If you’ve seen the light, and understand why an enclosed trailer is the best install option available, the next step in your install evolution is understanding how to best to set it up.
While simply transferring the A-frame out of your pickup bed and into the trailer would be a definite improvement, consider these five key factors that enable your installers to achieve optimal install performance.
Side Frames vs. A-frames:
An A-frame might be the fastest and cheapest way to set up your trailer, but right out of the gate it limits the trailer’s biggest advantage: the ability to roll a cart inside for easy loading and unloading of heavy counters.
The optimal arrangement is a full-size frame on one side for the large counters and a smaller, elevated frame on the opposite side for smaller counters that allows buckets and tools to be stored underneath.
Backsplash Storage
Ironically, while the backsplash is the last item installed on a job, it is usually the first thing unloaded from a typical install rig because it is transported next to the counters. In this situation, the splash must be picked up, moved, and set out of the way while the counters are installed.
An optimal install rig not only has a splash rack that gets the splash to the job site without damage, but it also stores them out of the way in the trailer to eliminate the double handling, which increases labor costs and the possibility of breakage.
Ramps = Roll
While the enclosed trailer is the “lowest” profile of all available options, even a single step in and out is too many when carrying heavy and awkward counters.
For one thing, it saps the installer’s strength that could otherwise be used more productively later in the day when leveling and adjusting counters. Additionally, it’s just plain slow.
The alternative is ramps! Whether it’s a Harbor Freight fold-up ramp, a Flexible Roll-A-Ramp, or a full-on trailer ramp, an install trailer is not an installer trailer unless your installers can roll counters and tools in and out of it.
Tool Storage
Every stone shop is different in the amount of work it leaves for its installers to do onsite, so the type and number of tools necessary varies from company to company.
What doesn’t vary is the need to properly store and organize those tools so they are easily found when needed.
The only thing worse than a pile of tools and extension cords in the rig is realizing that the tool you need was left at the shop or the last job site due to the chaotic lack of storage.
Racks, buckets, and boxes that provide “the place” where tools go increases productivity onsite reduces the likelihood that tools will be forgotten and generally creates a high-performance environment.
Dollies & Carts
No install trailer should ever be onsite without a four-wheel dolly and an install cart. A dolly gets super tall counters out of the trailer and through doorways without damage to pieces or installers.
Install carts, like the No Lift Install Cart & System, are equally essential and when combined with a ramp out of the trailer and a ramp into the house enable two installers to do the work of three in less time. This lowers unnecessary labor costs and increases productivity and quality.
If you have decided to multiply your install effectiveness by investing in an enclosed trailer, you are on your way to the best install rig in the business!
Adding these five key factors to your trailer will ensure it is the best. And the benefit to your company’s profits, your installers well being, and the finished product in your customer’s home will be unparalleled.
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