Every model year, car and truck manufacturers come out with brand-new designs and features to entice prospective buyers. Rear-view cameras for easy backing, in-cab navigational systems, sliding doors that open and close at the push of a button – they’re all very 21st century.
But somehow the equipment trailer – a lawn and landscape company staple – seems to make fewer advances over time or have fewer options available on the basic models. For this reason, some company owners choose to have their trailers customized to fit their operational needs.
John Biehler, president, Suburban Landscape Management, Wichita, Kan., prefers open trailers to closed ones and has the company’s trailers designed and tailored to the needs of its laborers.
“Over time, we found out and identified what we needed and what we didn’t need,” Biehler explains. “We then designed it ourselves and took the design to a trailer manufacturer and worked with him on getting it built.”
Three years ago, Biehler says Suburban Landscape designed what he calls the mowing trailer – an open trailer with 4-foot sides of expanded metal going all the way around it. Another key aspect of the design is its locked areas where crews store expensive equipment that otherwise would be attractively visible to thieves. These sections of the design also keep the equipment safer and more secure during transport.
“Another issue is with big riding lawn mowers being placed next to small push mowers, which ends up causing damage to the smaller pieces of equipment because they can bounce into one another,” Biehler describes. “So we created separate compartments for our riding mowers and our push mowers.”
Biehler says the mowing trailer contains two separate areas of storage, which are divided by a metal barrier, and can be accessed using two separate ramps. The smaller push mowers are placed on the trailer using a ramp that extends from the side while larger equipment is stored through the traditional ramp at the back.
The author is a Contributing Editor to Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached via nwisniewski@lawnandlandscape.com.