Consession trailer with sleeping quarters

[Chef_Stan]

Hi all,
I am giving some thought to doing something unique. I am thinking about making a concssion trailer where I would make simple food for disaster relief workers, burgers, sandwiches, soup, eggs, that sort of thing. I would take this trailer to a disaster site and feed the disaster workers (FEMA cleanup jobs). I am a chef so the culinary stuff is covered.

The thing I am having a hard time with is how to carry water for keeping clean and sanitary conditions. I would guess if everything was served on disposables I would need water to wash my hands and clean the cooking equipment and mop the floor. I am guessing I would need about 50 gallons of water. I would need this to be all food grade water supply, I would probably also use this water for making things like soup and what not.

I would also want to have sleeping quarters in this trailer for myself and maybe one other person. It would not have to be extravagent but it should be nice, I would be living in this for several months at a time. I was thinking if I could get a 30 foot double axle trailer, I could have 10 to 15 feet for my living quarters and the remainder for the kitchen area. I could rent a port o potty to have on site for the customers and that could also be my bathroom and I could either go to a truck stop for a shower or build one in for myself. I just saw the houla hoop/water heater basin/ATV sprayer shower idea and I think that is brilliant.

I also thought If I could make some kind of panel-ized deck I could stuff into the kitchen area then set it up on cinderblocks when I get on site for an outside eating area with folding tables and chairs. I am see having a trailer with a back flip down ramp (toy hauler style) and build a wall just inside the trailer. Customers can walk up the ramp and place an order through a window.

The entire kitchen would have to be propane and electric and have a good sized generator. I am thinking this would be a big and heavy trailer that would need a sizeable truck to pull it around.

Please give me any thoughts. Thanks

Stan

[Engineer Guy]

My 31' Avion can be 'available'. 5,800 lbs. from the Factory. Sort of 1/2 -> 1/2 layout in that the Kitchen and Living Area are the front 1/2. The dividing point of these functions is about between the 2 Axles. Sleeping and Bath are the back 1/2. We've discussed converting it to serve up Hot Wings down on the Highway. I don't see that happening, however, due to so much being on my proverbial Plate.



See a nice Food-only Conversion here:

[8ball_99]

If your going to try and live in it for months at a time. I have a feeling your going to want a bathroom. You already will have to have atleast a water pump, hot water heater and grey water tank.. Adding a bathroom isn't much more trouble. All your talking is a little more plumbing and a black water tank..

As far as size goes.. yeah I'd say 30' or so..Here is a link to my Toy Hauler Thread.. Its a 7x24 with a front bathroom and 19' foot garage. Don't think you will find many large trailers on here. Not many on here with on board plumbing either. IMHO your going to need much more then 50 gallons of fresh water.. I've helped my dad build a couple of catering trailers. He only sets his up for maybe a weekend at a time and easily goes through 30-40 gallons of water washing off pans, ect. My camper has two 40 gallon tanks. I can either fill one or both. One tank will last 3 of us for a few days if we conserve a little. This is with us taking showers using the toilet, ect. I installed the two tanks just so if we had a longer stay planned or maybe some friends with tents staying beside us we had the option to carry more water..Its better to have to much water then not enough..

I'd say with a 30'+ trailer with supplies, full water tank, ect that yeah your going to need a pretty hefty truck.. I can pull my 26' with a 5.7 Tundra pretty easily. I also have a 2011 Duramax chevy 2500 now.. Going with the size trailer your talking about your going to want a 3/4 ton truck.. Depending on how much you plan on traveling maybe even a diesel.. lol probably something else you won't find a lot of on here

[Shadow Catcher]

First of all, this sounds like a great idea!
I encountered a lady at the Fulton County (Ohio) fair who is using a horse trailer with living quarters in the front including gooseneck as a photographic studio shooting horses. The big advantage is that the trailer is aluminum
One thing to remember is that not only do you have to have water but you have to have waste water tank, gray and black.
One other way would be a roach coach pulling a teardrop/TTT.
There are organizations that do this with regularity i.e Red Cross, find what others are doing and realize you can probably improve on it.
I think you will find folks here that will give you some great ideas

[Chef_Stan]

Thanks for all of thge input so far, keep it comming. A few more issues that I have thought about are this:

Water and waste water: I was thinking have the port o pot for customer use but also so I did not have to deal with Black water, just gray water. I was thinking if I could come up with something to transport water and gray water, like secondary tanks in the truck, this way I would not have to move the trailer a few times a week for water and dumping. But I don't know anything about this stuff. Keep in mind this would all have to meet approval by the board of health.

The roach coach with a travel trailer or tear drop: I have thought about this as well. The down side to this is I would see this venture with long drives to get propane, water and diesel fuel. I was thinking pulling a trailer and leaving that in place then running errands with the pick up would be more economical and practical. However as I think through the whole water issue the roach coach may be the better way. I would not want to live for months out of a teardrop, it would have to be either a cargo conversion or a travel trailer.

At this point this is in my thought planning stages. I am going to work this over in my mind for a while and do some cost anaylisis before jumping in.

I appriciate the input and I hoe for more.

By the way that Airstream conversion was sweet looking!

[GuitarPhotog]

Before going too far with this, you should check the Health Code to ensure that you can share living/cooking space in that manner. They are very restrictive about the newly-popular food trucks hereabouts.

<Chas>

[8ball_99]

I would also suggest checking on health codes to see if a trailer like that is legal. Not sure if they allow living quarters with a kitchen.. I guess worse case they might make you divide the trailer with two separate exterior doors. It still makes since to have both in one trailer just because you have a single water supply, power connection, Gas supply ect. Vs a roach wagon pulling a small camper that would require 2 of everything..

Dumping the tanks could be a little bit of a hassle, But honestly in my mind it would make since to be self contained as in full bath and water supply. Once a week or so take the trailer to fill the water tanks and dump the holding tanks. And really depending on the tank size and usage it could be less often.. You always have the option to get a porta john delivered on sight and not use the onboard toilet if you want.. At least you have the option. Never know you might show up somewhere and not be able to get a porta john or have a bathroom close by. You also might end up setting up some where with water and a porta john.. In that case no need to move the trailer at all. It makes since to set the trailer so its flexible since the situation would change each time..

[jwhite]

I have a friend that goes to bike rallys and he has a toyhauler for his bikes and a large water tank in the back of the truck, he also sets up a camp site with a small pool for people to get in and cool off in the summer.
If you had the water tank in the back of the truck you could leave the trailer set up and then leave and refill it if water is available close by?

[Shadow Catcher]

There are flexible water and waste tanks available. However you need to concentrate on what you do well and let others take responsibilities, you can not do it all!
Featherlite makes among other things emergency response trailers http://www.featherlitespecialty.com/trailer-gallery
and kitchen trailers. What I said originally included the towing of a TTT tiny travel trailer though a large tear such as ours can be comfortable.

[gregp136]

I would suggest you contact your local Red Cross. I know they have trailers like this already in operation, and are always looking for people to help. And yes, they ALWAYS need our help!!!

Greg and Laurie

[GarArnett]

Might want to look into a dedicated food service trailer that is NOT a 5th wheel and a truck bed camper that you can take out of the truck at the site - leaving the truck for errands. Just a thought. Glen-L and Butler have plans to build a truck bed camper that would be cheaper than what the new ones go for now, and you could make it how you want. Also, your trailer could be smaller to get the job done, making it easier to haul, maneuver, and possibly park in a smaller or more awkward space.

[OverTheTopCargoTrailer]

I say if you cant afford Shadow Catcher selection of fine trailers, then start small and go with a chuck wagon, just tell the local FEMA inspector your chuck wagon is grandfathered in since 1849.

no water, no gas, no electric = no worries

[8ball_99]

Buying a factory made concession trailer is an idea.. But they are VERY expensive.. My dad has built 4 so far and sold his first three. He didn't build them to sell them it just worked out that way when people offered him serval thousand more then he built them for he sold them.. I think you might be surprised what one of those factory made concession trailers go for. When you consider buying a 30k trailer or building one for half that makes a ton of since if you have the skill and free time to do so..
Thats what this forum is for.. I could have bought a Factory made toy hauler similar to mine for about 21k I built mine for 11.5k though. 10k savings was worth it. Infact I built the trailer and bought a second UTV to put in it for what just a Toy hauler would have cost!

[Chef_Stan]

My plan was to have a wall in between the sleeping quarters and the kitchen. However several of you have made a good point about the health department not liking the idea. I have to make something that will be accaptable to all health departments no matter where I roll into. I have some friends in the local health department I am going to field this question to them, but my gut tells me it is a no go.

The truck camper is a good idea that never occured to me, I am going to look into this possibility.

I also started to think what if I were to get a roach coach then pull a trailer. I could convert a cargo trailer into a camper (just like we discuss here), but my twist would be to make it so that I could haul my prius in the back. There are plenty of you who put quads in the back and they make these trailers for people who race, why not get a trailer stout enough to drive the prius into the back (I would probably have to get out of the car trough the window once it was in the trailer). This would give me economical transportation around town to run errands. You know the roach coach would meet health department standards. This might be the best of both worlds.

Keep the discussion going, I am happy to hear the input from others so far I have found it to be helpful.

Stan

[Wolfscout]

50 gallons of water is not alot of water for two people and cooking for others. I think you'd need two fresh/clean water stock tanks with on demand water pumps with multi-outlet ability to maintain pressure. I too think many new rules about food trucks and such are going to step up to haunt your endeavor.