My cousin bought a cargo trailer and set it up as you are thinking. One major issue is the trailers are metal which conducts heat/cold well so their trailer gets really cold in the night, not any better than a tent. Your going to have to insulate it well.
The other issue is the maintenance and storage of a trailer. Do you have a place to store it, if your in a city chances are you can't in your yard so it will have to go in storage. You also may need to worry about dry rot on the tires, rust on the brakes, winterizing the plumbing, etc. Then there is the state licensing fees and such.
I picked up an old truck camper for $600 and am rebuilding it. The popup top makes it small enough to fit in my garage where I keep it plugged in and ready to go. In most states a truck camper doesn't need licensed since its 'cargo' and since no tires or anything there isn't any maintenance like a trailer.

I think a trailer that your family could live in for awhile is a great idea. That purpose was not what I was setting out for when I got my teardrop trailer, my purpose was camping, but I'm mindful of its utility in a crisis.

Mine is kept in storage well outside the city, near the mountains where we frequently camp (and upwind of DC). It's permanently packed with everything except food and water. Clothes, jackets, gloves, hats, etc. are in the teardrop all year.

R-11 insulation makes it toasty with no heater into the 30s. Zero-degree sleeping bags are key if it dips below that.

Here's a terrific resource if you're interested in building a teardrop or small "standie" trailer, buying, or converting a cargo trailer to your needs.

A lot of folks have solar setups. You can find a lot of info on that at this link, as well.

http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/index.php

Here's the cargo trailer conversion section of the forum:

http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=42&sid=84767606bb2c3022b9533f4a60c6b0d0

Cheap rv living link to a site for people who do low profile trailer living all the time.

Dagny,

That's a sweet looking setup. Did you use a body shop to get the paint on the trailer to match the vehicle?

How many dogs fit in the trailer with you? Thinking about those cold 'three dog nights' in the mountains. My dog is a Jack Russell and I'd need about 6 to keep me warm.

What's the draw weight of the trailer? Might think about getting one like that to tow behind my '97 Volvo wagon.

I am looking at the drawing of an AWG at Wikipedia.

The captured water is pumped through filters... why? What would contaminate moisture in air? Wouldn't it be pretty pure without filters? The only thing I could think of is radioactive dust, and would the filters really cleanse the water of that?

Sue

Lessee...

Based on a very rough swag for AWG performance, to get 5 gallons of water per day you'd need either a ~1kw+ solar array or 5 gallons of gasoline.

...

Looks like I was close:
http://www.redflarekits.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=2070
Makes 2-8 gallons per day and draws 0.5kw

Hi, Andy -

Yes, a paint & body shop did the trailer. I'm very pleased with it.

It's a "Little Guy" teardrop manufactured in Elkhart, Indiana. Empty, it weighs about 900 pounds. 6'-wide (king-size bed). It's essentially the cargo version as I had it built without cabinetry or a galley.

You could get a lot of JRT's in there.

www.golittleguy.com

What about normal dust?
There is a lot of crap in the air and as the water condenses it traps all the dust, lint, pollen and little bugs out of the air that it can.
That even includes airborne germs and viruses.
Fortunately the germs are normally few and fairly harmless but condensate water can get pretty gritty sometimes.

Nice looking trailer Dagny.
Quite a few years ago I lived for a while in a Boler. I found it a bit cramped, and can not even imagine using a teardrop for more than a night or two.

For anybody who does not know what a Boler is here is a link to somebody else's site that explains it well.
http://bolerlife.com/

the water would be pure, but the surfaces on which it condenses will colonize with airborne molds, bacteria, and viruses-pseudomonas and legionella come to mind. filtration of the condensate and periodic disinfection of the system would help combat this.

At the risk of being called old....
(And I am not that old, Jeeps were just being phased out, along with steel pots)

The new Army must not be focusing as much time on the N in NBC any more.

Methods of communication after a Nuke:
signal flags
smoke signals
heliograph
carrier pigeon
ETC.....

In other words, a ground burst will get local commo with EMP. An intentional EMP air burst will cover wide swaths of the planet. Like North America sized areas.

By the way, thank you for your service.