Any body had and experience of and got any ideas how much lowering the roof of a box trailer would cost?
We’ve been looking for a stepframe box trailer that can carry upto 6 cars but runs at 4m oah.
Found some stepframe trailers at 4m but would have to put a full size tailift approx &12-15k plus adding a second deck,
but also seen, for a good price, a 4.2m double deck stepframe with the full size tailift so wonder if it would be more cost effective to chop the roof on this instead.
there was someone on here who did this with a (i think) T.K.Maxx boxvan, whoever it was cut it down to 4mtr from around 4.7mtr and had it and the Magnum that pulled it resprayed in a nice shade of metallic blue. Im buggered if i can think who it was thou, maybe someone on here can remember??
kindle530:
there was someone on here who did this with a (i think) T.K.Maxx boxvan, whoever it was cut it down to 4mtr from around 4.7mtr and had it and the Magnum that pulled it resprayed in a nice shade of metallic blue. Im buggered if i can think who it was thou, maybe someone on here can remember??
Cheers Kindle, I think I can find out who it was as he posted a picture on the race transporter photos thread.
I was right! just spent ages looking for it, march717 is his username
search.php?author_id=74605&sr=posts
hope it helps.
good deed for the day is done, im off to bed.
kindle530:
I was right! just spent ages looking for it, march717 is his usernamesearch.php?author_id=74605&sr=posts
hope it helps.
good deed for the day is done, im off to bed.
Bugger could have spoke to him myself, I saw that truck at Silverstone last month. 
Ask a Royal Mail driver to take it for a spin near some railway lines, job done.
More seriously, I’ve got a 2003 Montracon stepframe decker I want to offload. It’s been sitting a while and is out of test. I seem to think it would need at least one new s-cam to get it through but it’s bone dry inside with column tail-lift to both decks. Problem is I think it’s 4.6m, if not more, so chopping it down might leave too little headroom on the top deck. I’ve got too much on to do the chopping though.
Chopping down would be a fairly straightforward job but I’m getting the feeling you’re not looking to do any work yourself. The main two issues would be if the roof is constructed/attached in such a way it can be easily removed and recycled and how the tail-lift working. If it’s a column tail-lift is the type where the ram and chains are in a box at the top of the roof it would still be perfectly doable but a lot more work. The work would probably cost not much less than the trailer is worth if it’s just a standard stepframe decker boxvan come off fleet to start with. I would think £2k+ for the job.
That one the bloke with the Magnum has chopped down looks like a Don Bur you could probably pick up one of the same design cheap ex-Argos. Looks like it may have a lifting deck which is going to make more sense on a low height decker.
At £2k it could be an option on this trailer as if I were to buy a 4m stepframe and put a full size car spec tailift and second deck it would probably be the best part of £15-£20k plus the cost of the trailer.
Cutting this trailer down would make the top deck 1.3m which should be okay for most racing cars and GT cars.
I wouldn’t begin to consider putting a tail-lift on anything almost every ex-retailer step-frame decker will have a tail-lift in situ and, despite costing a fortune new, is valued at nowt 2nd hand. Anything that’s already race team converted seems to go for pretty silly money I’ve seen the exact same trailers I’ve paid a couple of grand for go for £15k with a respray, an access door added and some c-channel and chains welded to the tail-lift.
I know what you are saying about the cost of used box trailers with tailift, we have one that we use for transporting our equipment but not the cars and it was cheap but dry and tidy and perfect for the job we use it for.
However I’ve used many a converted tailift and they aren’t the best thing for job and some were downright dangerous and we are a professional team running some very expensive cars as well as the safety of those using the equipment to consider.
Some of the double decker trailers do come with suitable tailifts and very low floors because of the independent suspension but they were normally built for cages and the wheel cover intrude into load area which isn’t much good when you want to load cars.
However they were selling a load of ex comet ones for £6000 and a Freind of mine has turned one into a useful transporter, but the wheel boxes didn’t matter to him as he wanted to fit benches and load the cars on the top deck.
But the trailer I have seen is a good price looks tidy and sound and has the proper tailift already fitted the only problem is its 4.2m.
Does it have to be a box body? if not, how about Ebay item number 181197664442
mucker85:
Does it have to be a box body? if not, how about Ebay item number 181197664442
Interesting find but yes it does really have to be a hard side trailer, plus really need a tail lift as you have to push a lot of racecars and we also need it to carry flightcase s and other equipment.
If I were specifying one from new I’d go for a folding wall trailer and moving deck.
muckles:
mucker85:
Does it have to be a box body? if not, how about Ebay item number 181197664442Interesting find but yes it does really have to be a hard side trailer, plus really need a tail lift as you have to push a lot of racecars and we also need it to carry flightcase s and other equipment.
If I were specifying one from new I’d go for a folding wall trailer and moving deck.
Where are the old Argos trailers when you need one, they run some down to Portugal so they must be 4.0 