The DIY Hunting Trailer
By Bernie Barringer I rolled into my driveway late at night, exhausted from long hours of driving. Fourteen days earlier when I had left home on Halloween, my pickup truck was neatly organized, with stands, sticks and equipment stacked in place. Accessories had been packed neatly in Rubbermaid totes. But as I dropped the tailgate and looked into the back of the truck by the beam of the yard-light, my first thought was that someone ate a Cabela’s store and puked it up in the back of my Ford. And I had to deal with it right away. Somewhere near the bottom of that mess was a buck, wrapped up in a tarp with three bags of ice inside it. It was going to be a long night. There must be a better way. Events like this started me on the path to thinking about a trailer that could be used for my DIY hunting adventures. Over time I developed a plan in my mind, thinking about what I would like to have that would make my life easier when on a hunting trip. That plan came to fruition last fall when I bought a trailer, and during this winter when it became my project to convert it into a functioning trailer to haul my hunting gear with some additional features. First I knew I wanted to be able to butcher a deer and keep the meat in good shape for the trip home, or the trip to my next hunting destination. One of the biggest issues I have run into in the past was shooting a deer on the first stop of a two- or three-state hunting trip. What to do with the head, hide and meat can be a real problem. Once everything is frozen, even when the freezer is unplugged it will stay frozen for about two to three days depending on the outside temperature. If you open it, cut that time by about three hours each time you open it. In the past I have used a travel trailer to camp in, and that helped solve some of the issues. I put a small chest freezer in the front of the camper and butchered a deer right there. But I have found myself less often taking a camper on these trips. It seems to be harder and harder to find a place to camp during the hunting season. Problems with water and sewer freezing are no small matter. I wanted a utility trailer with a freezer in it and a place to butcher a deer, at least to quarter it. At other times, I found myself hunting far from a place to sleep. In western Nebraska, I came out of the woods at dark and my motel was more than an hour away. I needed to be back there well before daylight in the morning. I considered sleeping in my truck; but, at that point, the idea of having a bunk to crash in sounded much better than driving nearly three hours of the next eight. These factors weighed into my choice to build a trailer just the way I wanted it. When looking for a trailer, I knew I wanted one with a ramp door in the back rather than the swinging barn doors. I don’t take an ATV on DIY hunts often, but when I do, I wanted to be able to put it in the trailer. Plus the ramp door just makes it easier to move stuff in and out of the trailer. I looked at new trailers, but decided my budget would be better suited to a good used one so I started looking online. I hadn’t really thought much about a side door except that I knew I wanted one. Most of these trailers have a side entry door on the curb side. When I found one that had a door on the driver’s side, I knew that’s what I wanted. It’s a lot easier to just walk back from the truck and open the door when you do not have to walk all the way around. I find that I am grabbing something quick out of the trailer so often that this has proven to be a good choice. I finally settled on a 6-foot wide by 12-foot long trailer and bought it. This past winter, my buddy Ron offered me the use of his heated shop to pull the trailer indoors and remodel it the way I wanted it to be. I was grateful for that as the temperature dipped to -18 during the week I worked on the trailer in his shop. The previous owner of the trailer used it to race go-carts. I first tore the old grubby shelving out and painted the interior an off-white color. At Menards, I bought two kitchen cabinets, one is an overhead, the other a corner cabinet. These did not have any latches on the doors or drawer, so I bought latches and installed them so they would not come open on the roadway, allowing their contents to fall out onto the floor. Each of the cabinets was installed in such a way that they were screwed to the vertical steel ribs of the trailer’s sidewall. The paneling is not strong enough to hold them. They nicely hold the accessories that I need on DIY hunts, it’s much easier than digging through totes. Next, I installed the chest freezer in the front of the trailer, using a ratchet strap to keep it in place. The trailer had lighting but it was poor, so I went to an RV dealer and picked up some new LED overhead lights. I installed one in the middle of the roof and one over the top of the freezer so it’s easy to see the contents. I installed a 12-volt Deep Cycle battery for DC power, and ran the lights to it. The lights and battery are connected to the truck’s battery when the truck