New Trailer

[dreadnought]

Some off y'all are, or will be, in the market for a trailer to pull behind your bus. I needed one to haul sales samples in and thought you might be interested in what I came up with. After 21 years in the trailer business I've seen it all and have definite opinions on what will and will not work.

My requirements were:

a. must be short enough to comply with asinine length laws

b. be built strong enough to withstand being jerked around with a 55,000# bus yet be light enough not to kill the bus

c. not cost an arm & a leg, (the bus payment is high enough)

To stay under most states length laws a 16' box with a 4' tongue is the longest thing that will work. I'd rather have 20' but the need to be incognito is more important. After all, you don't need Barney Fife asking for your log book, medical card, fuel permit, apportioned tags, DOT inspection, bill of lading, and who knows what else if they think you're commercial. The fines run into thousands of dollars.

Construction wise, an enclosed trailer is a box that is supposed to keep your stuff dry, and out of sight from prying eyes and sticky fingers. 90% of what's on the market is designed to be pulled with a pickup truck and to be used infrequently. It's also designed to be cheap to appeal to the masses. The outside walls are .030 aluminum, (Lew could bite a hole through it) the inside walls are 3/8" plywood or worse, 1/4" Luan, (read camper crap) and the stud between the 2 walls is a pc. of hat channel which is basically a flat pc. of sheet metal with a bump in the middle to keep it from collapsing. That's all that's between your stuff and the world. The floor is 3/4" UNTREATED plywood. There's no insulation in the walls or the roof so God help you if you need to be inside it in July.
The axles are 3500# with load range C 15" tires, and the
thing is rated to haul 5000# of payload, (for a very short distance.) The big players in the business are Wells Cargo, Pace, and Haulmark and they all offer a 3 year warranty. We call it a 50/50 warranty cause if it breaks in half you get to keep both pcs. I know what I'm talking about too because my company sells one of the unholy Trinity listed above. We got so tired of arguing with a major corporation trying to get them to stand behind their crappy product that I looked elsewhere for a line for customers that want better.

This Trailer is 8 1/2' wide, by 8' tall interior height, by 16' long inside. The frame is 1" square tubing, interior walls are 3/8" plywood, the exterior is diamond treadplate aluminum and the floor is 3/4" TREATED plywood. Axles are 7000# each, tires are 16" 10 ply radials. Floor crossmembers are on 12" centers. it has all Led Lights, Roof Air, insulated walls and roof, Aluminum overhead cabinets, 2 wall vents, 4 interior lights, and cost me $11,230 delivered to my yard. We custom order to your spec for 10% over cost.

[Petervs]

Nice trailer, worthy of a Prevost!

Why is that man peeing on the trailer parked next to yours? Is he making a value statement on one of the other Trinity trailers?

[lewpopp]

Bill,

Your sales pitch was so convincing that I need something to haul my Lewbucks around and this is exactly what I am looking for.

I'll bet you could deliver that painted to match any coach for 40K more. I am thinking of that also. I can't wait to pull a trailor just for sh-ts and giggles.

All kidding aside, there is a demand for such a thing because you are the experienced one who pulled such for a while.

Good luck

Lew

[Petervs]

One other thought on these well built trailers. They tend to ride rough if the weight is not close to the axle/ suspension weight rating.

If they have 2 axles rated 7000 poounds each, and the trailer empty weight plus whatever you carry is say only 5000 pounds, then the effect of that is a pretty harsh ride in the trailer. Now since there are no people in there who cares, but depending on what you do carry it might mean being careful how you pack things.

[Jeff & (Ro)Bert(a)]

Price me up one. Three axles, 20 foot box, 36" side door. Not sure if going to get a pick up to tow or a trailer for a cat and bike.

[dalej]

Jeff, you might want a ramp door in the front. Its a good way to get just the bike out.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Price me up one. Three axles, 20 foot box, 36" side door. Not sure if going to get a pick up to tow or a trailer for a cat and bike.

Jeff, check your private messages.

[Jeff Bayley]

After using a 2nd trailer (I'm in NYC area using it now), I finally know what I want and what I want is so special that I now know that I can forget finding a used one and need to build one. Looks like several memebers are ready to buy trailers. I will call dreadnought to discuss further but there are a few special things I want that the "brain trust" here on POG might be able to chim in on.

I want a trailer at least as high as my coach. Why give up extra storage when the coach is already that high (12'3" in my case). I need a loft 3/4 of the way across to carry my goods with the other front 1/4 left for two bunks (up top loft like) for sleeping and a tiny kitchen, TV showre and head on the bottom part. I need at least 18" for a car or truck on the bottom with the front part (upper and lower two story living quarters remember) to be .............what ??? 6' at least even if your talking submarine quarters. (I'm looking for feedback here if 6' 2 story will work). I want this small living quarters for a driver I might hire from time to time is all. Not for us. I don't want a wall dividing the back from the front so that if I need to carry a car longer than 18' if would work and intrude into the living (camping) area a bit if necceesary. That puts me at 24' of interior space before you add the tongue I suppose. Maybe I could live with a couple feet shorter if it was laid out correctly. I just need to allow the car on the bottom to fit.

For the stacker portion, I don't need a full car lift. I need something like a dumb waiter. Something that can just lift 700 lbs up and down to the loft is all. I need easy track along the top loft to secure the items to the wall.

I was thinking of a design that would allow me to put a pick up truck inside in order to break away from the bus and use the truck to tow the trailer in and around NYC where I do a lot of business. I can't get the Prevost and a trailer through NY. Hence, the reason for concern about having enough stretch room for a larger vehicle on the bottom as the breakaway tow vehicle for picking up and dropping off gear from within the trailer (I'm really open to suggestions here on all of this). I was thinking that a design with a small lift on the very rear of the trailer might work well especially if it were to lift up far enough (past the loft line) in order to allow space for the cab of the truck to fit if the truck were to be backed in. This desigen would allow for more headroom in the loft area since the bottom half of the trailer would only need to be high enough to accomadate the bed of the truck (or my Porsche or VW Bug which are fairly short in height). I would carpet the upstairs loft and try to make enough headroom to bring customers in and let them see some of the gear. I haven't taken measurements yet of the height of a truck bed and I need to pick out the right truck to carry around the trailer which is a small as possible. Short bed .........maybe lower the suspension a tad if needed.......I'm not sure.

Now, one of the problems is the weight distribution of the truck being loaded in backwards is not ideal for the tounge weight and I don't want to have the trailer walking all over the road. Couple that with the fact that the payload up top in the loft (approx. 3,000 lbs) is going to be in the center of the trailer and not forward and it doesn't to much to compensate for weight distribution. If I carry forward with my nut brain idea to put convert the bus to run on Vegatable Oil and put the refinery and the holding tanks for the VO in the bed of the truck (posted this stuff prior) then that might go some distance to help with the weight distrubution assuming the tanks in the bed of the truck had fuel.

How much of this is junk and how much is worthy of pursuit. I got's to figure it all outs Mon.

Jeff

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Jeff, don't be pickin our brains. It won't be meaningful. Now that you know what you want you need a serious discussion with the trailer manufacturer of your choice. He and only he can tell you if what you want is practical and buildable by his company and for what price. You may have to talk to several Co's before you will even get one that is willing to take on the job.

Have you thought of renting a small Truck such as U-Haul in the cities where you need to detach the trailer from the bus. ( NY, Chicago, SanFran., LA ) That would enable you to use a regular trailer.

I still think your best bet would be to convert a race car hauler into a mobile showroom with living space for your crew.
They could travel a circuit around the country with demos and sales workshops.
You then would follow with the bus and meet up with them at all, or some of the shows in areas you wanted to visit. That would enable you to write off both rigs. I think being a medical product that the markup would sustain the endeavor.

The crew would have the pressure of all the work. Getting there. Setting up. Demonstrations. Seminars. You show up at you leisure and make the close! Get the idea, let the employes do the work!

If you follow through with your trailer design watch the center of gravity when loading. An adjustable air ride might be called for, and air brakes. Boy it sure sounds expensive$$$$$$$$$$
JIM

[Petervs]

Jeff, I think you need to seriously downsize your expectations.

By the time you have such a trailer all equipped and loaded, it will be very, very heavy. Then you will need a very large and heavy truck to tow it with, and if that goes inside, the trailer will need to be even heavier, and the cycle continues.

My guess is the trailer will weigh at least 5000 pounds empty, plus your load of 3000 pounds, plus a truck that can tow it of 6000 pounds then the trailer needs to be beefier so it changes to 7000 empty and you have a total of 16,000 pounds to tow behind your bus. This certainly could be done but will be an overall pain to use.

My suggestion is you buy a van of some sort and tow it four wheels down. Then just put what you need in the van, and leave the rest behind.

Good luck. As they say in the airplane biz, "simplicate and add lightness"!!