My wife and I are thinking to get a 10 ft "high cube" shipping container, put it on a trailer in the driveway, and experiment with building a cabin which can be towed a'la caravan for extended holidays. The container being small and relatively affordable (2.5K, the cost of a new laptop :), this sounds manageable enough of a project for us. These containers are rated at 1 ton in mass, from what I've read.

We are wondering whether we would be still able to ship the cabin as a container overseas when we move countries. Are there any regulations/inspections that we would need the structure to pass to ship it? Are there any resources that you can recommend? We are planning to keep the doors as only opening for the door/window. Can we drill any additional holes at all in the walls (e.g. for exhaust and electrics)? Can we weld nuts on on the outside, to attach removable siding/insulation on the outside with bolts? As a bonus, we could fit all our belongings (clothing, books, and ski/camping gear mostly) into the container/cabin for shipping. Since most the cabin is still air in 3D, we can pack that with boxes, like we would with a shipping van > off it goes on a ship.

P.S. There was a shipping container thread here in 2009 (!), announcing a plan for a Ph D thesis in container houses; I wonder what has happened to that.

I would have thought that if you want to ship a container as a container, adding things to the outside such as windows, bolts, flues etc would prevent it being shipped as a container due to the likely hood of damage- containers are built as they are to tolerate pretty big bumps. With modification, I guess it would have to be shipped as more fragile cargo and probably at increased cost. A shipping agent would be the person to ask.

Calling it a cabin suggests youre going to occupy it but at 10' square with camping/skiing gear, clothing and books theres not going to be much room for a bed, insulation etc