I think my trailer is 6x10. I can just fit a 9 ft piano inside, but rarely have ocassion to transport that size. My trailer has a ramp door and a 6 foot high opening, double E-track down both sides. I've also installed a dozen or more surface mount D rings from Harbor Freight. These are incredibly handy for all sorts of other stuff you'll be using the trailer for besides moving pianos. Mine is a single axle. If you are custom ordering, you might consider making it a dual axle. The single axle makes for a much rougher ride for the cargo. When you get your trailer, take it to someone who knows something about welding steel structure. Most trailers are woefully under engineered, and adding a little steel here and there will hugely improve its load carrying ability. Pay attention to axle mounts. Also, go ahead and weld additional plates on the top and bottom of the tongue rails. The bottom of the ramp frame is another place I've reinforced. It had one steel square tube across the bottom, then vertical steel tubes butt welded to it, with very poor welds (in fact, check all the welds you can find). I added little triangular gussetts to overlap the joints, making it much stronger. After 20 years and thousands of moves, mine is falling apart but we keep welding it back together. It is used to move households, motorcycles, vending machines, lawn mowers, and sometimes pianos. I've often thought about getting a bigger one, but the small size is real convenient for backing over the lawns to the front porches. Dean Dean W May (812) 235-5272 voice and text PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY Terre Haute IN 47802 _____ From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Richard W. Bushey Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2012 8:24 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Cargo trailers I am looking to purchase a cargo trailer to move pianos (likely one at a time) to/from customer's home and shop mostly, and was curious what those here on the pianotech list would suggest. I would install e-trak for sure. I've been looking at either 5x8, or 6x10 cargo trailers. If I went with the smaller, I'd have to go another route when moving a 9' grand, but I'm thinking those times would be few and far between, however, I'd rather be prepared. One of my main concerns is that most of the cargo trailers I've seen have short doors, (about 4.5 - 5.5 feet) which isn't a problem as much with a spinet or console strapped to a piano dolly, but clearance becomes a real issue when moving tall uprights on a dolly or a grand, which would be on a grand skid on a dolly. Any suggestions as to what to purchase, work arounds that you all have found to work with the shorter standard doors, etc. Thanks! Richard W. Bushey Richard's Piano Service www.RichardsPianoService.com Rbushey at RichardsPianoService.com 573-765-9903 _____ I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter <http://www.spamfighter.com/len> . SPAMfighter has removed 847 of my spam emails to date. Do you have a slow PC? <http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen> Try free scan! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120701/72918d73/attachment.htm>
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