Description of Construction and Use
The posts and beams are of basswood, a little lighter than pine and certainly more than strong enough for this application. The roof is a re-purposed bill board canvas stretched over a curved plywood frame. Side tables remove and stow away inside the trailer while side doors swing closed and latch in the middle and the roof awnings fold down and latch to travel over the road. Built in drawers manage paperwork and tools, under table space keeps totes full of produce cool and a sliding center table makes the trailer presentable as the same from any angle depending on which market location were parked in. After some trial and error dealing with the dynamics of vendor/customer at farmers market we determined the best place for us is to sit inside the trailer behind the center table, with the table pushed forward just enough to leave a shelf on the floor in front of it. A table cloth over the sliding table brings the whole display together. We found that when set up to invite customers to step up into the trailer people were very hesitant to walk in, so to keep boundaries clear we settled on this setup.
We dreamed this up after getting tired of crawling in and out of the back of a pickup with a cap on it every time we would load or unload from market. We still transport some produce in the back of the truck when harvest season in in full swing, but for the most part, all produce rides in the trailer. As well as all display baskets, paperwork, signs and any other market paraphernalia. This keeps the whole market going experience much less stressful by keeping everything for market in the same place and the trailer parks right next to our wash station and walk in cooler.
Besides making marketing more fun and less of a hassle, the trailer always draws customers out of curiosity. Lots of good conversations begin around the design of the trailer, and end in bags full of produce bought.
We started towing this about 3 seasons ago behind our little 4 cyl. Nissan pickup, and though it pulled it, during peak harvest the truck was really working to keep up speed. The 6 cyl. we use now manages it just fine. One consideration is market locations, if parking is kind of tight at the market, learning how to back up a trailer pretty precisely becomes a must so as not to cause too much of a scene pulling into the market. That said, once backed into place, quick work of the jack stand unhitches you and the truck is gone and parked elsewhere while everyone else is still unloading. Leaving us to just "open up shop."
