A Florida Man Turned A Car Hauler Trailer Into A Camper That Looks Like A Giant Wine Barrel

The modern RV is usually a snoozefest. You get a giant white box doing its best 2.5-star hotel impression, but it doesn’t have to be that way. A Florida man wants to sell you something different. He wants you to sleep in a giant wine barrel. This is the EcoBarrel House, and it started life as a humble car hauler before being turned into a camper that Donkey Kong would toss.

Weirdly, I stumbled upon this creation while looking for something that wasn’t even related to campers or tiny houses. I’ve gotten so desperate to find a Smart Fortwo Cabriolet with a clean red interior, working roof, and silver safety cell that I’m searching across America. I haven’t found the car, but I did find this wheeled barrel of a camper. This thing follows my idea that the best RVs are ones that stand out in a pack. If you’re going to give up sleeping in a hotel, at least have some fun.

The EcoBarrel House, which is currently in prototype form, is what you see for sale today in Sarasota, Florida. Its builder is looking to get $30,400 for it. Let’s see what you’d be getting!

A Neat Build

The EcoBarrel House is a creation of EcoBarrel House LLC, a company started by Radu Lungu in late 2022. The story of EcoBarrel House is thus far a short one. Lungu’s mission is to design and then build strange and weird vehicles that could be used either as campers or put down on a plot of land and be used as tiny houses. He brings on the help of his friends, including an experienced welder he calls Albino.

If you look closely enough, you can see the EcoBarrel House’s origins. Your eyes don’t deceive you. Under all of that wood sits a steel car hauler trailer with a dovetail. Here’s what it looked like Lungu picked it up:

Starting with the bones of the car trailer, Lungu’s welder started the concept build by welding steel wall supports into the trailer. Then, he added additional steel stringers. This basic structure was then covered in Tyvek HomeWrap, a non-woven, breathable material said to aid in insulation while also limiting air and water intrusion.

While using Tyvek seems to be an odd choice, it’s commonly used during the restorations of vintage campers.

With the structure in place, Lungu began covering the outside of the trailer with wood planks. He doesn’t say exactly what planks are used here or how they are affixed. Looking through the build pictures, it appears Lungu has created a sort of wood and structure sandwich for the wall panels. There are planks outside, an inner plywood structure, metal stringers, a block of foam insulation, and more wood planks for the interior.

There isn’t much to the interior. Lungu added a dry bar, a stainless steel sink, a faucet for the sink that can also be used as a shower head, and a composting toilet. The sink gets its water from a 5-gallon tank which is pulled by a 12V pump. Water then drains into a different 5-gallon tank. The trailer does have ceiling lights as well as a kitchen light, but these appear to be 12V as well. Lungu does not say if there’s any 110V power onboard.

The rest of the trailer is pretty barren and features a wood floor and a futon, but not much else. To me, that’s fine! This looks like a fun blank canvas for someone to finish out into a camper unlike anything else. Lungu says the trailer is under 3,000 pounds and measures 16 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 10 feet tall. So, there’s a lot of room to play around with this trailer! With that said, there are a few issues I want to point out.

Looking Closely

 

The first issue I see is that the quality isn’t totally there. Lungu and his friends built a really cool custom swinging door for the unit. But the door’s mechanisms are exposed and the door itself is sealed with a single piece of weatherstripping that’s already falling off.

While you’re staring at that failing foam, you’ll also notice that the thin floors were sort of just laid down without any securement or form-fitting cuts. So, the floor panels are lifting and look a little sloppy on the edges. Before we move inside, I will also note that because this trailer started life as a car hauler, there are no stabilizer jacks to be seen. I also hope the body support metal was reinforced.

Inside, there are a few choices that stand out. There is a privacy curtain for the combination kitchen and bathroom, but the curtain covers only half of the viewable area. The sink’s faucet may also be used as a shower head, but there’s nowhere for the water to go. It’s also important to note that there is no real ventilation in this trailer, so you’ll need to open those portholes and have at least a fan pushing or pulling air through the trailer.

It may sound like I’m being harsh to Lungu’s work, and I may be. However, I am willing to cut the build some slack since this is the first prototype from someone with a dream and some building skills. I bet subsequent iterations will be better. Lungu says he’s already working on improvements.

However, those trailers do not exist yet. So, what you see is what you’re getting with the EcoBarrel House prototype. It’s a car trailer that now looks like one of the barrels I saw at a winery recently. The next question is if all of this custom work is worth $30,400? I’m not sure about that price, and this wasn’t even the original price. The trailer was posted weeks ago at $34,700. That said, I’m sure Lungu will eventually find a buyer for a price he’ll find acceptable.

I think this can be a really fun blank canvas to turn into something even greater. Maybe install a discrete air-conditioner and add full plumbing plus a real electrical system. Maybe lean in further on the barrel idea and put Donkey Kong on the roof. I’d love to see bigger windows, too, because nothing beats an airy feeling inside of a trailer. When you’re done, you get to say you sleep inside of a giant barrel, which sounds like my kind of silly.

(Images: EcoBarrel House LLC)