Custom Catering Trailer – GT Trailer

In our guide to the GT Trailer, we’ll explain what types of businesses it’s ideal for, how the design helps you make more money and all about this catering trailer, from it’s advantages over other catering units through to its main features and its technical specification.

This style of catering trailer is ideal if you:

• You want to generate maximum revenue in the minimum time (sounds obvious but read on)
• Trade at festivals, shows, events or stadiums
• Operate a fleet of trailers
• Want to blow your competition out of the water in terms of appearance and branding
• Will do roadshows or food demonstrations such as giving away food outside a supermarket
• Want to serve your food direct from the trailer to your customer
• Don’t want the expense of a new vehicle conversion which will only do low mileage over the life of the vehicle

With our experience we’ll work with you to understand how your business model works and what size of trailer will work best for you. So how much food do you want to sell and what type of food? Our GT range of trailers come in various lengths and sizes so we can agree on the best size and configuration to work for your business. Of course we’ll also take into account your budget.

When we design your unit here’s what we aim for:

• Get the most output from the unit, in line with your targets
• Make the unit efficient and easy to use, so the best till and kitchen efficiency and ease of cleaning
• Like bees to honey, make sure your unit attracts lots of customers
• Keep your business safe and legal

• With a variety of sizes to choose from we will help you plan the best configuration of space and equipment to combine with your plans for output and the number of people in your team. Maximum output, minimum cost
• You want to make sure you can produce the right quality of food, consistently
• You also want to be able to prepare that food in the right flow to satisfy customers, that normally means speed and quantity of cooking and storage of hot food
• If you want to switch the products you sell at different events, we have a special system to allow you to change branding on the trailer
• We make sure your customers will be able to see more of what you’re doing when preparing their food as the floor height of our trailer is designed to be lower than most other trailers, so your serving counters are also lower
• Plus every trailer we supply is type approved by the Vehicle Certification Agency

“Very friendly customer service, great communication, quick turnaround and a brilliant end product.”

Michael Sladden, Operations Director, MOB Kitchen, London

Read more testimonials

There are advantages to both. But here’s the common reasons people choose a trailer over a vehicle conversion:

• You typically pay by pitch frontage at events and festivals. A trailer simply has more service frontage compared with the same amount of space for a vehicle
• With a full-length service hatch you can have multiple till stations, or you can display your food under the noses of your clients. The more they see the more they buy is our experience
• A trailer loses the big weight disadvantages of a van, with both restricted to 3,500 kg you lose the weight of the cab, engine etc. That gives you more carrying capacity and more room
• You can carry more stock so there are less restrictions on volume of sales
• With a long wheelbase panel van as the towing vehicle you can carry more stock, gas, tables and chairs
• You’re not at risk if the vehicle breaks down, you can easily replace just the vehicle, you can’t replace a catering van in the same way
• There’s more space for branding so you can attract people more easily
• The investment in your trailer is less than the cost of a vehicle conversion
• Generally running costs are lower, you can use the towing vehicle elsewhere and spread the costs of vehicle maintenance, MOT, tax etc.

Again, with our experience we can help you choose the best towing vehicle to combine with the storage on your trailer. That way you get the best combination of usable space for how you will set up on site. We also know what vehicles tow best.

As you may well already know, most large-scale events and attractions charge pitch fees based on the amount of frontage or floor space that you require, Typically that’s about 2.5m you have to pay for space that cannot be used for the cab of a vehicle where you don’t if it’s a trailer.

You may also realise the most popular types of food command higher pitch fees and will get the best locations, that’s simple economics about how the organisers work out who can afford to pay the most. At the other end of the spectrum, if you have a specialist or niche product your fee may be lower, but you won’t get the best site. Either way, your unit has got to work hard either to just pay its way or make sure you attract more people.

There are attractions to the gazebo style street food set up, here’s why we think serious catering businesses choose to make the extra investment:

• You can be on site and ready to start trade within as little as 20 to 30 minutes. Plus our trailers are designed to be easy to set up and close down, so your team don’t need special skills. A gazebo style set up can take you hours to get going
• Trailers are safer, no doubt about it. All the critical gas pipework and electrical wiring systems are installed permanently, out of harm’s way, safely away from the team and customers
• The area on the front of a trailer just lends itself to quality permanent signwriting to attract more customers

• Taking payment is one of the most important areas for any catering business and it may have specific challenges for you at bigger events. There are network and satellite options available that mean you won’t be challenged for network access that can slow down throughput badly at peak times
• We have systems that allow you to have your own line of communication over and above the network providers. This means you can process more customers when your competitors could be struggling
• This is a must have piece of kit if you want your business to be resilient wherever you go

You can double the available working space by installing one of our anexe rooms. That’s been achieved by several of our clients in the past who have been able to double or triple the amount of food they can serve per hour.

A lot of shows and events charge their pitches by the length of the frontage but will give you scope and capacity to have a deeper footprint. One of our anexe rooms gives extra capacity for production and/or storage out of sight, in turn giving you more space for display and tills in the trailer itself. They can be designed to be as functional as you want them to be as you’ll see in these photos. Just ask us for more information.

You may need to check what driving license you currently hold. Our range of trailers may require you or one of your team to get a towing license (category E). If you passed your test before January 1997 this was an automatic entitlement and that will still apply. Contact us for more details.

Read the detailed technical specification below you’ll get a good flavour of how much work and quality we put into every trailer we build. That starts with the detailed design specification, how we put the trailer together, and ends with our detailed quality control process before we allow any unit to leave our workshop.

Here’s a summary of how we make sure every unit reaches the same high quality standard:

• All the designs focus on output levels, efficiency, team comfort and food quality, yet don’t compromise at all in the quality of the build throughout your unit
• The materials we use are the best and we don’t skimp – so for example the fibreglass panels are 35 mm to give long-term rigidity, the chassis is heavy-duty and galvanised
• The basis of construction, so using replaceable corner mouldings on the trailer body, will keep your unit looking prim and pristine long into its life
• The level of standard equipment is planned to make sure your business is safe, right down to the little details, from the inclusion of a fire extinguisher, to the standard of the locks, to the heavy-duty jockey wheel
• All our team are carefully trained and regularly assessed in house, so they understand our high craftmanship standards
• We have attained ISO 9001:2015 to make sure we have great systems and processes in place and stick to them
• Every vehicle must pass through three stages of quality control before we let you see the finished product

We could go on further because we’re passionate about the quality of the work we do. We hope you get the idea.

• Made from 35mm high gloss fibreglass panels, this provides you with the ultimate strength trailer designed for even the toughest demands and yet still remains light
• The carrying capacity ranges from 2,000 kg up to 3,500 kg dependent on the size you choose and the equipment you need
• Sizes are available from 3.1 m (10’2″) to 6.7 m (22′) in length (internal body measurements)
• The standard width is 2.13 m (7′) upgradeable to 2.35 m (7’6″). These are internal measurements
• It has a proper heavy-duty jockey wheel to help stop this trailer landing on your foot (not all trailers have this, beware)
• The smaller GT Trailers are on twin axles and the longer trailers can be on tri-axles. This means the trailers are very stable on the road and, god forbid, in the event of a tyre blowout, you still have other tyres to allow a controlled stop
• You benefit from our approved heavy-duty galvanised steel chassis which was designed for 10,000 kg loads – there’s no such thing as overengineered when it comes to your safety. If the chassis is too light it can do a good impersonation of a banana shape
• The walls and the roof are all 35 mm thick insulated fibreglass composite construction to provide maximum strength and durability for the whole unit. The industry standard ranges from 14 mm timber panels (not ideal when they get water in them and rot) through to around 20 mm thick. We think you could hold a party on the roof of one of your units and they will last a long time
• We fit all round exclusive ‘clip on’ anodised aluminium corner mouldings. It’s almost inevitable that you or one of your team will ‘knock’ the trailer, maybe on a fence or a post. Our corner moulding system allows these to be changed so you have the option to keep your trailer tidy. We use replaceable mouldings rather than unsightly screws and bolts on the trailer corner capping to give the unit its strength
• The gas bottle housing is fire rated in accordance with CoP 24:part3. It’s installed onto the A-frame of the trailer; made to suit the number of bottles you require (minimum 2x 19 kg gas bottles) with a lockable door for additional protection and security
• The bi-folding hatch sign board is ready for signwriting to entice the customers to your trailer
• Our one piece extruded aluminium hinge fitted to the hatch panel and bi-folding panel prevents rainwater running off directly onto your customers as they wait for their food and drinks.
• The wheel arch in-fill panels keep your trailer looking sleek with the added benefit that you can access and change the wheels in the event of a puncture with ease. Similar systems are bolted in place, you benefit from our quick release version
• All main doors and hatches come with 5-lever locks for added security and your peace of mind
• We use an 18mm phenolic chemical resistant floor with non-slip food safe flooring (colour of your choice)
• The 230 volt electrical mains pack comes complete with 2 x 4′ water resistant lights, 2 x 13 amp twin socket outlets, full protective devices and 10 metre extension cable (upgradeable to any configuration required – i.e. 400 volt three phase)
• The regulated hot and cold water system ensures you have safe water temperatures for your staff to operate without burning their hands whilst ensuring the water is hot enough to kill any potential bacteria in the system
• The back saving water filling system fitted to your 20 litre deluxe LPG boiler saves you lugging and lifting heavy jerry cans full of water to fill the boiler
• Wipe clean heavy-duty stainless-steel worktops make sure you can maintain a clean food safe working environment (upgradeable rolled edge worktops available)
• You’ll have recessed customer shelving – this means your serving hatch is deeper so more clients can stand under there protected from the rain during inclement weather (and that means more business in our experience)
• Full NICEIC electrical installation certificate (valid for 12 months)
• Full ‘Gas Safe’ ‘Mobile Catering Vehicle Safety Inspection’ (valid for 12months)
• Comprehensive no quibble warranty – our warranty is simple. If it’s our fault, call us and we’ll put it right*

* In the event you have an equipment failure, call our office and we’ll either handle the repair process whilst in the warranty period or we’ll get you the details of who you need to call – some equipment manufacturers will only communicate with the dealer, others will only communicate with the user. We back our trailers with a 2 year (parts and labour) back-to-base warranty (excluding the equipment which we purchase on your behalf, i.e. cooking and refrigeration appliances).