Do you want to start a trailer business but you want to go niche and be unique? If YES, here are 26 best trailer related business ideas / opportunities. A trailer is basically an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle.
A trailer can also been defined as a container on wheels which is pulled by a front car or another vehicle and which is used for transporting large or heavy items.
Trailers are commonly used for the transport of bulky goods and materials. Sometimes recreational vehicles, travel trailers, or mobile homes or offices with limited living facilities, where people can camp or stay have been referred to as trailers.
Some trailers are made for personal or small business use, and they can be used with practically any powered vehicle that has an appropriate hitch; but some trailers are part of large trucks called semi-trailer trucks that are used for the transportation of cargo.
With businesses having gone mobile to cut brick and mortar overhead costs, there are now quite a lot of businesses that can be run right out of a trailer or with a trailer. Here are a few of them.
Best Trailer Business ideas
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Become a mobile vintage clothing retailer
Being that a trailer is any vehicle that can be drawn along or hitched on another car, one can take advantage of that to open a mobile retailing business. You can decide to open a mobile vintage clothing store where you get to sell vintage clothing and accessories to people.
You can find a used trailer that comes at a reduced cost, get it repaired and painted up, then you add shelves and racks, arrange your clothing neatly in a row or hangers where they can be easily accessible to customers, and then you are ready to drive your trailer to places your ideal customers live or gather.
Note that you may have to acquire some licenses to run this business asides from your driver’s license, so you should endeavor to do your research.
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Mobile video game trailer business
Mobile mobile video game trailers are one of the hip entertainments at parties. They waltz into parties and send the kids into overdrive.
As long as people are still holding parties, this business would continue to be lit. You have to note that this business requires a lot of capital involvement because trailers and game consoles do cost quite a bundle, but if you manage to put them together, it is a fun and profitable business to start in the USA.
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Start a mobile farmers market
If you are going to be selling your farm produce in a trailer, then you know that you have to invest a little more funds than the average farmer selling on the roadside. It is pretty much the same concept all round. You get a trailer, stock it with your fresh farm produce and proceed to make strategic stops where you are guaranteed to meet up with your customers.
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Start an animal transportation business
This is another profitable business you can carry out with a trailer. This is because animals are too sensitive, and the only mode of transportation that can suit them is a trailer. Before you start transporting animals, you have to make sure that your trailer is safe, and that there is no chance of it getting unhitched.
There are different styles of trailers used to haul livestock like cattle and horses. The most common is the stock trailer, a trailer that is enclosed on the bottom, but has openings at approximately the eye level of the animals to allow ventilation.
Because horses are usually hauled for the purposes of competition or work, where they must be in peak physical condition, horse trailers are designed for the comfort and safety of the animals. They usually have adjustable vents and windows as well as suspension designed to provide a smooth ride and less stress on the animals.
You would be required to get extra licenses to start this business especially if you are doing it on a large scale. You would also need to have experience in handling animals so you can handle them in case any issues come up on the road.
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Boat Transportation Business
Transporting boats is another specialty business that can be lucrative and interesting if you intend to start a trailer related business. The boat transporting business involves helping boat owners ferry their boats to and from the rivers or seas.
This business is seasonal and you would tend to be more busy at the beginning and the end of the boating seasons, since everyone would want their boats taken into storage at the same time. To start this business, you would have to gauge your finances and decide what kind of boats you can transport.
A speedboat for the lake has a very different trailer requirement from a large sailboat with a mast and a keel. But if you keep your prices reasonable and become known for taking good care of the boats you transport, you may find people hiring you to take care of their boats for them.
To run this business, you will perhaps two or three different-sized trailers. Also important is liability insurance to cover the boats you transport.
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Sell or rent out travel trailers
A travel trailer is a trailer that is towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep, a place more comfortable and protected than a tent. Travel trailers boast of all the conveniences of home including a kitchen, dining, bathroom, entertainment and storage.
This business is capital intensive because you have to build these vehicles and sell them or provide them for rent. With a lot of people taking field trips these days, and a lot of businesses having gone mobile, this business is indeed profitable.
In fact, many commercial organizations choose to rent or lease semi-trailer equipment rather than own their own semi-trailers in order to free up capital and to keep trailer debt from appearing on their balance sheet.
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Rent or sell motorcycle trailers
A motorcycle trailer is either a trailer used to carry motorcycles or one that is pulled by a motorcycle in order to carry additional gear. People who go on hiking trips may need to pack additional luggage especially if they are not going alone, this is where they may need a motorcycle trailer to hitch up to their motorcycles to enable them carry all they want
Motorcycle trailers are often narrow and styled to match the appearance of the motorcycle they are intended to be towed behind. You can rent out or sell both the two wheeled version or single wheeled version.
Another version of this business is to buy a trailer that can help motorcycle manufacturers to transport their motorcycles from one point to the other. They may be designed specifically to carry motorcycles, with ramps and tie-downs, or may be a utility trailer adapted permanently or occasionally to haul one or more motorcycles.
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Sell child bike trailers
This accessory is definitely for the bikers at heart who cannot afford to leave their babies at home. Bike trailers that help people to go cycling with their children can be one of the most useful cycling accessories available.
These trailers offer a huge amount of extra carrying capacity, both as a comfortable place to put children while you pedal them around, and as a way to transport impressive amounts of less precious cargo too. Many trailers fit two children side by side so they can chat to each other. This business would do well in a community of bikers.
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Manufacture bicycle trailers
A bicycle trailer is a motorless wheeled frame with a hitch system for transporting cargo by bicycle. It can greatly increase a bike’s cargo capacity, allowing point-to-point haulage of heavy cargo.
There are various trailers that can be hitched to a bicycle such as the child trailer, the dog trailer and cargo trailer and they all come in varieties. To move ahead in this business, you should be able to market your product to bikers associations and families or communities that take biking seriously.
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Rent out construction trailers
Construction is one job that deals with a lot of loads. There are always heavy construction equipment to haul around whenever there is work going on, and this going back and forth can be made easier while using a trailer. Construction trailers are mobile structures (trailers) used to accommodate temporary offices, dining facilities and storage of building materials during construction projects.
Typically, these trailers are equipped with telephone lines and electrical power. Lavatories are usually provided for separately. They are often skid-mounted on trailers,or put on piles.
Construction trailers are often manufactured using traditional stick-frame construction. Intermodal containers are also being converted into construction trailers. Your trailers would usually be returned to you at the end of each project or as per your agreement with the client. You can purchase a couple of construction trailers and market them to construction firms.
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Sell or rent out Garden Trailers
Garden trailers are heavy duty trailers and carts for lawn and garden use. This is another trailer related business idea one can start and make profit from.
Garden trailers and carts make moving things around much easier in the garden. You can sell your garden trailers or rent them out, or you could run the two businesses together. They are loads of garden trailer and cart varieties, so be sure to stock that which is most useful in your community.
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Provide clean water to trailer homes
It is a fact that most trailer or motor-homes are not connected to water supply, and why would they be when they are only but temporary homes? You can set up a business that has high quality, low cost water filtration systems and then supply clean water to RV’ers, tiny houses or boat owners to enable them enjoy clean water wherever they go.
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Sell used cargo trailers
Cargo trailers are trailers that are utilized to transport goods, livestock and other items from one location to another. A cargo trailer is usually not equipped with a means of locomotion in and of itself. Instead, the trailer is normally attached to some means of conveyance in order to manage the transport from one location to another.
With the rise of mobile businesses that are trying to run their business on a shoestring, finding a place where they can rent decent fairly used trailers would be a blessing. You need to stock various kinds of trailers in order to appeal to various customers.
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Manufacture and sell utility trailers
A utility trailer makes a simple but ideal means of hauling machinery such as lawn mowing equipment from one location to another. Flatbed trailers can be used for moving furniture or hauling larger pieces of farm equipment with ease, since flatbeds do not have the height and width limitations of other kinds of cargo trailers.
While professionals usually feature in this business but it is also possible for individuals to construct trailers that work well for lighter tasks.
Many homemade utility trailers are created using a solid steel frame coupled with thick wooden planks for flooring. The bed of the trailer is mounted onto an axle and equipped with four to eight tires, depending on the size of the trailer. From there, the body may be enhanced with the addition of detachable rails around the edges or as a simple flatbed.
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Open a trailer park
With a lot of people lugging trailers around, they would always need a place to park when they want to unhitch their trailers and take their cars or motorcycles out to town. For this reason, they would need trailer parks. A trailer park is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers.
If you live in an area where a lot of trailers and caravans usually stop over, you could open a trailer park. You should ensure that your trailer park has adequate security, as no one would be happy if their trailer or goods get stolen when there are parked in your trailer park. This business would also need licenses and perhaps insurance to run.
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Become a freight mover
Freight movers are typically long haul cargo trailer drivers. A freight mover plays an important part in the shipping of goods from one part of the state or country to the other. From loading freight to preparing freight for pick-up, a freight mover is responsible for the safe and timely delivery or proper storage of many types of products and materials.
A freight mover needs to be in good physical condition, as the job requires lifting, carrying and bending. If you have these qualities, you can become a freight mover, and the job is quite a lucrative one especially if you are able to start your own company with your own trailers.
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Teach people how to construct trailers
Have you been in the automobile or trailer manufacturing business, or do you just have a hang of how trailers are manufactured, and you have a few under your name? You could take it further by teaching people how to manufacture these devices.
Manufacturing trailers would need special technical skills and experience, and you can offer this training to interested people for a fee. You may have to write notes or publish books you can share with your students. You can also publish and sell these books online in order to reach more people.
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Manufacture Refrigerated Trailers
Refrigerated trailer is a temperature-controlled type of trailer. It is generally used for transporting chilled or frozen products like meat, fruits, seafood etc. The temperature inside this trailer can be controlled regardless of what the outside weather is reading.
These essentially are moving cold rooms. You can manufacture and sell these types of trailers to businesses that deal in perishables.
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Manufacture Lowboy Trailers
A Lowboy Trailer is an unpowered trailer which is commonly used to haul freight. These kinds of trailers are generally designed to carry and transport taller goods and items.
This means that the items to be carried to a Lowboy Trailer are taller than the legal height of items that are commonly carried by flatbeds. This is another niche idea in the trailer manufacturing industry, and you can make good profits by constructing on demand.
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Manufacture Specialized Trailers
The freight industry is responsible for shipping millions of tons of products, goods, equipment and anything else you can think of daily. These items are shipped in all sorts of trailers, but sometimes there comes a need to have something shipped that is larger, has an unusual size or shape, or is heavier than normal items.
These items require a different type of trailer or a specialized trailer. Just like the name states, these specialized trailers are designed to help accommodate loads that come with complications or restrictions for normal transportation.
Some of the industries that require the use of specialized trailers are construction and manufacturing industries because of the large and sometimes over dimensional size of the load that needs to be transported. This manufacturing business is indeed capital intensive but very profitable.
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Provide trailer insurance
If your company requires the use of trailers for business purposes, then trailer insurance is a must before you can set up and run the business. Driving with a trailer, especially for commercial purposes, carries with it a load of risks.
You need to protect yourself and your business, so you must make sure that your commercial auto insurance policy includes trailer insurance. If you are an insurance company, you can extend to offering insurance for trailer companies. You can equally offer cargo insurance for those that haul cargo.
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Manufacture Trash Hauling Trailers
Trailers are always used to haul trash, and these are usually specialized trailers. If you are able, you can start coupling trailers that are used to haul trash and distribute them to companies that need them. A utility trailer is said to be best for hauling junk.
An open air trailer with raised walls gives you excellent ability to secure your load and the flexibility you need for your varying load types for any given day.
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Landscaping/flatbed trailer rental
When it comes to working hard, nothing helps get the job done right like the right set of tools. Sometimes the tool you need is more cargo space, which can be achieved by using a trailer pulled behind your work truck or other vehicle. Since many landscapers haul dirt, stones and other materials, as well as tools that include riding mowers, they need a trailer to haul these materials around.
The best for this scenario would be the flatbed trailer. Because there are a lot of landscaping companies out there who may need this trailer but cannot afford them, they would be glad to rent them instead. If you can market this business properly, it would yield a lot of profits for you.
Food trucks have proven that mobile businesses are successful avenue for profits. This in fact is one reason you should launch into this line of business, but you should make sure that you love cooking and selling food. A trailer catering business is a business that sells food out of a trailer.
A wide variety of foods have been known to be sold out of a trailer and they are making so much profit. You need to get a trailer, fit it according to your specifications, get your licenses and then you are in business.
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Start a trailer repair business
Trailers are put through tough use on a normal business day, and just like any mechanical apparatus, there are prone to break down.
If you are a seasoned truck mechanic, you can set up a business where you repair truck and trailers. To maximize the business, you can take it mobile by going to people’s houses and businesses to repair their broken down trailers. You can also offer maintenance services too.
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Ikea Hauling Business
Ikea Hauling involves helping customers deliver and assemble Ikea furniture. This is one great part time business that can be done off a trailer.
Here, you would need to visit an Ikea store, buy up furniture you know your customers would love, load them up in your trailer and start marketing. When you get orders, you deliver the furniture and help your customers assemble them if such is needed.
This business basically entails taking the entire Ikea website and catalog and opening it up to your clients so they can choose whatever suits them. If you want to cut costs in the business, you can wait for your customers to make the order before you go to an Ikea store to make the purchase. This business is suitable for people who live where there is no Ikea store around.
27. Rent Out Office Trailers
These days, a lot of entrepreneur run their businesses out of a trailer. Trailers offices have indeed come to stay and they are becoming quite popular. You can start constructing these offices with the aim of renting them out for a specified period to businesses that need them. To get easily rented, your mobile offices ought to be meticulously constructed and comfortable to be worked in.