Photo: Rubitracks (composite)
For the ultimate showcase of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, tiny homes are the perfect niche to explore. But even with that in mind, Rubishack’s tiny home is unlike any you’ve ever seen.
We mean that literally. Most tiny house builders will use absolute language to draw attention to their products, but the Rubishack is literally unmatched. It’s a tiny house that rolls on tracks instead of wheels. But it’s also fully capable of moving under its own power and doesn’t need a tow vehicle, which again sets it apart from every other tiny out there. It’s more of a camper than a tiny.
From the outside, however, except for its four tracks, the Rubishack looks like a typical miniature house: a wooden frame, wood siding, and wraparound glass to let natural light in and make those inside feel less cramped.
But that’s where the similarities with the little guys end. The Rubishack is a completely different beast: a Cummins diesel-powered beast that can go anywhere and provide the kind of fun that beastly off-roaders usually provide.
Photo: Rubitracks
That’s because Rubishack is a little bit of everything. Designed and built by Rubitracks, a Canadian track shop, it started out as a fairly standard promotional vehicle, Rubitracks’ Scott explained to an agency. Inspired by YouTube videos of tiny homes and mobile shacks, Scott wanted to build something that would bring more online visibility to his company.
As such, it had to have the tracks sold by Rubitracks. The frame and tracks were salvaged from a previous project.
Initially, they wanted to build something very similar to a tiny house, but as they worked on the idea, it grew. They would later plan to put the living area behind the driver's cab, and eventually decided to break the rules there as well. So, in the end, Rubishack's layout had the driver's “cab” in the center of the tiny house, with a king-size bed in the front and a dinette in the back.
Photo: Rubitracks
Even writing that down sounds weird, and we think driving the Rubishack has a bit of a learning curve. There’s no dashboard to speak of, and the driver looks out of the bed through the large side window, which doubles as a windshield. On the plus side, it has plenty of side windows, as well as oversized rearview mirrors.
Videos posted to Rubitracks’ social media don’t say whether the Rubishack is registered, other than to point out that registering it as a homemade camper would be “questionable.” But it is road legal with mirrors and lights, and the team has taken it out several times, both in the wild and on city streets.
The interior is simple, compared to what you find in real tiny homes. At the same time, it is also surprisingly well equipped: you have forced air conditioning and heating, outlets and LED lighting. You also have that comfy bed in the front, above the engine, with a foam mattress.
Photo: Rubitracks
The driver and front passenger seats are from a camper, so they rotate to face the rear of the house, just as they would have in the original vehicle. There is a dinette for two, with room for an additional folding chair or two, turning this area into a living room.
You don't have a kitchen or bathroom inside, but it begs the question: do you really need one? You would if you wanted to live in this thing full time, but that's not what it was designed to do. As the video below shows, it was built to go where no other tiny house in the world would ever dream of going.
This is possible thanks to the Rubitracks HD tracks mounted underneath and the 5.9-liter Cummins diesel engine. The Rubishack can reach top speeds of 40 mph (64.3 km/h), and while tight turns might prove a challenge, it can easily roll through muddy water, sand and other rough terrain like a boss.
Photo: Rubitracks
Another advantage of the Rubishack over tiny houses is price. Price remains the Achilles heel of the tiny house movement. But where a similarly sized tiny house would likely ask for more than $50,000, the Rubishack has a cost estimate of just $30,000.
There is a “but” to all of the above, as you probably expected. The Rubishack is not for sale and, perhaps worse, there will never be another one like it built by Rubitracks and offered for sale. The Rubishack was designed and built as “a marketing ploy to reach more potential customers” and there are no concrete plans to turn it into anything else. Once all the marketing potential is exhausted, Rubishack will likely be turned into an Airbnb.
But that doesn't mean you can't join us for a virtual ride and enjoy it. Here's Rubishack heading to the shore of Prince Edward Island, navigating rough terrain like no other home has ever done, or will ever do again.
