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So I bought a used Trailswest 20' trailer earlier this winter off the classifieds here. It was just a bone stock trailer no Burandt edition or anything other then lights on the interior. I decided before I even bought a trailer that I wanted to make my own fancy trailer the way I wanted it not how the factory thinks it should be built. Also I'm not a huge fan of all the diamond plate in the interior of the Burandt edition. So this is a picture journey of what I built. Heater is a 40k attwood bought directly from trailswest. I would say all in all I have about $1500+/- into it plus a good amount of my labor. With the addition of everything I've done I can still fit 3 163 length sleds no problem and probably could do 3 174 as well. After buying the trailer and adding everything into it, I was still cheaper then buying a brand new stripped down Trailswest trailer.
So I'm not a fan of having the heater sitting the way the factory does with the cabinet sticking pretty far out, always looked like a good head banger. So my line of thinking was to mount the heater vertical to keep it tighter to the wall. The more I thought about it I decided I wanted to hide all the ducting, wiring, and piping, etc.. I hate when things look cobbled together, I like clean and professional, I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these sorts of things. The biggest problem with building all of this was the angles. With the nose and the slanted floor I had to get creative and measure a lot.
Here is the start of the main cabinent.
Now time to build the bench and dry fit everything.
Now to get the heater all dry fit. Heater is controlled via 4 hour timer and thermostat.
Luckily the trailswest's tongue is basically setup to have propane tanks installed. I went with a bigger dual 7.5gallon tank setup.
After painting the cabinets it was time to get it all fit in it's home. Under both the bench and main cabinet I ran foam to keep water from going underneath as well as where both touch so there was no vibration. Also as you may notice I have installed 6x9 speakers up in the cowling of the trailer, as well as a sub box for the bench. The stereo is run off just a bluetooth dongle connected directly to the amp.
Installed the onboard charger, battery and amplifier for the stereo.
Next was figuring out how to divert the heat. I built in two custom vents one point out into the trailer and the other towards the back. Then on the back of the bench created a custom venting that would blow up towards the coat and helmet racks.
Then I had to build myself a fancy boot and glove drying system, 4" tubing drilled with 1/2" pipe welded to it. Ended up being really compact and didn't protrude further than the cabinet. Probably going to pull down the glove drying portion and adding more spots for gloves, my crew usually have way more soaking gloves at the end of the day then spots. But both boot and glove dryers work awesome.
Last was adding all the 3/4" melamine and having a bench top upholstered. The bench is on a hinge and has a bunch of storage below it. And this is the finished product.
Oh and I also added some lights to the back of the trailer for night loading and unloading. They also come on automatically when I put my truck in reverse. They work awesome.
I also added superglides to the whole trailer as well as L-track for superclamp tie downs and standard strap tie downs. All in all this system has worked near flawless. The only problems I have had is on really cold days after melting the snow of the sleds it ices up the doors and doesn't allow the trailer to drain. I have bought 12v heat tape that I will run along both doors and tie it into the heater so when it runs the tape will run. Also might spray foam the underneath of the trailer. But none the less I feel this setup works perfect for me. If you have any questions ask away I'm more than happy to answer them for you.
So I'm not a fan of having the heater sitting the way the factory does with the cabinet sticking pretty far out, always looked like a good head banger. So my line of thinking was to mount the heater vertical to keep it tighter to the wall. The more I thought about it I decided I wanted to hide all the ducting, wiring, and piping, etc.. I hate when things look cobbled together, I like clean and professional, I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these sorts of things. The biggest problem with building all of this was the angles. With the nose and the slanted floor I had to get creative and measure a lot.
Here is the start of the main cabinent.
Now time to build the bench and dry fit everything.
Now to get the heater all dry fit. Heater is controlled via 4 hour timer and thermostat.
Luckily the trailswest's tongue is basically setup to have propane tanks installed. I went with a bigger dual 7.5gallon tank setup.
After painting the cabinets it was time to get it all fit in it's home. Under both the bench and main cabinet I ran foam to keep water from going underneath as well as where both touch so there was no vibration. Also as you may notice I have installed 6x9 speakers up in the cowling of the trailer, as well as a sub box for the bench. The stereo is run off just a bluetooth dongle connected directly to the amp.
Installed the onboard charger, battery and amplifier for the stereo.
Next was figuring out how to divert the heat. I built in two custom vents one point out into the trailer and the other towards the back. Then on the back of the bench created a custom venting that would blow up towards the coat and helmet racks.
Then I had to build myself a fancy boot and glove drying system, 4" tubing drilled with 1/2" pipe welded to it. Ended up being really compact and didn't protrude further than the cabinet. Probably going to pull down the glove drying portion and adding more spots for gloves, my crew usually have way more soaking gloves at the end of the day then spots. But both boot and glove dryers work awesome.
Last was adding all the 3/4" melamine and having a bench top upholstered. The bench is on a hinge and has a bunch of storage below it. And this is the finished product.
Oh and I also added some lights to the back of the trailer for night loading and unloading. They also come on automatically when I put my truck in reverse. They work awesome.
I also added superglides to the whole trailer as well as L-track for superclamp tie downs and standard strap tie downs. All in all this system has worked near flawless. The only problems I have had is on really cold days after melting the snow of the sleds it ices up the doors and doesn't allow the trailer to drain. I have bought 12v heat tape that I will run along both doors and tie it into the heater so when it runs the tape will run. Also might spray foam the underneath of the trailer. But none the less I feel this setup works perfect for me. If you have any questions ask away I'm more than happy to answer them for you.
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