Gingrich Construction's Efficient, Huge Framing Trailer
RIG DETAILS
| USED FOR | Framing |
| TYPICAL JOBS | framing |
| MODEL | BreMar |
| BODY | Enclosed Trailer, V-Nose |
ORGANIZATION
John uses a huge trailer for framing work. His company, Gingrich Construction, is based out of Palmerston, Ontario, Canada. They specialize in large agricultural buildings, prefab structures, and homes.
Their framing trailer is a custom 20' BreMar stubby V-nose. It's all aluminum and is 8' tall.
The set up is spacious and organized. It's easy to see where things should go and whether something's missing.
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On Efficiency
Like many in the trades, John sees time as a precious asset. Saving time equals making more profit. John says:
I find it's well worth the time to have an efficient, clean system, laid out [and] organized. There's a place for everything, and if you keep on top of guys to follow that system long term, you simply get more work done in the hours that you're on site.
Foundation
One of the literal foundations of this trailer is the inside walls. Many trailer walls are thinner material like 3/8" or 1/2" plywood. This one was custom ordered with 3/4" plywood, which makes it easier to secure anything to it.
The shelf system is steel angle that could be reconfigured fairly easily. It would take very little time to raise or lower a shelf.
Huge
The first thing you'll notice about this trailer is that it's huge. At 20' long with 8' sides, it's on the larger side of construction trailers.
An aluminum ladder rack with a catwalk can store ladders or materials. It's accessible with it's own built-in ladder on the front of the trailer.
One of the major benefits to having everything inside is that it makes jobsite security a easier - everything can go in the trailer at the end of the day.
Ladder-carrying Beast
On opening the back, the first thing you'll notice is that this trailer carries a lot of ladders:
- ladders on a shelf under the ceiling, 2 of them extension ladders
- 6 shorty stepladders on the left
- 2 ladder cubbies on the right with more ladders
Besides keeping the ladders out of the weather, these compartments and shelves make it very easy to pack and unpack any ladder. There are no bungies or tie-downs holding them on.
The shelf for the shorty stepladders has a very open design that makes it fast to grab a ladder while still keeping the ladders contained with a diagonal brace.
Tool Holes 'n Tool Slots
They use large quantities of the same types of tools like impacts, drills, and circular saws. So they have a simple method to store these:
- The chuck of the drills and drivers holster into a hole on their shelf.
- The blades of the circular saws slot into slots cut into their shelf.
To power these tools, there is a large battery charging station hung on the wall.
They use lots of levels, so 7 levels slot into a dedicated compartment mounted under the ladder shelf.
Bits and handtools go in a Gray Tools metal toolbox.
Hardware
A large section of the trailer is devoted to hardware, with several shelves holding buckets of lag bolts, washers, screws, and nails.
Though the hardware selection is large, it isn't meant to be used for complete jobs. It's meant to ensure they have some quantity of stock on hand just in case.
For individual projects, they stack all the hardware at the side cargo door.
Hidden Rolls
A typical hardware shelf often doesn't need to be wide, so they have a clever way to use the space.
The hardware shelves are made shallower than the other shelves. Standing at the side cargo door, a compartment slides out that holds rolled goods like plastic sheet and roof underlay.
You'll see that the compartment is open on one side. The open side faces the side door opening when it's pulled out, so it is super easy to pick up one of these heavy rolls.
108 Caulks
A custom caulk rack provides space for up to 108 tubes of caulk, a good example of the inventory they need to carry! But like the hardware, this is meant to be a backup supply in case they run out of the type or color of caulk they need.
Self Storage
Each worker has his own cubby on the trailer. They work in teams, so it makes sense for employees to have their own space.
Next Level Power
The power system on this trailer is impressive:
It's wired for 120V and can be plugged in to the grid.
They use a 24V inverter with eight 6 volt batteries that puts out 120V. A previous setup with four batteries was getting them through Wednesday or Thursday, so John added more batteries.
They have large electrical loads on this trailer between the 6 volt battery charger, tool charging station, and the microwave. This often blows breakers, since the charger can pull 15 amps.
John now has it set up so that he can change the amp draw of the charger:
- He sets it to 5-6A when the tool chargers/microwave need to run.
- He sets it to 15A when the tool chargers/microwave don't need to run.
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