooseneck Tiny House is Right for You?
Gooseneck tiny houses generally provide the most room for creativity of any type of tiny house on wheels. They also come with some of the greatest constraints. To know if it’s the right design for you, you’ll have to keep in mind these key considerations.
Do you need the additional space or weight capacity, or can you get by just as well with less?
Do you have the means to procure an adequate towing vehicle to move the finished home?
Is it essential that your home be mobile, or would you be happier with a design built on a foundation?
Depending on your answers, a gooseneck design may or may not be the best option for your tiny home plans. Rest assured, though, that if it is, you will be able to design or have built a home that provides all the comforts and joys of any other tiny house, and then some!