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Quite Lite’s Quick Cabin Is a Tough Pop-Up Shelter for All Seasons, Wherever You Need It

We’ve been raised and educated to think that it takes time to build something of quality. That good work takes effort and time, and that you can’t simply wander in, tinker around for a few minutes, and have a solid piece of something – least of all a house, for example.
The Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent home 15 photos
Photo: Quite Lite (Composite)
The Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent homeThe Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent home
The Quick Cabin is different and, because of it, goes against all preconceived notions you might have walked in with regarding the relationship between effort and the quality of a work. Or even regarding the notion of mobile homes.

As its name says, it’s a cabin and it’s “quick” to assemble or, if need be, to take apart, and load onto a trailer to move to another location. Think of it as a more resilient and comfortable tent in terms of assembly, but with extended functionality and enhanced comfort. It works both as a long-term cabin and temporary shelter, and because of its layout, composition and easy assembly, it has functionality in a variety of fields, from leisure to emergency response.

There is no such thing as perfection, but as a mobile habitat, the Quick Cabin aims pretty close to it.

The Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent home
Photo: Quite Lite
Perhaps best of all is the fact that Quick Cabin is a real product, even if you probably haven’t heard of it until now. It’s made in Colorado, U.S., and uses the patented Quite Lite Modular Panel System developed by Lawrence Drake in 2009. Using his experience as a pilot and engineer, Drake (who is also a best-selling author, by the way) created a system of interlocking plastic-based panels that serve as the base for the two flagship products from the Quite Lite company: the Tail Feather camping trailer and the Quick Cabin shelter.

Quite Lite was particularly active online, especially on social media, up until 2019-2020, and the recent lull in activity might make it seem like they’ve stopped production.

The current CEO Jeremiah DeGraff tells autoevolution that Quite Lite is still making the Quick Cabin, selling a limited number of units per year as they work on improvements. They have big plans for the near future, including full-scale production and a “major global marketing campaign” that will mark the company’s relaunch later this year. The production goal for 2023 is for 10,000 units of the shelter.

Considering the kind of buzz Quick Cabin has been generating online for years, even this high number might not be enough to satisfy demand. Put it simply, Quick Cabin is like the unicorn of shelters: lightweight, easy to assemble, durable, reliable, comfortable, and affordable (at least if you compare it to other types of mobile prefab homes).

The Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent home
Photo: Quite Lite
The Cabin is made of polyethylene and ABS plastic, EPA-rated as free from toxic fumes and emissions, and UV treated. The choice for plastic as the main building material was a simple one, but it did take Drake four years to get to the final “recipe.” Plastic presents a variety of advantages over wood, aluminum or fiberglass constructions, including more design freedom, lower weight, durability, and resistance to corrosion, mold and mildew. Plastic is also fully and easily recyclable so, at the end of the Cabin’s long and uneventful lifecycle, it can be recycled.

Each Quick Cabin is 10 by 10 feet (3 by 3 meters) and sold as a kit, with the optional but highly recommended UDECKX floor kit, and a Cabin extension kit. You can add as many as two extensions to the original layout, so you get a shelter as large as 10 by 17 feet (3 by 5.2 meters). The Cabin kit includes everything from the walls to the screws, the shatterproof acrylic swing-out windows, the lightweight aluminum tubing door, and the three-layer, insulated roof. Quite Lite is planning on offering matching, plastic-made pieces of furniture like cabinets and shelving, but for the time being, the Cabin comes with a bare interior.

Each panel of wall weighs under 30 lbs (13.6 kg) and has a foam-filled middle layer that offers insulation and added strength, as well as a watertight edge gasket that seals it against leaks. The panels connect at the top, middle and bottom by means of interlocking tabs, which are then secured in place with screws. On the inside, the walls have threaded inserts for furnishings, and the roof has an RV-style vent and LED light strips.

The Quick Cabin takes under 2 hours to assemble, works as permanent home
Photo: Quite Lite
The Quick Cabin is basic in styling, which is exactly what you want from a shelter that you can set up on any piece of land in under two hours, using just one person with one screwdriver and the recommendations within the pages of the owner’s manual. Setting up is meant to be intuitive and accessible, and that means an end result that prioritizes on functionality, not style. That’s not to say that the Quick Cabin is ugly, though; just that the first descriptor that probably comes to mind is utilitarian, not beautiful.

A Quick Cabin has a 90-day production timeline, and is priced at $9,599.99 for the basic kit, which should be paired with the $2,649 UDECKX 10’ x 10’ floor kit. Some unspecified form of customization is possible, but you’d have to get in touch with Quite Lite for that. When budgeting, you must also consider everything else needed to turn the Cabin into an actual, usable shelter, like heating, a small AC, furniture, and the basic creature comforts.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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