[Ned Kelly]

Advice please. My payments are up on my family car soon and I'm set to be £300 richer every month (yeehaa). Was thinking of investing in a new van but then remember seeing a photo of Derek Bolton with a 4x4 and a trailer with his machine in it and it got me wondering. I'm now thinking of selling the car and investing in a Toyota Hilux (or something similar) and a box trailer. Fit the trailer out with hose reel etc get it tarted up with some signage and away I go lol. I'm used to reversing trailers in tight situations in my old job so this wouldn't be a problem and also the fact that I could just reverse the trailer into the garage at night and not worry about unpacking the machine etc in the winter sounds great. I can then just use the Hilux as the family car at night or weekends. Does anybody do this or something similar and are there any potential pitfalls?

[mr muzzy]

hilux with a trailer on the back do you think you will be able to park up any were ,
might be a bit of a bugger , in my van i have a ninja for jobs i need to use as a porty

if i can get close enough i have an enforcer what just stays in the back and run a hose in to the house

[Ned Kelly]

Thought about this too mr muzzy but I worked with the electricity board for years towing trailers with mini excavators on the back and managed to get close to where I was working most of the time. Also maybe 60% of my customers have driveways.

[mr muzzy]

do you not find trailers bouce about that little bit more ned

[Ned Kelly]

Good point mr muzzy. Also, your always looking in your mirrors to make sure it's still there lol

[Mike Halliday]

I tow a trailer behind a LWB Iveco 80% of my work day  and can’t remember the last time I had access issues,  if when I do the quote if it looks like their might be a problem I tell the customer that I need extra space and they park their cars in a space.

Modern pickups are like cars inside and are very useful. What I like about the trailer is I can drop it off, my son can start working and I can drive off and do other business like quotes or go the bank

[mr muzzy]

so a 5.50  m van with a lets say 4.0m trailer with the draw bar .thats 9.50 m 31 foot
and you never have a problem parking really

[Ned Kelly]

Gonna have a good think about this but I'm edging towards the trailer option. Obviously the major downside of it could be access, but as I survey every job anyway I can see  what I'm up against and as a experienced trailer driver I have got myself out a fair few tight situations. Most of my customers tend to have driveways also. Upside would be the upkeep of one vehicle which in the long term I reckon is going to save me thousands and also the fact I can just reverse it into the garage (especially in the winter) and just forget about it. Mike  you wouldn't haven't any photos of your set-up to give me some ideas?

[Mike Halliday]

It’s a pressure washing set up so not much use to you.

I’m trying hard but I can’t think of a job I have been able to do because of the length of the set up. 

[Marius Alexandru]

try doing that in london  . I sold a LWB vivaro after 2 weeks.

[Kev Martin]

London is a little different but we always plan every job there down to the last detail and I suppose we are at most jobs there for at least one complete day up to the sky is the limit.