Lake Forest Handyman SMART construction/remodel trailer design and build.

​Overview               Design               Purchase               Build               In Use

Lake Forest Handyman has experienced tremendous growth in the last 4 years.  As our customer base has grown so have our abilities and our general scope of work .  This has inspired a great deal of change ultimately requiring greater tooling, accessibility, and transportation. 

​My intention is to share in greater detail how I put everything together, my challenges, my shortcuts, the materials I acquired, and processes put forward to design, fabricate, and implement this asset into my business.

Our story begins in the middle of 2018.  My wife and I were running out of space in our home.  My tools had grown to the point where they were friends at the dinner table.  I knew that the next phase was going to be to find something to hold all of my tooling in one place  while allowing it to be as portable and accessible as possible.  

After years of wondering if a sprinter style van, cargo van, or an enclosed trailer would be better for our needs, I had to make a decision.  

Careful research, test drives, and inspections lead me to the conclusion that an enclosed trailer would be best suited to our needs.  It offered the storage that we needed, the portability that we required, as well as the safety and security best suited for the job sites that we have been working on and anticipated growing into. 

I searched through Craigslist and other trailer sites daily but my searches didn't yield a single result that met all of our needs.  This meant that I would have to purchase NEW and pushing the purchase out nearly another year. 

Fast forward to 2019 and Lake Forest Handyman was stable enough to support purchasing a brand new enclosed trailer.  This is that build from purchase to current use.  I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us will@lakeforesthandyman.com

I decided that a 7x12 tandem axle would be perfect.  I knew that I would prefer a v-nose for aerodynamics as they offer a little more stability at highway speeds.  84" of head room while in the trailer would be ideal for overhead storage and to not feel claustrophobic while in the trailer.  Trailers are typically offered with 24" side post spacing or 16".  For the weight and security of the cabinetry, I knew that 16" would be necessary.  

In my research, I came across Ron Paulk and his series of carpentry videos.  He offers plans for a lot of the designs that he has created.  I purchased plans for a trailer that he had designed and went from there.  I very quickly learned that there was zero chance that these inch by inch plans would fit the trailer that I purchased while accounting for the needs of our tooling.  I decided on starting a design from scratch using sketchup.  I started by reaching out to the trailer dealer to give me detailed measurements.  They were incredibly helpful and gave me measurements of a similar trailer, but not the exact trailer I had ordered.  This turned out later to be a huge setback as they were not even close to the same and although I had some wiggle room in my cabinet sizing, I didn't have THAT much wiggle room. I had to re-build many of the cabinets in sketchup to accommodate the actual dimensions once I measured it post delivery.

As I began the blocking phase in sketchup, I was also methodically inspecting every product on every aisle in Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Costco, Lowes, and everywhere else my wife and I traveled.  The intention was to find designs and concepts that would inspire me and give me practical applications to make my build more efficient and to create space.  I was able to take develop some fantastic ideas to add to a a great foundation. 

​My design featured some of the following details:

  • 6' deep "garage" at 37" high to accomodate my Paulk Workbench

  • 8' deep upper to support possible 8' bench in the future

  • level and track storage

  • 28" deep storage drawer boxes

  • double sided shelving accessible through side door

  • 3 heights of adjustable tool storage for nailer down to sanders

  • 7' long drawers for shovels, Fastcap 3rd hands, Tyvek, etc

  • 7' deep storage for planking

  • Identical drawer widths for faster production of 20 drawer boxes

  • Storage for compressor and pressure washer under cabinetry


One of the most important parts of the design that I nearly forgot about is security.  In this build, security was of paramount importance to me.  After all, my family, my career, and my employees all rely on this one major asset to our business in order to operate every day.  My advice: Spare no expense when it comes to security.

My security design features include:


and most importantly; Insurance.  At the end of the day, if somebody wants something badly enough, nothing will stop them.  Insurance is the protection that helps me (and possibly you) rest at night.