Job trailers.

[BargeMonkey]

 What are you guys doing for job trailers ? Anyone done something different ? I'm tempted to do one with a container and just swing it off with the slasher 🤷‍♂️ 

[Skeans1]

Enclosed gooseneck that's 25' overall makes getting in and out of places a cake walk.

[BargeMonkey]

Skeans I've been looking, couple guys I know have trailers, another guy built one with a long service body. The problem here is the rot / salt, 10yr old trailers are getting rough. My last Manac flatbed is an 02, we parked it because it got so rough, I moved it today to load sip panels on it for the winter 🤦‍♂️, getting the brakes freeded up I thought I was going to leave 1/2 the trailer in the road. 😆. 

[mike_belben]

How bout just getting surplus fedex or ups wiggle wagon out of PA.. Theres a ton of freight hubs on 81. Someone has gotta be cycling through them.  Generator stove cot thunderbucket, done.

[Southside]

Mike - he said he wants a job trailer, his mind was in the clean.  Now you go and plant a very dangerous idea given the company he is presently keeping.   :D

[mike_belben]

He didnt specify what type of work it was for so i just assumed...

[Skeans1]

Skeans I've been looking, couple guys I know have trailers, another guy built one with a long service body. The problem here is the rot / salt, 10yr old trailers are getting rough. My last Manac flatbed is an 02, we parked it because it got so rough, I moved it today to load sip panels on it for the winter 🤦‍♂️, getting the brakes freeded up I thought I was going to leave 1/2 the trailer in the road. 😆.

Ours is an aluminum trailer which in its previous life was a Nalley chips trailer auction special. This trailer is setup to be towed by a one ton with fifth wheel, my pickup is setup to pull it.

[Southside]

It's never good when the ocean sirens are mad that you ignored their calls.
:D

May as well hang a sign on the door that says "Davy Jones Locker".

[Firewoodjoe]

I'd like one. My pickup is loaded level full and still don't have torches or air. But around here guys quite using them. I'm assuming theft and (like me) don't have two sets of tools   I need my tools at home. I know one guy using one it's just a enclosed trailer. One that looks really nice but could axe the side out easily. All the big companies use large service trucks. Box trucks. They take them home every day.

[sawguy21]

We had a converted goose neck horse trailer that chased an S-61 on heli logging, towed it with a 1 ton pickup into places mountain goats feared to tread. Both were beat to death in 3 years, the loaded trailer was far too heavy for the truck and it was not manoevreable on some sites, no room to turn around. The other support vehicle was a converted tool truck, it was far more practical but had its limitations without 4wd

[Plankton]

Company a buddy of mine used to work for had a box truck rigged up as a tool truck and shop seemed to work pretty slick. They had workbenches with chain spinners vices etc. Generator lights press and all sorts of stuff in there. 

They just left bombed it off the edge of the landing for the whole job.

[Wudman]

One of the best I have seen on my jobs was a 53 foot moving van with the side doors (as well as rear).  I believe it was insulated to some degree as well.  I think that particular unit was retired from Allied.  They could carry about anything needed on it.

Wud

[ehp]

lots of guys I know had enclosed trailer but quit using them cause everyone got stolen and they chained the trailers to trees . Thief is bad around here 

[GRANITEstateMP]

I have seen a few of the old Pepsi or Coke trailers with the roll up doors all around. I think those are alum??? I do know they are hard to find, but they are out there. What about old school busses?  Walk in like when you were a kid, no huge step to get in, rear "cargo door", enough room for your crew, and plenty of spare parts around too!

[Skeans1]

 

 This is what I was talking about, rear doors open to the width of the trailer, man door on the side. Upper is great storage for hose with a bench holding the press with cut off saw. Everything has been vertically mounted as much as possible with color coding to make everything go faster. In all the years we've been using that trailer since the early 90's it's never fallen a part or been broken into, but the rear door is dead bolted.

[mike_belben]

Heres one i made from a cut F350 Uhaul. The front deck was to have a place for a generator, stick welder, buckets, tires, quad, whatever. The ramps stow in channels under the deck.  Frame is 5" channel with a tension strut underneath to make it 8 inch and that strut beefed it a bunch.  The neck is sistered to the cab/chassis frame. Welded and bolted.  













Tows very nice.  Single axle duals jackknifes backing into a hole really easy without tire scrub.

Ive got 8 truck bodies total.  I bolted 3 uhauls together in a row on dunnage with a leanto from the cabin to the box doors for my current fab hut in lieu of a shop someday.  

[Resonator]

I have seen a few of the old Pepsi or Coke trailers with the roll up doors all around. I think those are alum???

Yes they are aluminum. Typically they will have a center wall running the length of the trailer, and each door opens to an enclosed compartment. OK for storing parts and tools, but not a set up for an office. Also the ones I'm thinking of have a low drop deck floor, not ideal for off road use.

Just some odd truck info, the trailer Skeans has appears to be a Grumman Olson "Krew-Cab". Which would of originally came from the factory with a delivery van chopped down into a 5th wheel truck pulling it.

[mike_belben]

Its not just a drop floor.. Beverage trucks and trailers have a double drop frame too.   Its pretty wierd looking the first time you see one naked.

[Bruno of NH]

One of the developer's I worked with had a bed bug trailer.
That was great to work out off.
Kind off low for off-road use 

[BargeMonkey]

Mike that's pretty slick 🤔. I'm sick of my Toyota carrying tools, fuel, I've got a duramax service truck but that's a pain. Air compressor, tools, oil, the basics. I haven't made up my mind 🤷‍♂️ what I'm doing but I've been offered more work by a forestry company out of Maine and trying to get my act together for going out of town for extended periods of time. 

[mike_belben]

I would get a eager beaver or something with trashed ramps and a rotted deck.  Strip deck, chop tail, put a reefer box on very back so you can forkload toolboxes and press or whatever right into the open rear door and not have to ramp your way in.  Thats why i made the rear deck on my tag.

 Box in a room by the side door and use camper parts to make  living quarter.  Be sure there is one escape window incase some turkey padlocks you inside to rob you.  

There is a huge difference inside a reefer on a hot day.   I only have one but its gonna be a walk in butcher shop someday when i have a building to empty it into.   Uhaul box ceilings will burn your hand in straight sun.  Easily hit 100 inside.

Dead auctioned Hino, UD, isuzu, and fuso are good trucks to watch for working reefers.  Then you could use the reefers alternator to charge a battery bank and be fully off grid with heat and hot water.  Just put a switch to disengage the compressor clutch so it runs without cooling.  Hot summer go have a shower and a beer on the couch in your 72°f man palace shop. 

Imagine how many cougar sightings thered be near such a place.

[nativewolf]

Very interesting thread.  So due to all the theft many companies stopped using them?  That's why the proliferation of big service trucks?  I swear I see more service trucks every day.  

[Bruno of NH]

When I was building I took my trailer home and used it for storage. Went back to a out fitted van because of theft.
That way most stuff left with me at night. Pain to pickup materials , lot of roof rack stacking.

[grabber green]

Having job trailers ,tools and fuel tanks you can leave at the job sight is awesome and can save alot of down time. But sadly the only way that works is to have a night watchman stay with it after hours and on weekends. I know of  some areas that if they can't steal it they will burn it. Sadly,I think thievery  will only get worse in the future. And if you can get the cops to take a  theft report ,they will just laugh knowing they will never catch the scum.

[treemuncher]

My life revolves around my service truck. I need my tools where ever I go and I don't dare let my accumulation be stolen by a thief. It's cheaper to carry it all with me than take a risk on losing it. Mine is an F550 4x4 with an enclosed 11' long covered utility bed so that everything is out of the weather and out of sight from theives. I've carried this same Reading bed over 20 years on several different F550's. I used to do a lot of work 2-5 hours from home so I carried everything I needed for a week's duration with the exception of off road fuel. If I've cleared too much ground in populated places, I also have an emergency enclosed bathroom if I have a box and a Walmart bag!

Welder/generator and pressure washer run off of the truck's pto. 200 gallons of off road fuel per tank. Air powered 120 lb grease bucket with 50' hose. 55 gallons water for pressure washer, 8 gallons water for pressurized hand washing spigot, 10-15 gallons hydraulic oil, saw fuel, saw and bars, way too many tools, lots of filters, parts, teeth, hardware and almost anything else needed to keep me going in the woods away from civilization, plus more. In the cab I keep drinks, food, extra clothing, flashlights, batteries, hammock, service books and more.

For a larger operation than my one-man-show, 200 gals diesel won't cut it. But, for a mechanic's truck, my system works good with the exception that I can't really get out of the weather. That's what tarps are for. It's not cold enough here for me to worry about that but in NY, you need something with indoor space if you're working in the worst of the cold weather. 

To beat the heat of a trailer, look at Sunshield radiant barrier paint sold by Home Depot (online only). It really does work. To add heat to a box, consider one of the 5kW or 8kW Chinese diesel air heaters for well under $150 on Ebay. I recently installed one and it really kicks out the heat, efficiently.

Thieves suck. If I was to leave something out in the woods, I would consider the largest fence wire charger that I could find and figure a way to charge the box to "*stuff your pants" mode. Cameras should be mandatory, too. If for nothing else, to watch a thief meet a "Blue Bolt" and get that look of surprise on their faces.