Enclosed Trailers for Granite Installation

[Martell77]

Hello everyone, my name is Martell from Hamilton Ontario Canada. I'm a granite installer and new to the website. So far I love it, lots of great information on here.

I have a problem, I need to know the best enclosed trailers for installation. By that I mean, toughest, can take the most weight, and most importantly for me is DOOR and INTERIOR HEIGHT. If you are in the industry you know those days when you get an island or L-shaped piece thats super tall because your customer refuses to have seams. From my short amount of research the tallest I can find so far is a 6'6 interior height. That equates to 78'. But the door heights are usually smaller so pieces are a pain the ass to get inside the trailer door opening.

So, is there anything out on the market at this time that is specially made for granite installation? Or am I going to have to be 'that guy' who buys a horse trailer and uses it for granite installs lol.

Looking forward to some feedback fellas, thanks!!!

[ash20ash]

I believe most of those tailer companies will mod the trailer to your specs. I have seen some custom ones ruinning around here before.

Our has a 72 inch door and it works 95% of the time.

Modified horse trailer might be the way to go too though. May be built a little better

[Scruffy]

Any enclosed car hauler will have an almost full height rear door that is also full width. The rear door drops down as a ramp and you would be able to roll out a loaded cart or carts, most are min 20' boxes. Downside is that the ramp will not hold a forklift so you would need to push the loaded cart up that same ramp. I have a winch inside my car hauler mounted at the very front. I use it to pull the car in because there is not enough room to open the door to get out if I drove it in. I use the same winch to control the speed of the car when letting it out of the trailer.

[BrentP]

Any trailer dealer can order you a trailer with whatever height you want. It doesn't generally affect the price that much.

[Curtis R. Marburger]

been through the enclosed trailer vs Box debate , We ended up going with a box truck instead .

just thought i would post for thought to consider

any trailer dealer should be able to build you what you want

[Qualey Granite]

We just pulled all our trailers off the road as well. They were custom built, but after 50,000 miles they literally fell apart. Between tolls, drivers who can back them up, city parking, 2 registrations, tires/wheel bearings/electrical, it wasn't worth the aggravation.

[graniteman]

I have gone to all cube vans. Like Matt said the trailers are nice if there is an experienced driver but there are more bad than good IMO.

[Dan R.]

Different people have different situations. Some need a trailer, as they may have only one vehicle. I know a few of these guys. For a lower volume, small shop a trailer may be the present solution, as a trailer and maintenance is cheaper than a 2nd truck.

Using trailers for high volume is expensive in the long run.

[Scruffy]

Also keep in mind that trailer tires are different than car and truck tires. I learned to toss mine every three years no matter what they had for tread. Guess why. In the left lane in the dark with a loaded trailer. Noticed the lights from a car that wanted to pass behind me. Looked in the mirror and saw huge clouds of white smoke and thought the engine was about to blow. Moved the mirror and it was the tire and another mile or two and it would have been on fire. Pulled over and tire was still smoking bad, other tire was very close to blowing also. Limped to a station and maxed out remaining tire pressure and limped 10 miles home. Put the spare on the next day. Next trip out another tire blew and I replaced all 4.

[Darryl Miller]

At the first shop I worked at in Baton Rouge, we bought glass racks for the sides of one of our pickup trucks. I think Rick George has a van set up this way as well. I liked installing off those because they were very easy to load/unload.

[Curtis R. Marburger]

Them trailer tires are real fussy about air pressure too .

a long with what Dan R said . If who ever is pulling the trailer has skin in the game . a Trailer could work . But i have still have had people not even look in mirror to see them selves put trailer in ditch or bounce off a curb or even slow down going over railroad crossing.

brakes are a hassle . I would want disc breaks on trailer , extra heavy tires , sealed LED lighting , Spring Suspension