Workshop Wednesday-New Trailer

  For a while now we have known we were quickly outgrowing our pesticide applications trailer at work.  Our old trailer measured 26 feet and all our crap didn't fit in it. We also had a problem with the axles not being up to the task of hauling the weight of all that junk we were stuffing in it. So a few weeks back the boss ordered a new trailer. This would be 32 feet long and have a side door wide enough to allow for loading a pallet of fertilizer. I think the size will be ok for us from the point of view that we can get all our equipment in it. From a towing and parking standpoint, it's big. I know that scares a lot of contractors but we're in a pretty much rural setting and can get away with it. The other thing is we don't have to park in front of your house and drag a house hundreds of feet. I built our tractors with 300 feet of hose and a tank. I can park the tractor anywhere and drag hose from there if needed.
 The first step in making this trailer functional is to build a set of shelves so we can get our chemicals off the floor. Tripping over jugs and boxes has been a real pain in the ass.

 I came up with a rough plan for a shelf and gave the boss a material list. I don't know who our steel supplier is but the next day I had ten 20 foot lengths of angle iron.

 My plan was to build eight individual uprights with a shelf bracket and then screw those to the trailers steel wall studs. I would then weld a face, back and sides along with adding an expanded metal shelf bottom.

 So here is about an 18 foot shelf. Below the shelf will be fuel cans, spill kits, rakes/shovels, gas blower, chest spreader, etc. Except for personal protective equipment, first aid and eye wash kits, everything I hang on the trailer wall will be this wall. The other side will be left clear so we can walk front to rear unobstructed.

 All that was left was to make some sort of "retainer" to keep jugs and boxes from falling off the shelf. A big lip on the front of the shelf wouldn't do as I have no interest in tipping a jug of chemicals forward over my head.

 The answer was a simple U shaped loop that is hinged on each end. The loop only drops as low as seen in the pic and the hinges have enough drag to hold the loop in the raised position for loading the shelf.
 With the side wall shelf complete I was now ready to build a shelf in the front to store some grass seed, mulch and a few random bags of fert. I used the same basic design as the side walls only deeper and following the contour of the V shaped front.

 Yesterday we went out for the day to spray and fertilize lawns. We had a pallet of fert loaded in the front and were still able to get both tractors and the stand-on unit in the trailer.

 This setup worked out really nice. Each of those three units were used at the ten different stops we made. Loading and unloading was a breeze and nobody tripped over anything. It's nice having a home for everything. I'm sure this makes us more efficient and I think it made the day go faster.

Later.