After a bit of gentle persuasion on Kayak23’s very impressive shed post, I’ll share a bit of my latest project…

I finished off a shepherd’s hut that I bought as a shell last year and have been renting it on AirBnB. It’s been great and I thought I’d build another that could act as a sister-hut if more than one couple wanted to stay, but also be big enough to sleep my family (of 5) should we want to take it away somewhere – local music festivals and the like. As such it needed to be roadworthy, towable by truck and ideally have a porch and use the same off-grid 12V solar setup as I put into the shepherd’s hut.

Before this I’ve built a chicken house, bird box and put up a basic shed for lambing. My grandfather was a carpenter/coachbuilder by trade so I’ve seen photos of stuff being built, but that’s about it.

[/url]20160809_163623 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

Base built on a 27′ caravan chassis from a caravan breaker in Blaenavon. 4mm ply (marine for the bottom), treated and given 2 coats of Flexacryl where it contacts the chassis. 2×2 and 4×2 timber, insulated with earthwool and 4mm ply on top. Coach bolted to the chassis.

[/url]20160814_141444 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

Laminated strips of 4mm ply to make the curve for the front of the van to be clad in galvanised pig arc sheets.

[/url]20160823_175054 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

Realised that the chassis slopes away from the axles, front and rear – hence not much looking square. Calculating lengths for the walls to ensure a consistent pitch on the roof was a little harder than anticipated too!

[/url]20160831_110649 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

5 years ago we felled a large oak, some of this was cut into 3″ posts for the veranda frame. Deck is standard treated decking boards.

[/url]20161026_121558 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

Getting the pig arc sheets onto the front was a bit tricky – pulling it in tight step by step using bolts of decreasing length (as all the long ones seem to have too long an unthreaded shaft to pull it in all the way in one go). The joins in the ply have been covered with the off-cuts of larch left from running the floorboards through a band saw (again a tree felled on the farm). I looked everywhere for windows before finally deciding to build my own. Bought a £100 table saw from Screwfix and made them up as I went along. The saw has without doubt been the best tool I’ve ever bought!

[/url]20161112_161815 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

More larch boards (rough cut this time) used for the end wall. Cheap pine stable door off ebay (again I checked reclamation yards but the stable doors were silly money round here).

I’ll post up some interior photos and more up-to-date externals after the weekend. With any luck it’ll be out of the shed and into the daylight.

Looking forward to the next instalment Mate – that looks like a cracking project.

Excellent homemade ‘glulam’ there.

Tiny House addict 🙂

Had to google Glulam, learn something new (or at least a new name for something!) everyday. The tiny house thing is ace, yeah, friend of mine pointed me at pintrest – so many fantastic builds on there, plenty of inspiration even for non-craftsman types like me.

love threads like these…..

excellent work mate.

Fantastic stuff. Love the pig arc clad.
Looking forward to more pics.
🙂

Wow! Takes all these camper conversion threads on here to a whole new level. Fancy making me a Winebago when you’re finished? 😉

That’s… well… remarkable ! Sheesh..

Love it.

Do you follow handmade Matt’s blog at all ? I love his homebuilt camper. The Mrs isn’t so keen on me turning the landy into a shed on wheels…….

You have piqued my interest. More please!

Fantastic looking caravan you’re building 😉 love it!
What was your thinking behind putting a veranda/deck on it instead of using the area for inside living space?

Thanks all, Roter-Stern – I’m attempting to go part-time at work to give me some more time for children/home/ projects/custom builds if there is interest after this one.

Mitsumonkey – As I’ll be using it for AirBnB rental for the majority of the time I wanted something that could be moved quickly and easily so the veranda needed to be attached. I didn’t want it overhanging the chassis for towing purposes and it also gives us a nice place to chill out once the kids are in bed if we take it away somewhere. Nothing beats sitting on the porch out of the rain on a summer evening in Wales

Trail Rat – I don’t do any blog following, but I’ll check it out, thanks.

Great thread. I’d like to see your shepherd’s hut build. I’ve got a 14 foot Ifor Williams trailer that’s just about toast, I thought it would make a good foundation for a shepherd’s hut.

I’m likely to be spending tomorrow fixing the tin on my Dad‘s shepherd’s hut project, built off a 14ft bateson flatbed trailer (that was far too good to bastardise) so he can tow it and stay in it overnight at stream rallies and the like, and use as a sirt of exhibition unit for his various vintage tack.

I’ll try and get some photos too!

The shepherd’s hut is fairly simple. Double bed, Camping gas stove, sink to a soak-away (no running water), small cupboard for hanging a few items, wood burner and a small leaf table. I wanted to keep it as open as possible to make it feel more spacious. It’s really just for friends to stay in when visiting and let on AirBnB,

Originally had a 240V setup via solar panels and invertor but I’ve switched to 12V LED lighting with just a USB charging socket (I’ve put the same in the new caravan). Just the one leisure battery but it’ll give plenty of light and phone charges.

[/url]DSC_0630 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

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The new hut has a very similar interior, smaller sink and stove, fixed table (due to it being towed more often) and enough space for some small benches over the wheel arches to give some seating near the wood burner. I’ll get some photos of that up after the weekend when it should be all finished.

Work in progress, don’t mean to hijack but thought some might be interested:

Interesting take on the classic Shepherd’s hut, a friend of mine has two original ones that have been upgraded, one has the date 1881 on the chassis, IIRC, it’s used by guests at her hotel when she’s particularly busy, the other by staff in order to allow guests to stay in the main building. Guests love them.

Looking good, how wide is that going to be? I thought about making one on an old tipper trailer that is lying around but quickly realised it’d end up being a bit high. Wouldn’t need to sweep the floor though – just tip it all straight out!

I am guessing the floor really inst 4mm ply? long bolts with threadless sections are shouldered bolts. Could you not have ratchet strapped the radius wood down over a week? cranking the ratched every few days as the wood accepts its new curve ?
I think wood is steamed to make this process quicker and easier by the pros. I converted a chicken shed into a cold store, well its an ongoing project ,and I found its mostly about having the right tools and materials for the job. Trying to cut 4 x 4 posts absolutely square wuth a hand saw isnt easy.
I hope you have Co and smoke alarms in the shepherds hut,I would like to stay in there in the snow for a weekend. Bet its toasty with the burner on. Be a good place to find some calm away from the daily hustle and bustle. Great work, I am impressed.

@CZ Trailer is 6′ 6″, plan currently is for a bed across the front, should just scrape a 6′ mattress in. I’d personally go the other way as I’m 6′ and like to stretch out, I’d probably make it folding/freestanding so it saves space or can go in either position.

Frame will have 50mm kingspan in it then pine boarding internally. Floor to have 25mm kingspan on top of trailer bed with pine over also.

Trying to persuade him to get a stove for some sense of authenticity.

Thinking about lighting, perhaps tilley lamps converted to 12v led, thoughts?

Wow, that shepherds Hut looks amazing. There are some seriously talented individuals on this forum.

The base of the caravan hut is a mix of 4×2 and 2×2 with 4mm ply skins (all treated and given a couple of coats of Flexacryl). I’ve then used larch boards as a floor on top of that so it’s pretty substantial (far more than the 3mm and 1 3/4″ base of the caravan I ripped up (and that only had lino on top).

I did think about steaming but after speaking to my grandfather and a friend who used to make lots of curved surrounds for sound systems, he said that he’d laminate it for the radius I needed. There was no noticeable springback when removed from the clamps, unlike steaming (so I’m told – I’ve never done it).

Yes, CO and smoke detectors in both the shepherd’s hut and caravan.

12V is pretty hassle free _ I’ve set up a few LED downlighters (bought from 12V planet) in the hut as there isn’t a great deal of headroom. They run off a leisure battery and 100W solar panel seems to keep them topped up nicely throughout the year). After that I’ve bought a few hurricane lanterns for outside use.

Those shepherds huts are amazing. I especially liked the distressed tin on Core’s. Rummages around the shed for thinking cap.

Got the corner jacks up and hitched it to the truck for the first time today. I’ll admit to being slightly nervous of the weight distribution but it all turned out ok. Due to it’s length it doesn’t cope too well with inclines or dips – but no caravan this size does really.

This is me fitting the chimney flue (as the shed door was a bit too low to fit it fully inside).

[/url]DSC_2723 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

Oh and the rope is there as the wind kept blowing my ladder over!

A few interior ones of the caravan as promised…

[/url]DSCF5294 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

The steel worktop will be for the camping gas twin burner to sit on. Think I’ll put some hooks on the wall for the fire companion set rather than the stand. Just need to give mum the dimensions for the curtains now.

[/url]DSCF5295 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

Oak for the shelf and bed side, larch floor and trim. Used an old climbing rope to cover the small gap between wall and ceiling.

[/url]DSCF5292 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

More climbing rope to edge the hearth, faithful dog and first of many fires. Treated myself to some wire baskets from Homebase for bit of storage.

Excellent work that man! Incidentaly do you need to have special certificates to take that on the road?

I asked a trailer test driving instructor and he said that all was fine so long as not exceeding maximum weight chassis was designed for and a light board is displayed.

Wow! That looks amazing! Perfect retreat from modern life!

singletrackmind – Member
long bolts with threadless sections are shouldered bolts.

All bolts over a certain length have an unthreaded portion.

Like this:

Shoulder bolts have a specific shouldered portion normally machined to a fairly high tolerance, with a shorter threaded end. You can often specify the diameter and length of the shouldered portion – somewhere like Misumi will do you exactly what you need to the nearest 0.1mm

Like this:

Heh

I actually live in something not too dissimilar to the interior of Neil’s build. It’s humble but quick to heat up in the colder months.

Excellent projects, guys. Keep the pics coming.

mcmoonter – tin is obviously used, Dad got it from a sale, we’re a few sheets short though as he went halves with his mate and he used more to repair his barn than anticipated…….

Luckily one of the biggest profiled sheeting firms in the country are local so sourced new for roof, though it will get distressed before fitting (t wash & black paint). Sheets will be tec screwed on rather than nailed as won’t be seen and more important to be waterproof than side sheeting, which is well fixed nonetheless.

Main sheets on sides may jut get tidied up a bit, but will leave original as much as possible.

Reckon it’ll look ok behind this mcmoonter?

Perhaps we need a STW Little Grey Fergie owners club.

Here’s mine out scrumping apples.

[/url]20161113_114019 by neil.d.cox, on Flickr[/img]

I’ll get a pic of my other one 😀

@neilc
Do you have ventilation for the camping stove (apart from the door and windows)?
(CO detectors alone might be a risk?)

Yes, the huts have vents.