A flat side that still looks flat in five years
Cross builds enclosed cargo trailers with a bonded, screwless exterior, which is the detail that gets noticed first and the one that matters longest. No rows of fasteners through the skin means no rows of places for water to find, and a side that takes lettering properly if the trailer is carrying your business name down US-31. What we have from Cross in Holland is listed below.
Specifying an enclosed trailer you will still like
Enclosed trailers are bought on price and lived with on details. These are the ones that come up again a year later, usually as something the buyer wishes they had asked about.
If the trailer carries your name, the skin matters
A bonded exterior gives you an uninterrupted flat panel, which is what vinyl graphics need to sit down properly and stay down. A screwed skin has several hundred fastener heads for the vinyl to bridge and eventually lift around, and rust weeping from a fastener head shows through a wrap in a way that nothing fixes. For a contractor or a trades business, that alone often decides it.
Look at the roof and the seams, not just the walls
Water gets into enclosed trailers from the top, not the sides. Ask how the roof is attached and sealed, what the seam looks like where roof meets wall, and whether the sealant is something you can inspect and renew. Then get in the habit of checking it once a year. The trailers that fail early almost always failed at a seam somebody stopped looking at.
The floor and what you will drop on it
Standard enclosed cargo trailers use a wood floor, which is fine and replaceable, and which does not enjoy being wet repeatedly. Think about whether you will be loading dripping equipment, whether you want a coating on it, and whether you want tie-down points fixed through the floor or track along the walls. All of that is cheap at order time and a weekend of work afterward.
Single axle, tandem axle, and the honest answer
A single axle trailer is lighter, cheaper, easier to move around by hand and perfectly good up to its rating. A tandem is steadier at speed, safer if a tire lets go, and gives you brakes on more wheels. The rule of thumb that holds up: if you expect to spend much time within a few hundred pounds of the rating, or you tow a lot of highway miles, buy the tandem.
Build the spec list before you shop the price
Width, length, interior height, roof style, rear door, side door, floor, vents, lights, tie-downs and axle package. Write down what you want on each before you start comparing numbers, because otherwise you end up comparing two trailers that are not the same trailer. Bring that list in and we will tell you which items are worth the money for what you are hauling and which are not.
Common Cross questions
The exterior aluminum panels are bonded to the frame rather than fastened with rows of screws. You get an uninterrupted flat side with no fastener heads to weep rust, which also makes it a far better surface for vinyl graphics.
At the roof and the seam where the roof meets the wall, not through the sides. Ask how the roof is attached and sealed on any trailer you look at, and check that seam once a year.
If you will be loading wet or dirty equipment regularly, a coating and properly fixed tie-down points are worth specifying at order time. Adding them later is a weekend of work for something that cost very little at build.
Tandem if you tow a lot of highway miles or expect to load near the rating, because it is steadier and has brakes on more wheels. Single axle is lighter, cheaper and easier to maneuver by hand for lighter use.
Yes. Come in with your list of width, length, height, doors, floor and axle package and we will quote the build. Lead times move with the season.