Menu
What's new

Work Trailer

Darren Wright

Darren Wright

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
20,168
Location
Springfield, Missouri
I didn't want to highjack John's thread, but I've been going down the youtube rabbit hole of work trailer designs or mobile shops if you will.

It seems like every trip to the farm I've got a truck full of tools and not much room for people. I spend more than a couple hours each trip trying to make sure I have everything or debating about if I need to take something or not. Same if I need to go to my daughters house for a project. The idea of having everything in a mobile work shop, along with a stable supply of fasteners, and basic plumbing/electrical things would save a lot of time getting ready, as well as a trip or two to town. I've been looking at videos off and on all day and thinking about what features would make sense.

I like Paulk's Smart Workshop/Trailer design and have bought his plans, mostly for the drawer design. Not sure I needed to, but figured it may save some experimentation.

His trailer walkthrough

Others seems to be inspired by his work as well, and most of them have done stuff that applies to their preferences, but they work. I like the cord holder he's made in this one at about 16:20.

A bit smaller 1 axle trailer.

So, a new cargo trailer is in the $3500 to $5500 range, I may find something used for a bit less. I'm thinking in the 6 x 12 size, v-nose, tandem axle (7,000 GVW), but need to really think about the tools and such I need. I like the idea of the ramp gate on the back. I think I'd consider a small solar panel and inverter system, mostly to keep tool batteries charged and lighting. A smaller compressor and 110v lighting would be included as well. I'd like to keep it on the smaller side to pull with my F150, but may see if a 7x10 or 7x12 of the same config is made.

I'd like to hear any thoughts, experiences, and/or suggestions others have.
 
Last edited:
Problem with a horse trailer is without insulating the roof, it will sweat. Problem with any trailer, puts all of your tools in one specific place and all a thief has to do is steal the trailer. If you are planning on leaving it at the farm, would pull the wheels off of it at least. Have seen a lot of trades guys do a lot of wonderful work out of trailers.
 
Yeah, will invest in a good hitch lock and most likely park it inside the garage there and in the shop here, but would haul it back and forth.

I think the same theory applies to keeping tools in there cases too, way easy to grab. Just leave them all strung out all over the workbench and they'll be harder to just grab and run with, at least that is what I do with mine. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. ;)
 
Had a buddy that had a lot of good tools in cases and had hired a couple of guys to do some work. Weeks/months later went to get a tool, not in its case. Checked and all cases were empty! Couldn't prove anything but a good idea where they went. Another buddy has 3 semis. You literally trip over stuff, he kicks a path for the tires to drive on. He claimed he kept a clean shop and got robbed. Leave the stuff, he knows where it is according to the job. Thief would break a leg trying to walk in the dark at night. At school, everything has its place and is marked with an outline of the tool. Easy to spot missing tools.
 
I have a 6 x 10 single axle trailer that I bought used in 2012. I used it for several years with a pretty haphazard "toss in and dig out" setup. :ROFLMAO: In 2019, I built Paulk inspired drawers and tool cubbies while putting my own twist on the rest of the trailer. I'll take some pictures after it warms up a bit!:)
 
Jonathan Shively said:
Had a buddy that had a lot of good tools in cases and had hired a couple of guys to do some work. Weeks/months later went to get a tool, not in its case. Checked and all cases were empty! Couldn't prove anything but a good idea where they went. Another buddy has 3 semis. You literally trip over stuff, he kicks a path for the tires to drive on. He claimed he kept a clean shop and got robbed. Leave the stuff, he knows where it is according to the job. Thief would break a leg trying to walk in the dark at night. At school, everything has its place and is marked with an outline of the tool. Easy to spot missing tools.
Click to expand...
Yup! See there is a method to the madness.

I also figured I'd do some kind of signage deterring any theft, such as "Mobile Septic Cleaning & Hauling". :D
 
Wayne Eikenberry said:
I have a 6 x 10 single axle trailer that I bought used in 2012. I used it for several years with a pretty haphazard "toss in and dig out" setup. :ROFLMAO: In 2019, I built Paulk inspired drawers and tool cubbies while putting my own twist on the rest of the trailer. I'll take some pictures after it warms up a bit!:)
Click to expand...
So I assume you're less likely to forget something back at the house/shop now?
 
" invest in a good hitch lock"

Yep. Lots of luck with that. My stock trailer was once 'borrowed' from my farm. It had a high quality lock on the hitch. 'borrower' had no problem defeating it. Trailer was gone for months. Then mysteriously reappeared. I later found out who took it and he acted like he didn't do anything wrong. But, that's another story. If it has wheels it will roll. Heavy--VERY HEAVY DUTY---chains and a huge (expensive) padlock can be a pretty good discourager. But a determined thief will cut down trees, or whatever to steal what they want.
 
Darren Wright said:
a good hitch lock
Click to expand...
Lockpicking lawyer (caution, extremely interesting rabbit hole hah) reviews some and has a few good pointers on how to make them harder to defeat. Given that you have a welder (pretty sure?) You should be able to do most of the suggested mods, and it looks like not hard to make the one he liked out of a chunk of round and a chunk of square stock welded together .
 
Frank Fusco said:
" invest in a good hitch lock"

Yep. Lots of luck with that. My stock trailer was once 'borrowed' from my farm. It had a high quality lock on the hitch. 'borrower' had no problem defeating it. Trailer was gone for months. Then mysteriously reappeared. I later found out who took it and he acted like he didn't do anything wrong. But, that's another story. If it has wheels it will roll. Heavy--VERY HEAVY DUTY---chains and a huge (expensive) padlock can be a pretty good discourager. But a determined thief will cut down trees, or whatever to steal what they want.
Click to expand...

You ought to start a new thread on that story, would love to hear it Frank. I would be beyond upset if that happened to one of my trailers.
 
Back on computer.. He liked this design and I agree it looks pretty good as a conceptual idea as long as the other issues like the hitch being welded, etc.. so you can't 'just walk in the side door past the vault entrance" are taken care of as well.


BUT their new puck lock is trivially vulnerable to drill attacks

and worse has some reliability in locking problems

So I might consider welding up my own and using a different puck lock.

The drilling problem could (and probably should) be solved (imho - disclaimer I'm not a lock picking lawyer... being neither a lawyer nor a very good lock picker..) by extending the tube about 1.5x the depth of the puck lock (cutting a slot in the bottom for the lock to get through) and welding a heavy plate over the front of it. That way they'd have to either drill through both the plate or cut the top half of the tube off to get to it. It wouldn't be hard to weld a half pipe extension with a shield onto the commercial one either.

He also has a nice overview of some of the design features that are nice on equipment trailer locks here.



If you search his site for "trailer" you'll get a rather long list of all of the depressingly bad products you shouldn't buy if you actually care

 
And as Frank notes.. if you can weld and they're determined.. so can they... A simple pin hitch is pretty easy to rig up on a locked trailer (even without welding.. a few clamps 'll get you down the road plenty far enough.. no I'm not a trailer thief, but yes we're pretty sure that's how a friends trailer rolled away) and then it'll just walk away. So site/structural security is also important.
 
Loaned my trailer to a buddy a couple of days ago. He had a 1 7/8" ball, needed a 2", but the lock on his hitch pin was all rusted. 15 seconds with a battery powered sawzall and that pin was toast, lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top