Building Tough: How Summit Trailers Redefines Durability for Homeowners and Contractors

Eric G.: 00:00:37

Foreign the house.

Brad Nelson: 00:00:43

There's a big difference when you're looking at trailers and you guys seem to have really come up with the secret to building something strong and reliable without it being over the top on price.

Eric G.: 00:00:54

Yeah, and that's exactly it.

Eric G.: 00:00:55

We are competing with all those that you were you just mentioned and there are some of those and there's a lot of trailer companies that make a good trailer.

Eric G.: 00:01:03

We think ours are the best and and we stand behind ours.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:07

Around the House show is brought to by Pyramid Heating and Cooling serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:14

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Brad Nelson: 00:01:18

pyramidheating.com Oregon CCB: 59382

Eric G.: 00:01:24

Remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know but we've got you covered.

Eric G.: 00:01:30

This is AROUND the House.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:32

Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:36

I'm Eric G.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:37

Thanks for joining me today.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:39

This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grill.

Brad Nelson: 00:01:42

If you're looking for a barbecue that's under 900 bucks and want something quality, check them out at monument grills.com we are going to be talking here with somebody that has this amazing company and as a user myself, this has made my life so much easier on projects around the house.

Brad Nelson: 00:02:01

Brad Nelson, Summit Trailers welcome to around the House brother.

Eric G.: 00:02:05

Hey, thanks Eric.

Eric G.: 00:02:06

Great having to having me on.

Brad Nelson: 00:02:09

Yeah, absolutely man.

Brad Nelson: 00:02:11

Here's the thing.

Brad Nelson: 00:02:12

You and I met when I came out and did the around the house northwest tour of your factory and got to see what handcrafting and I say crafting because you don't have a bunch of hack welders out there trying to grind away the ugliness.

Brad Nelson: 00:02:25

You have craftspeople out there building beautiful trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:02:30

What got you started with some of trailers?

Eric G.: 00:02:33

I'm a manufacturing guy.

Eric G.: 00:02:35

I've just loves seeing stuff built.

Eric G.: 00:02:38

Building it myself always have been.

Eric G.: 00:02:40

My background's aerospace actually.

Eric G.: 00:02:42

So it's not even trailers.

Eric G.: 00:02:43

And we did.

Eric G.: 00:02:44

I worked for a company that grew really big over the 25 years I was with them.

Eric G.: 00:02:49

We did aerospace details, precision sheet metal stuff, micrometers and calipers and all that kind of thing.

Eric G.: 00:02:56

I was with them for like I said 25 years.

Eric G.: 00:02:58

I ran two different plants for them and it was just time to leave after, after that.

Eric G.: 00:03:03

So I was looking for companies to buy and looked at a lot of them and one of them was a trailer company.

Eric G.: 00:03:08

Couldn't close the deal.

Eric G.: 00:03:10

But still perked my interest that I think with my background we could do something different.

Eric G.: 00:03:15

And so decided since I couldn't find one to buy, we just going to start one ourselves.

Eric G.: 00:03:20

So that's what we did nine years ago.

Brad Nelson: 00:03:23

That explains so much about the quality because with that aerospace background, stuff has to fit perfectly, machined like a glove.

Brad Nelson: 00:03:33

And that really describes your trailers in that they are finely built and things work as they're intended and they're tough as nails.

Eric G.: 00:03:46

Yeah, the, the whole idea of with jigs and the things we do, that's from my background.

Eric G.: 00:03:52

And I only want to make a high quality product.

Eric G.: 00:03:54

I didn't want to just slap some trailers together or whatever it is I was going to make.

Eric G.: 00:04:00

We wanted to be different.

Eric G.: 00:04:01

So there was three, three things that I said we want to do.

Eric G.: 00:04:05

One is we want to make a high quality product.

Eric G.: 00:04:08

So in this case it's trailers.

Eric G.: 00:04:10

We want to use jigs, we want to make sure that they're always the same, they're square, they're.

Eric G.: 00:04:13

They're just, you know, they're just always the same thing.

Eric G.: 00:04:17

Second, we wanted to, where possible, be an extension of our customer that also comes back from my aerospace days.

Eric G.: 00:04:24

If it doesn't seem like it sometimes if you're a large supplier to Boeing or Gulfstream or any of those big companies, you really are an extension of them because without you they're not going to build any planes.

Eric G.: 00:04:35

And so you got to work with them all the time.

Eric G.: 00:04:38

Really wanted to try to do that.

Eric G.: 00:04:39

I think we've had some good success there.

Eric G.: 00:04:42

And we want to be easy to work with, transparent, never lie, cheat, steal, just be ourselves.

Eric G.: 00:04:48

And if you like us, great.

Eric G.: 00:04:50

And if you don't.

Eric G.: 00:04:52

And that's always been the way I've operated, including with the large aerospace companies.

Eric G.: 00:04:57

And then the third thing was create a great place to work.

Eric G.: 00:05:01

You have a great team, take care of your people.

Eric G.: 00:05:03

Again, don't make money by not treating them well or not paying them or messing around with them.

Eric G.: 00:05:12

They are who make the trailers.

Eric G.: 00:05:14

They make the product.

Eric G.: 00:05:15

If we're going to make money, be successful, it's going to be off our trailers and they're part of that.

Eric G.: 00:05:19

So we have, we start out with nothing and pretty proud that we quickly were able to add all full benefits for Everybody from medical, dental, 401k, all that stuff paid time off.

Eric G.: 00:05:32

And so it's been a.

Eric G.: 00:05:33

And then in addition to that we have like monthly fun team events where we next month is a paper airplane contest who can.

Eric G.: 00:05:41

And last month was let's See, in October we did pumpkin carving or not carving.

Eric G.: 00:05:46

We won't let them have.

Eric G.: 00:05:47

They're great, but we won't give them knives.

Eric G.: 00:05:49

So it was pumpkin painting.

Eric G.: 00:05:50

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:05:51

And there we go.

Eric G.: 00:05:52

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:05:52

And.

Eric G.: 00:05:53

And then last month was bridge building.

Eric G.: 00:05:55

So the, the classic build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and hang some weight on it.

Eric G.: 00:05:59

And it was pretty funny.

Eric G.: 00:06:00

The, the.

Eric G.: 00:06:01

Some of these were really ugly and.

Eric G.: 00:06:03

But they held some serious weight and so much that we underestimated how much weight they're going to hold.

Eric G.: 00:06:08

So we said, okay.

Eric G.: 00:06:09

We had all the weights set up and the first trailer up, we ran out of weights.

Eric G.: 00:06:13

We had to run over to the steel area and cut some more real fast to, to do it.

Eric G.: 00:06:17

So it was fun.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:19

That's awesome.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:20

And that is one thing I will say.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:22

I've walked through a lot of manufacturing facilities over the last 18 months and walking through yours is one of the handful.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:28

And it's a handful that you walk through and you get smiles.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:32

You've got happy people working there and you can tell they just enjoy their job and the work they do shows in that.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:40

And that's a beautiful thing.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:41

You could just tell walking through there.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:42

The smiles, the haze.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:44

I've been through a lot of places that I'll never mention, but you walk through and they're like, oh, the boss is coming.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:49

And they hunch down and get in their little safe space and keep working, but completely the opposite.

Brad Nelson: 00:06:55

So hats off to you and your team there of, of having great craftspeople there and making it a happy place to work.

Eric G.: 00:07:03

Yeah, the, it's funny with the, the head down thing, a lot of our new people do that.

Eric G.: 00:07:07

When I walk through, they don't.

Eric G.: 00:07:09

Haven't seen our environment quite yet, even though we tell them about it.

Eric G.: 00:07:11

But then later on they're good.

Eric G.: 00:07:13

You start talking to them a little bit, ask them about whatever's going on, and then pretty soon they open up and think, oh, okay, I can, it's a safe place.

Brad Nelson: 00:07:21

So, yeah, I can actually do this here.

Brad Nelson: 00:09:13

So, yeah, and that's a key because we see that so much out there that, you know, everybody's just so protectant of.

Brad Nelson: 00:09:19

Okay, I just, I'm just going to stay under the radar and I won't get hassled.

Brad Nelson: 00:09:22

And when you've got a healthy work environment, everybody can communicate, which really solves a lot of problems.

Brad Nelson: 00:09:28

Long term.

Eric G.: 00:09:29

It solves a lot of problems and that's how we solve our problems.

Eric G.: 00:09:33

So we, as a leadership team and myself, we may come up with this is the problem that needs to be solved.

Eric G.: 00:09:41

This is the thing that needs to be done better.

Eric G.: 00:09:44

But we don't do it in a vacuum.

Eric G.: 00:09:46

We really try to get our employees, and especially the ones that are actually doing that, whatever it is that we're trying to fix or make better.

Eric G.: 00:09:55

And yeah, that's how you get good solutions.

Eric G.: 00:09:58

I always joke that, that managers are not allowed to make decisions like that because like, and also joke I'm the guy with a thousand bad ideas and, but I throw them out every day.

Eric G.: 00:10:10

I toss them out and the whole idea is that they listen to it.

Eric G.: 00:10:14

They shake their head and say, yeah, that's probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Eric G.: 00:10:17

But what if we did it this way?

Eric G.: 00:10:19

And then, okay, there you go.

Eric G.: 00:10:21

I don't care.

Eric G.: 00:10:21

I'm, I, I'm not the one that needs to solve the problems.

Eric G.: 00:10:24

Neither are my managers.

Eric G.: 00:10:25

It's the people out on the floor.

Brad Nelson: 00:10:27

You need the solution.

Brad Nelson: 00:10:28

And that's usually the best one coming from the people that are doing every day going, this would make this a lot easier and better.

Brad Nelson: 00:10:33

All right, perfect.

Eric G.: 00:10:34

Yep, that's it.

Eric G.: 00:10:35

That's where they come from.

Eric G.: 00:10:36

I tell everybody, if you're working and you all of a sudden say, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen, or this is really difficult, or you've just handed somebody a problem, if you want to bring it up, that's the solute.

Eric G.: 00:10:51

That's something that needs to be solved right there.

Eric G.: 00:10:53

It doesn't have to go through a bunch of data gathering.

Eric G.: 00:10:56

And again, engineers doing, you know, that's the other thing.

Eric G.: 00:10:59

Engineers aren't allowed to solve any of the problems either.

Eric G.: 00:11:02

So all the engineers in the world are not going what I say, they have a, they really do provide a great value.

Eric G.: 00:11:06

But the, really taking the waste out of a process, that's, that needs to come off the floor.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:13

Yeah, very smart, very smart.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:15

There's a lot of trailer manufacturers around out there and you know, there's a lot of them coming out of the south down there that are what I would describe, at least in my words, are lighter duty, thrown together trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:28

And they fit that part in the market.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:29

They're the cheapest ones when you walk onto a sales lot.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:33

And they're also the ones that don't tend to last in my experience, under heavy use.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:39

I've got a buddy that bought one a number of years ago and he uses it for his contracting business just off and on.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:45

And I can see there's cracks in the welds.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:49

It was built really out of too thin of material.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:52

So you get the thing halfway loaded and it looks like it's under stress.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:56

And then being a dumb trailer, he gets half the weight in it.

Brad Nelson: 00:11:59

And he's always debating am I gonna have to hand unload this or not because the ram isn't heavy duty enough or whatever's not heavy duty enough to be able to dump the dang trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:12:08

So half the time he's down at the transfer station shoveling the dang thing out by hand.

Brad Nelson: 00:12:13

And it's.

Brad Nelson: 00:12:13

There's a big difference when you're looking at trailers and you guys seem to have really come up with the secret to building something strong and reliable without it being over the top on price.

Eric G.: 00:12:24

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:12:24

And that's exactly it.

Eric G.: 00:12:25

We are competing with all those that you were, you just mentioned.

Eric G.: 00:12:29

And there are some of those and there's a lot of trailer companies that make a good trailer.

Eric G.: 00:12:33

We think ours are the best and, and we stand behind our stuff better than most.

Eric G.: 00:12:39

But yeah.

Eric G.: 00:12:39

So we've designed it to make sure that it's going to work and it's going to do what it's supposed to do.

Eric G.: 00:12:45

The.

Eric G.: 00:12:46

And that's the market we're in is really.

Eric G.: 00:12:48

And that's one of our, our challenges is that we have.

Eric G.: 00:12:52

And maybe not even the what the flimsy trailer that you're describing, but you also have down mostly in Texas, these large mega factories.

Eric G.: 00:13:01

And though everybody knows those brand names and they, they pump out maybe four or five hundred a week when they're really rocking and rolling, they're just amazing.

Eric G.: 00:13:11

And we have to compete with that.

Eric G.: 00:13:13

And so we don't get to charge a premium for our premium product.

Eric G.: 00:13:17

So that's always our, our battle and.

Eric G.: 00:13:20

But that's what we're all about.

Eric G.: 00:13:22

And so we make a great trailer and we compete with all of them.

Eric G.: 00:13:26

And our hopes is that people see the difference and say, yeah, I want this thing to last longer.

Eric G.: 00:13:32

I want to do what it's supposed to do and not have any hassles with it.

Eric G.: 00:13:37

And if they're from around here, there's always the buy local.

Eric G.: 00:13:41

Right.

Eric G.: 00:13:41

Do you really want.

Brad Nelson: 00:13:42

Absolutely.

Eric G.: 00:13:43

You really want your money going to Pacific Northwest?

Eric G.: 00:13:45

Yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:13:45

If you're west coast, this is your brand.

Brad Nelson: 00:13:48

And what I love is that I can run down and go get, you know, in my 10 foot dump trailer that I got sitting out in the driveway right now, that thing I can go down and get three yards of three quarter minus gravel, load that thing up, hit the up button on it and it unloads it right where I want it to go.

Brad Nelson: 00:14:07

It's not straining, it's just handling it.

Brad Nelson: 00:14:10

And that's the cool part of that because it gives you that peace of mind of, all right, this is the right tool for the job.

Brad Nelson: 00:14:20

And it's almost easy to overload because it sure doesn't look like you've got that much in it.

Eric G.: 00:14:26

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:14:27

And it's funny you mentioned the dumps because everybody, not everybody, but people overload their trailers.

Eric G.: 00:14:34

But dump trailers pretty consistently get overloaded.

Eric G.: 00:14:37

s I think what a yard is like: 2300

Eric G.: 00:14:48

And they don't realize or they fill it to the top or.

Eric G.: 00:14:51

Or.

Eric G.: 00:14:52

And then they don't realize how much weight they have.

Eric G.: 00:14:54

And you're right.

Eric G.: 00:14:55

Sometimes they get to the job site, wherever they're going, and the trailer doesn't go up.

Eric G.: 00:14:59

And then they have to shovel it out until it does.

Eric G.: 00:15:02

So we've designed ours to carry the load that it's supposed to.

Eric G.: 00:15:06

Plus, we know that no one should ever overload their trailer.

Eric G.: 00:15:09

It's not safe.

Eric G.: 00:15:10

Don't haul your trailer down the road overloaded.

Eric G.: 00:15:12

It's actually not the bed and everything that the problem.

Eric G.: 00:15:14

It's the axles and the tires.

Eric G.: 00:15:16

And should you have a blowout overloaded like that, good things just aren't going to happen.

Eric G.: 00:15:22

But anyway, so like when we developed the trailer you have six foot wide, we did it with our seven as well.

Eric G.: 00:15:27

But we went to the local gravel place and we just loaded that thing up until it wouldn't lift anymore and to see just what it would do.

Eric G.: 00:15:36

And yeah, we did have to shovel because we got to the point.

Eric G.: 00:15:39

But it was so far over the limits.

Eric G.: 00:15:42

If someone ever tells us that our frame bent or the axle, we already know that you did something ugly to that trailer.

Brad Nelson: 00:15:52

Probably you did some ugly to that trailer.

Brad Nelson: 00:15:56

Because I tell you what.

Brad Nelson: 00:15:57

And the other thing is.

Brad Nelson: 00:15:58

Yeah, you're right.

Brad Nelson: 00:15:58

The safety of this.

Brad Nelson: 00:15:59

Let's talk about trailer safety for just a minute.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:02

Because when you're pulling something that's probably heavier than the vehicle that you're towing with right now, you're pushing it around 2.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:11

I'm not sure how great that factory or aftermarket hitches and ball that you grab grabbed off Amazon.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:17

Is that going to make it?

Eric G.: 00:16:18

Yep.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:19

You know, there's way too many things here and.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:22

Yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:22

And if you lose a tire, which easy to do, you know, the best Tires get abused, especially in dump trailers, because you're pulling over rock you're pulling into many times and you're in the construction field.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:36

You're going into your waste transfer station, the dump or whatever else.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:40

And what's the first thing on the ground?

Brad Nelson: 00:16:42

Nails, glass.

Eric G.: 00:16:43

Yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:44

Everything you don't want to put because it's been in the.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:47

It was in the back of the trailer.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:49

The guy that was in before you.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:50

And you just don't need to play that game because, man, take the extra trip.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:56

It's like people that go down to the.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:58

We've all seen it.

Brad Nelson: 00:16:59

The people that run down to Home Depot, Lowe's, the lumberyard, whatever else, and they're trying to haul the 16 foot goods home in their pickup.

Brad Nelson: 00:17:08

And you're just like, do it right, man.

Eric G.: 00:17:11

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:17:11

There's so much stuff hanging up, bouncing around.

Eric G.: 00:17:13

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:17:14

No, that's said.

Eric G.: 00:17:16

You should never overload a trailer.

Eric G.: 00:17:17

It doesn't matter if it's a dump or you got your cars on it or whatever you're hauling.

Eric G.: 00:17:22

And it's just.

Eric G.: 00:17:23

You got to be safe.

Eric G.: 00:17:24

It's just.

Eric G.: 00:17:24

It's not worth having that problem should something fail.

Brad Nelson: 00:17:29

No, not at all.

Eric G.: 00:17:30

Not at all.

Brad Nelson: 00:17:31

You guys make a ton of trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:17:33

We were just talking about the dump a little bit, but man, you guys have a wide selection of the different kind of trailers that you guys offer.

Brad Nelson: 00:17:41

Everything to big equipment trailers down to your typical flatbed that you would see maybe for a landscaper or even like a regular car trailer that you would see somebody hauling their, you know, GTO off to the car meet, having a good time.

Eric G.: 00:17:55

Yeah, we have.

Eric G.: 00:17:56

We do the dumps as we've been talking about.

Eric G.: 00:17:58

And we do a 7 wide, 14k and a 16k.

Eric G.: 00:18:03

And we do the 6 wide like you have both in 10k, 14k and 16k.

Eric G.: 00:18:09

And then we also have some dumps with higher sides than most ours.

Eric G.: 00:18:12

Ours are higher than most anyways.

Eric G.: 00:18:14

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:18:14

And then we have one that's even higher.

Eric G.: 00:18:16

Again, one of the.

Eric G.: 00:18:18

Again, don't overload it.

Eric G.: 00:18:19

But the high size is pretty popular with people.

Eric G.: 00:18:21

Not the gravel guys.

Eric G.: 00:18:22

They know better than that.

Eric G.: 00:18:23

But it's.

Eric G.: 00:18:24

If you're hauling stuff that doesn't weigh a lot, those high sides are nice.

Eric G.: 00:18:28

And you can also extend them even higher with the stake pockets that are up on top and build a wooden frame around it.

Eric G.: 00:18:33

But we also do.

Brad Nelson: 00:20:42

I love it when I go get.

Brad Nelson: 00:20:43

When I go get bark, bark dust.

Brad Nelson: 00:20:44

That's.

Brad Nelson: 00:20:45

Those sides are perfect.

Eric G.: 00:20:46

Oh, yeah.

Eric G.: 00:20:46

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:20:47

We do tilt beds, which, you know, you Dry, they tilt back and you just drive up and it gravity comes down and locks it in place.

Eric G.: 00:20:55

And for vehicles, it could be excavators, cars, whatever.

Eric G.: 00:21:00

Can't even be people by.

Eric G.: 00:21:02

Not usually a tilt bed, but you can load it, load cargo on it.

Eric G.: 00:21:05

But so we have wide variety of tilt beds from 16 foot up to 22 foot.

Eric G.: 00:21:10

We also do stationary tilts, which has a 4 foot stationary deck on the front.

Eric G.: 00:21:15

So if you have equipment, landscapers.

Eric G.: 00:21:18

Exactly.

Eric G.: 00:21:18

Something that when you back off, you don't want it tilting.

Eric G.: 00:21:21

And the other problem is the tilt bed.

Eric G.: 00:21:23

If you leave anything on the deck on a full tilt, when you take your vehicle off, it closes and now you have a problem.

Eric G.: 00:21:28

You have to hope you got a.

Brad Nelson: 00:21:30

Way to get back.

Eric G.: 00:21:30

Yeah, exactly.

Brad Nelson: 00:21:31

Yeah, exactly.

Eric G.: 00:21:32

We are gonna come out, we're developing right now a power tilt so that for those people that want to have it power up, power down.

Eric G.: 00:21:40

And then we also.

Eric G.: 00:21:41

Then we have your typical flatbed or people call them a car hauler.

Eric G.: 00:21:44

That's where you have the slide out ramps.

Eric G.: 00:21:46

And it's just a flat deck.

Eric G.: 00:21:48

And again it comes anywhere from 14 to 22, 24ft on those sometimes.

Eric G.: 00:21:55

And then the deck over trailers which are, they're higher, there's no fenders.

Eric G.: 00:22:01

And so people, some people will haul equipment on them, but they're really designed for product.

Eric G.: 00:22:07

So you can come in from the side and forklift, put pallets on it, all that kind of stuff.

Eric G.: 00:22:12

That's what we have in our daily business is as a deck over for hauling parts between our two, our different buildings.

Eric G.: 00:22:17

But it works great.

Eric G.: 00:22:18

And if you want they come with ramps.

Eric G.: 00:22:20

You can drive a vehicle up on it.

Eric G.: 00:22:23

I did it once.

Eric G.: 00:22:24

It's scary the first time you do that.

Eric G.: 00:22:27

Wow.

Eric G.: 00:22:27

I'm way up in the air here.

Eric G.: 00:22:29

And then we make one of those.

Brad Nelson: 00:22:30

Big car hauler guys in front of the dealership.

Brad Nelson: 00:22:32

Right.

Brad Nelson: 00:22:32

You're feeling like that guy pulling up onto the second store even though you're not.

Eric G.: 00:22:35

Yeah, yeah.

Eric G.: 00:22:36

And then we make the smaller, what we call utility trailers.

Eric G.: 00:22:39

They're those the ones you see.

Eric G.: 00:22:40

They're a lot of homeowners have them landscapers with the metal sides and they have the large fold down ramp gate in the back.

Eric G.: 00:22:48

Or we also have what's called a split ramp, which is.

Eric G.: 00:22:51

It's a fold.

Eric G.: 00:22:52

It swings out and then those ramps or the gate lifts off and then you lay that down as your ramp if you need a ramp.

Eric G.: 00:22:59

So you don't have that big gate sticking up.

Eric G.: 00:23:01

It works nice.

Eric G.: 00:23:02

And then we have Those in single axle, tandem axle.

Eric G.: 00:23:05

We also have a landscape package for the landscaper and which is a really nice package.

Eric G.: 00:23:12

And then with all that, we also do tiny home frames.

Eric G.: 00:23:16

So we have a couple builders.

Eric G.: 00:23:18

We don't sell to the.

Eric G.: 00:23:20

Actually, we don't sell the public on anything.

Eric G.: 00:23:22

It's all through our dealer network.

Eric G.: 00:23:24

But our tiny home frames are sold directly to tiny home manufacturers, the people that build the home.

Eric G.: 00:23:30

And so we build those really stout, really strong frame for the tiny home industry.

Brad Nelson: 00:23:37

Nice.

Brad Nelson: 00:23:37

And that's a growing industry, and it's a tough one because you're putting a lot of weight up high on those things, aren't they?

Eric G.: 00:23:44

Yeah, it's.

Eric G.: 00:23:46

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:23:46

The reason the builders buy ours typically is the feedback we've got is they've gone to cheaper trailers, lighter duty and.

Eric G.: 00:23:57

But it takes so long to get them set level square do all that.

Eric G.: 00:24:01

They're their workers say, no.

Eric G.: 00:24:03

The summit ones, we wheel them in and we can just start building on them.

Eric G.: 00:24:06

Right.

Eric G.: 00:24:06

That we don't have to mess around.

Eric G.: 00:24:08

So the lighter duty one typically isn't a great.

Eric G.: 00:24:11

Now the do it yourselfer might like the lighter duty one.

Eric G.: 00:24:13

It's less money and they have the time to mess around with that.

Eric G.: 00:24:16

But ours are.

Eric G.: 00:24:17

That's the foundation.

Eric G.: 00:24:18

It's the foundation of your house.

Eric G.: 00:24:20

So we treat it as such.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:22

I don't want that metal moving around when I'm laying tile up above it on top of wood.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:26

No, that's the thing.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:28

When you're doing the tile shower in those tiny homes, that's the last thing I want to see doing is going, oh, I got to spend a lot of time to get this thing squared up so I can build on it.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:35

Then I'm like, what happens when I move it?

Eric G.: 00:24:37

Yeah, exactly.

Eric G.: 00:24:38

You know, no one wants to arrive with a bunch of crack tile.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:41

No, it's never good.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:43

It's never good.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:44

One thing I love about how you build your trailers too, is you guys don't have.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:48

You guys have beautiful welds.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:49

You have real welders there and not disparaging welders at other companies.

Brad Nelson: 00:24:54

But you guys embrace the beauty of a great weld, which I love.

Eric G.: 00:24:58

Yeah, we since day one, trailers.

Eric G.: 00:25:00

A lot of trailer buyers want to see the welds.

Eric G.: 00:25:03

They look at it and say, oh, yeah, that's a good weld.

Eric G.: 00:25:05

That's not a good weld.

Eric G.: 00:25:07

And so one, we want ours to look good, but they need to also be strong.

Eric G.: 00:25:11

You can make a pretty weld that didn't really weld very well, but we Train.

Eric G.: 00:25:16

We don't train them how to weld.

Eric G.: 00:25:19

All of our people come in with most of them with skills.

Eric G.: 00:25:22

We do bring some people up from through the ranks, but sure, then we have our standards.

Eric G.: 00:25:26

We have.

Eric G.: 00:25:26

They're called weld procedures, and you have to set the machine that way and you're not allowed to change it other than a small percentage.

Eric G.: 00:25:33

All of our welders are all set the same so that people have to learn how to do what we want them to do with those settings.

Eric G.: 00:25:40

They can't adjust them.

Eric G.: 00:25:42

So again, it's that standardization thing.

Eric G.: 00:25:44

So we actually.

Eric G.: 00:25:45

There's a short little video on our website and YouTube about the perfect weld that we did.

Eric G.: 00:25:53

We brought in our weld consultant and.

Eric G.: 00:25:55

And worked with him because I.

Eric G.: 00:25:58

Our welds were good.

Eric G.: 00:25:59

We tested them.

Eric G.: 00:25:59

We were breaking them apart, and we're doing all that.

Eric G.: 00:26:02

But as we were doing that, I was looking at the penetration that we were getting and saying, can we get more?

Eric G.: 00:26:09

And oh, no, this is perfect.

Eric G.: 00:26:11

This is.

Eric G.: 00:26:11

This passes any test.

Eric G.: 00:26:13

This is certified.

Eric G.: 00:26:14

Yeah, I get that.

Eric G.: 00:26:15

But can I get a little more?

Eric G.: 00:26:17

I think I would feel a little.

Eric G.: 00:26:18

Can we pin it?

Eric G.: 00:26:19

Yeah, we can.

Eric G.: 00:26:20

So we worked with him and that's where these standards came up.

Eric G.: 00:26:23

So that we're getting good penetration.

Eric G.: 00:26:26

And.

Eric G.: 00:26:26

And the welds look good.

Eric G.: 00:26:27

And it makes our product different than some.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:45

It really does.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:46

Because then that way, you just know that one.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:48

It's consistent too.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:49

That frame's gonna hold together for the.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:51

From the weird job site conditions or travel conditions or wherever else that you're out there.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:56

Especially with when you've got high stress loads.

Brad Nelson: 00:28:59

Landscape trailer has its stress, but, you know, you put in three yards of gravel on a dump.

Brad Nelson: 00:29:04

There are point loads that are huge compared to that trailer.

Eric G.: 00:29:07

Oh, yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:29:08

So.

Eric G.: 00:29:08

And all of them.

Eric G.: 00:29:09

Even you pull your big truck up on a tilt bed or a flatbed and you're getting close to the max weight.

Eric G.: 00:29:16

It's.

Eric G.: 00:29:16

It needs to handle that forever.

Eric G.: 00:29:19

Not for a while.

Eric G.: 00:29:21

Not.

Eric G.: 00:29:21

Yeah, it's.

Eric G.: 00:29:22

It's important.

Eric G.: 00:29:22

And our people really take pride once they learn how we want it.

Eric G.: 00:29:27

And they get.

Eric G.: 00:29:29

It's pretty funny when they look at other stuff going, oh, yeah, that isn't very good.

Eric G.: 00:29:32

And so they're very proud of what they produce.

Eric G.: 00:29:35

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:29:36

Love doing it.

Brad Nelson: 00:29:39

And I love how you guys do your lighting on the trailers too.

Brad Nelson: 00:29:41

They're just absolutely beautiful at night.

Eric G.: 00:29:45

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:29:45

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:29:46

It's all.

Eric G.: 00:29:47

We don't.

Eric G.: 00:29:48

On our clearance lights.

Eric G.: 00:29:49

Those are the ones on the side and everything.

Eric G.: 00:29:51

We don't use Those big round.

Eric G.: 00:29:53

The big ones, we use these little 3/4 inch, but they're bright and they just.

Eric G.: 00:29:58

They think they look pretty cool.

Eric G.: 00:30:00

And then we put the lights where they need to be and they look good.

Eric G.: 00:30:05

And then our top of the line Denali pro model, it even has backup lights.

Eric G.: 00:30:09

Yeah, very cool.

Eric G.: 00:30:10

So not too many trailers have backup lights in them.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:14

That's awesome.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:15

That's awesome.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:16

Yeah, And I like that the lights are protected on the sides like that.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:18

Those clearance lights, they're flush in there, so you're not out buying covers every other week when you're using it hard, which is awesome.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:25

And then you guys do a heck of a job on finishing these things too, with your process of prep and everything else.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:32

I still got a lot.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:33

I use that trailer a lot.

Brad Nelson: 00:30:34

And it's got 95% of the paint still in the dump bed, which is not my experience with other brands.

Eric G.: 00:30:42

Yeah, we.

Eric G.: 00:30:42

When we started out, we didn't skimp anything on the paint process with our paint booth.

Eric G.: 00:30:47

We have a really nice booth.

Eric G.: 00:30:50

It has good flow.

Eric G.: 00:30:52

It's called a downside draft, so you're not getting a fog in there.

Eric G.: 00:30:56

We even have hoists in our paint booth to lift the trailers up so we can paint underneath.

Eric G.: 00:31:01

But the process we was.

Eric G.: 00:31:03

I got to throw some kudos out to the people.

Eric G.: 00:31:06

PPG and our paint supplier, they worked with us really closely on not just what paint to use, but how to apply it and what's important and temperature and the mixture of what the different things you're adding in there.

Eric G.: 00:31:23

And they've just done an amazing job supporting us.

Eric G.: 00:31:27

And our trailers look beautiful.

Eric G.: 00:31:29

I still love looking at our Cascade and Denali Pro series with that charcoal with the metal flake in it.

Eric G.: 00:31:36

It's just in the sun.

Eric G.: 00:31:37

It's just gorgeous.

Brad Nelson: 00:31:38

Beautiful.

Eric G.: 00:31:39

Yeah, yours is that way and.

Eric G.: 00:31:41

Yeah, absolutely.

Eric G.: 00:31:42

It's.

Eric G.: 00:31:42

And our black is funny.

Eric G.: 00:31:43

Our.

Eric G.: 00:31:44

Even our black trailers, they're really black.

Eric G.: 00:31:47

So if you had to touch up one of our trailers and you went down to the store and got whatever Krylon or whatever rust, oleum black, gloss black, and you sprayed our trailer, it's going to actually look a little brown because our trailer.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:01

Yeah, they're black.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:02

Brown versus black.

Eric G.: 00:32:03

Yeah, it's really black.

Eric G.: 00:32:05

So, yeah, and they just.

Eric G.: 00:32:06

They look great.

Eric G.: 00:32:07

And considering that they're.

Eric G.: 00:32:08

The steel we use is just a structural steel, just like everybody.

Eric G.: 00:32:12

So, yeah.

Eric G.: 00:32:13

Yeah, we were very proud of the finish and how our trailers look when they're all done.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:19

Yeah, you guys just do such a great job.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:22

And man, those Brakes too.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:24

You guys have not undersized anything.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:26

I can have rock gravel on the back of that going downhill.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:31

And boy, with my truck that just.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:34

I've never had a trailer ride so cleanly behind me when the brakes are done, when the brakes are going, because it's just, it's you.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:43

You could forget it's back there.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:45

Which is very unusual for a lot of trailer brands out there because some of them they're.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:50

You can never get them adjusted correctly.

Brad Nelson: 00:32:53

And whatever you guys are doing magically with yours, I tell you what, they work super well and you can tell that they're back there, but you forget that they're back there.

Eric G.: 00:33:02

Yeah, the.

Eric G.: 00:33:03

I think, you know, we use Lippert axles on all of our trailers.

Eric G.: 00:33:07

They make a great axle and the brakes and they again, they stand behind their stuff as well.

Eric G.: 00:33:15

As far as ours, of course, all of our trailers have both axles have brakes on them.

Eric G.: 00:33:20

And most do.

Eric G.: 00:33:21

There are some that.

Eric G.: 00:33:22

Because by law you can get away with just one axle with brakes.

Eric G.: 00:33:25

But it's the, it's also the.

Eric G.: 00:33:28

Where we locate the axles and how precise we have them squared with the trailer.

Eric G.: 00:33:33

The towing aspect of that.

Eric G.: 00:33:35

And that has a lot to do with how.

Eric G.: 00:33:38

What you're describing when you either just towing it or put your, you know, foot on the brake pedal.

Eric G.: 00:33:43

Yeah, I've towed some pretty large trailers behind a smaller truck and, and I forget it's back there.

Eric G.: 00:33:50

Even though it's way bigger than my.

Eric G.: 00:33:52

Is empty, but way bigger than like a toy with a little forerunner or something.

Eric G.: 00:33:56

And I'm hauling a tilt bed someplace and man, don't even know it's back there.

Eric G.: 00:34:00

Sometimes it's easy.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:03

hat thing behind my Chevy, my: 2024

Brad Nelson: 00:34:09

And I forget it's back there.

Eric G.: 00:34:11

Yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:12

And that thing's.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:13

It's rated for it, but still it's a smaller truck.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:16

It is not my other big boy truck that I've got.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:18

And it does such a great job of that, which really just shows you how much and it's scaled correctly.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:23

It looks good behind that.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:24

But when I put it beside, you know, behind my three quarter ton truck, it looks good there too.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:29

So sometimes it can look like, like Chris Farley fat man in a little coat.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:33

But they scale right and look good.

Brad Nelson: 00:34:35

And I think that's the high sides and everything else that you guys have done to make those trailers just be even more stout and carry more load.

Eric G.: 00:34:41

Yeah, those high size is funny.

Eric G.: 00:34:43

Because we went with that not just to be different, but I personally don't like pulling 7 foot wide or 8 foot wide trailers.

Eric G.: 00:34:53

There's not much lane left, right.

Eric G.: 00:34:55

And I don't pull trailers for a living, even though we make them.

Eric G.: 00:34:58

And I prefer 6 foot wide because it gives you a little more lane if you're.

Eric G.: 00:35:02

Especially if you're having to go around town to do something.

Eric G.: 00:35:04

So those higher sides, if you look at a seven foot wide, just a standard, a lot of our competitors trailers.

Eric G.: 00:35:11

And then you take our 6 foot wide, same 14k, our load capacity volume is just a little bit less than that big trailer.

Eric G.: 00:35:22

And nobody can, you can't fill them up to the top anyway.

Eric G.: 00:35:25

So people will say, I want this or your trailer.

Eric G.: 00:35:28

You know this one better because it hauls more.

Eric G.: 00:35:31

No, it really doesn't.

Eric G.: 00:35:33

Not enough.

Eric G.: 00:35:34

And so you can have a 14K 6 foot wide, 12 foot long, or you can have a 7 foot wide, 14 long of our competitors.

Eric G.: 00:35:43

And they're almost the same cubic feet and Exactly.

Eric G.: 00:35:48

Ours is going to hold a little more payload because we aren't as big.

Eric G.: 00:35:52

So there's a little bit less steel.

Eric G.: 00:35:54

And so still rated at the 14 or the 16K.

Eric G.: 00:35:57

Those high sides really help.

Eric G.: 00:36:01

And like I said, if I'm driving around town, last thing I want is a giant something as wide as a street behind me.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:09

Oh, you know where it's great pulling into the Home center parking lot where I can take up two spots ahead of each other, right?

Brad Nelson: 00:36:14

Yeah, I can get in there, I can pull into those spots.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:18

The math doesn't work so well with a seven foot wide trailer.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:21

Because when you get in there, all of a sudden the outside of the fenders are within 4 inches of line out there.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:26

And if you don't have spots on either side or if people come in and park next to you, you're not getting out till somebody moves.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:34

Sometimes in some of those tighter parking lots.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:35

So it, it really gives you a luxury of getting in and out of places.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:40

And especially in cities, older neighborhoods where you, you can't really get two cars going down side by side.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:48

This is where money is.

Brad Nelson: 00:36:49

Because you can actually get down into those neighborhoods and not have to sweat it going, oh no, how am I getting down in here?

Eric G.: 00:36:55

Yep.

Eric G.: 00:36:55

No, that's nice.

Eric G.: 00:36:56

The only time, you know the seven foot wide really I think is a better route to go is if you're hauling your excavator in the trailer to the job site.

Eric G.: 00:37:06

Right.

Eric G.: 00:37:07

So you don't have to have two trailers then.

Eric G.: 00:37:09

So you don't have much of a choice.

Eric G.: 00:37:10

Excavator is not gonna fit in a six foot wide.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:13

Yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:13

Depending on the size.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:14

A lot of these guys now are using those ones that I'm starting to see out there.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:17

That'll move in and out on the track so they can get into backyards and stuff.

Eric G.: 00:37:20

Yeah.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:21

So for those six foot is going to be beautiful for that.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:25

So get you through the fence and the gate without having to do too much damage.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:30

You guys sell these things all down the west coast and you got a pretty wide dealer network with if somebody's out there right now going, hey, I need to get one of these before the end of the year.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:40

So I want to get my tax breaks for this year.

Brad Nelson: 00:37:43

You guys have a lot of dealers out there that carry this stuff sitting right there on the shelf?

Brad Nelson: 00:37:47

Basically, yeah.

Eric G.: 00:37:48

We have over 30 dealers and we're very solid in Washington and Oregon.

Eric G.: 00:37:54

We have dealers in Idaho, Montana, northern California and Nevada.

Eric G.: 00:38:04

You should be able to find what you're looking for.

Eric G.: 00:38:07

And they all stock.

Eric G.: 00:38:08

So it's not just always make to order.

Eric G.: 00:38:10

And the dealer should have what you're looking for.

Eric G.: 00:38:12

And if you're looking for something more specific, they can always order it.

Eric G.: 00:38:17

Most of our dealers have slots in our production schedule that go way out.

Eric G.: 00:38:23

Even though they don't know what they're going to order yet.

Eric G.: 00:38:25

So that.

Eric G.: 00:38:26

But they.

Eric G.: 00:38:26

So they have that said I'm going to have.

Eric G.: 00:38:28

I want to load every.

Eric G.: 00:38:30

Whatever, Once a month, twice a month, whatever it is.

Brad Nelson: 00:38:32

Yeah.

Eric G.: 00:38:33

And so they're in our schedule to be determined.

Eric G.: 00:38:36

And so when they get close, then they just tell us, okay, this is what I want on that next load.

Eric G.: 00:38:42

So if they don't have it nice and it's.

Eric G.: 00:38:45

You can go to the dealer.

Eric G.: 00:38:46

And they normally aren't going to be that far out because they could.

Eric G.: 00:38:50

Almost all the dealers will take a sold unit and say I'm going to take off what I'm going to stock and replace it with a sold unit any day of the week.

Eric G.: 00:38:58

So they just call us up and say, hey, this next load, I wanted this 18 foot tilt bed cascade.

Eric G.: 00:39:05

Now I want to change it to a 20 foot Denali Pro whatever.

Eric G.: 00:39:08

And okay, not a problem.

Eric G.: 00:39:10

And that way the lead time comes down.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:14

All right, Brad, so is there anything we didn't talk about today that I might have missed over because you guys have a lot of depth to your company?

Eric G.: 00:39:22

No, I think, I think we've covered everything from all the trailers we make to our outstanding customer service and how we stand behind our product and just how we go about doing our stuff.

Eric G.: 00:39:34

I think we're a little bit different than most.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:36

Absolutely.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:37

And guys out there, all you people out there listening on the show today, thanks for tuning into this.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:41

Because I tell you what, these guys have awesome trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:44

It's what I use.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:45

And that's why Brad is on the show today with Summit trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:39:48

What's the best way for people to find you guys and find one of the wonderful dealers you got across your dealer network?

Eric G.: 00:39:54

Yeah, you can go to our website, summittrailermfg, as in manufacturing.com and there's a dealer locator.

Eric G.: 00:40:02

Pick, pick the closest one.

Eric G.: 00:40:04

There's a lot of them and just contact them directly.

Eric G.: 00:40:07

Again, we don't sell to the public.

Eric G.: 00:40:09

So everything goes through our dealer network.

Eric G.: 00:40:11

So they can answer any questions.

Eric G.: 00:40:12

If they can't, feel free to give us a call.

Eric G.: 00:40:14

We're not a big, huge company.

Eric G.: 00:40:16

We can still provide that one on one service if you need some information.

Eric G.: 00:40:20

But the dealers are.

Eric G.: 00:40:22

You can go see them.

Eric G.: 00:40:23

They all stock.

Eric G.: 00:40:24

So you can touch them and kick them and look at them and compare them to the.

Eric G.: 00:40:27

The other guys that are sitting next to them.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:30

Exactly.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:30

I can tell you what, guys, you will not be disappointed.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:33

Brad, thanks for coming on today.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:35

I really appreciate it.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:36

And I thought, wow, let's just do an episode on trailers.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:38

Because I tell you what, for all the people out there, whether you got a farm or a ranch or a construction company or you're just a homeowner that loves doing a lot of projects, this can be a lifesaver for doing stuff around the house.

Eric G.: 00:40:51

All right, thanks a lot, Eric.

Eric G.: 00:40:53

Appreciate having me on.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:54

I appreciate it.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:55

I'm Eric G.

Brad Nelson: 00:40:56

Thanks for tuning in to around the house.

Eric G.: 00:40:59

Should I be allowed to be so hot, so many people without.