Creating a topic for future reference so all information can be found in this little thread.
Im looking to add a ladder rack to my trailer and was hoping some of you guys who have had them fabricated by someone could chime in and give some insight on cost, added weight, dos and donts, and for the guys who added the nice signage, costs associated with that as well. Thanks in advance guys!
I’ll chime in.
I had mine made, because I do not weld. I had it made for the side of my 18’ open trailer, and the top of the ladder rack sits at about a 45 degree angle. It makes lifting the ladder off the trailer so easy. I believe I need to credit @Infinity for the idea if I remember correctly. Underneath of my ladder rack I stuck some PVC with a screw off end cap to hold my 20’ pole (credit @marinegrunt), then painted it black because white was an eyesore. I had pics of it on here at one time.
On a side note, if you live in the north and use that square hollow metal, be sure to drill some holes in it or it will explode in winter.
I’ve never paid for anyone to build anything on my trailers but I have built a ladder rack myself and will be building another one in a week or so. The first one I made out of 1.5" x 1.5" x 1/4" angle iron and it worked great. Both sides were independent of each other with the crossbars being bolted to them so that it could all be removed in about five minutes by one man. I recommend doing this as sometimes you need to pull a piece of equipment off the trailer and it makes it super easy to unbolt a crossbar and come in with a forklift and lift it up over the side or front of the trailer.
I am no pro welder but I know enough to be dangerous and I never had a single weld crack or show any signs of fatigue even after putting over 20k miles on that trailer with the rack on it. I made that rack approximately 6’ 5" tall so that signs could extend down from the top while still leaving plenty of room to reach in or step into the trailer for maintenance and whatnot. I never actually got around to putting signs on it but I intended to have full length signs down each side with a shorter sign down low across the back.
Crappy pic but it’s all I could find with a quick search through my photos and I’m too lazy to get up and grab my other phone lol
The one I’ll be building shortly will be out of 1.5" 14 gauge square tubing and I’ll be sure to take some detailed photos and measurements and post them here. Great thread idea by the way. I was just on here looking for cool ideas the other night and not much comes up in a search.
Don’t worry, the porosity in most of the welds I’ve seen on here let plenty of moisture in and out lol
I used 1 x2 x 1/8th steel tubing rack for my trailer. They are still on the trailer never a problem but made them too low (ouch from the head hitting them). Just make sure you have head clearance on yours.
Now building my next trailer is going to be all aluminum with 1 x 2 x1/8th tubing and tig welding them.
Was quoted 2-3 days welding at $1000/day plus material for a ladder rack on a 7x12 trailer. So between $3,000 and $4,000 i guess is what the quote is. Does this sound right? Seems high to me. My whole dual axle trailer with brakes was not much more than that a few years ago…
I think 2-3k plus materials sounds high to me. Are they doing something special with levers or powder coating it or something? Maybe you live in an expensive city, I live in the sticks so everything costs a little less. I am not a welder, but there are butt ton of welding guys on here.
I had angle iron on my last build and had the guy weld it into 5 removable pieces and bolt it onto the frame thinking when I sold the trailer one day I would take off the frame and remove my equipment… that was false I sold the whole thing but during that time bolting it was a mistake. Bolts would get loose and the whole rack would sway when it got really loose. I would constantly tighten the bolts up but even with locking washers it just wasn’t a good setup. So don’t bolt it lol…
My new build has welded 2 inch square tubing to make the ladder rack. No signage posts or ladder posts. Adds some decent weight but it’s sturdy as all can be and allows me to run wired inside of it to have a clean look and protected wiring. Overall I’m much happier I went with this and no more swaying. Incase this monster was to sway for some reason on the road and go on its side, most if not all of my equipment is protected in that ladder rack cage. So for ladder racks I like the 2 inch tubing. It’s beefy.
Awesome thanks for the input.
Im in new orleans so not an expensive city and an industrial area so theres tons of welders around here. We didnt discuss painting or coating it at all.
I was leaning towards designing it and having it bolted together myself but after the last comment above im not so sure anymore. I think ill design and source the material and just find some guy around here to weld it up on a saturday. May just weld the posts and bolt the horizontal members.
What did the new rack build cost you if you dont mind?
When I had welding done I had the ladder rack done, reel stacking mounts, equipment shelves, trailer lights relocated, tongue supports relocated, exhaust rerouted on both machines, and surface cleaner mounts done… so it was a lot. Came out to about 3k
Awesome thanks, so im probably being over charged for a simple ladder rack. Thats ehat i needed to know!
I’ll post some pics of my new ladder rack tomorrow afternoon when I get it mounted on the trailer. I’ll have to enter costs into my spreadsheet but if I had to guess I’d say I’m probably into it for around $1200 with material and labor. I did end up paying a local welder to weld it up as I just do not have the time. This has been the busiest March I’ve ever had business-wise and it’s been a struggle to finish the trailer while completing jobs and working around the weather.
Yeah $1200 was what i was hoping for! Thanks for the info.
Okay, got some pics. The rack isn’t 100% finished yet as I still have to install straps, signs, lights, remote box, etc but this gives you an idea of the basic layout. This trailer is a 76" x 14’.
This rack is made out of 1.5" 14 gauge square tubing. The mounting feet are made out of 2" x 1/4" flat bar. Two 3/8" stainless steel bolts in all six mounting points with stainless flat washers on each side with stainless nylon lock nuts.
Total height from top rail of trailer to top of rack is 42.25".
Total height from ground to top of rack is 71.5" when hooked to my truck.
Total width of rack from outside edge to outside edge is 80".
Total length from front of rack to rear is 163.5".
The area where the ladders actually sit is 6" below the top of the rack so that the ladders can sit in the rack and be enclosed on both sides.
I miss the chains, those metal straps aren’t nearly as cool.
If @Innocentbystander had gotten his way I’d still be running chains. Took me forever to get a reasonable shipping quote on those bands and even then I still had to have a family member pick them up at the Tank Depot near them and meet me halfway just to get them in time to actually go wash houses that I had on the schedule. I think the bands look much cleaner and hopefully won’t leave rust stains like the chains eventually did.
Very nice man thank you
I don’t wash nearly as much as you do, but mine haven’t rusted. I also put happy bottom (a foam pad that you put under above ground pool liners) underneath mine. It gets brittle fairly quickly and needs replaced, but I get free pieces when I am helping with pool jobs. The SH tank is held down with galv chain with happy bottom underneath of it, so it never sits right on the tank. The water tank chains have that yellow coating on them.
Just curious what caused them to rust and mark things up. I think your chains on your trailer inspired me to use galv chain on the SH tank, plus it looks more manly.
