46 By 96-Ft. Semi Trailer Shop

46 By 96-Ft. Semi Trailer Shop FARM SHOP Miscellaneous 34-2-27 Jeff King used four 40-ft. semi trailers to put up a 46 by 96-ft. farm shop. He set two trailers in line along each wall with about 16 ft. between the ends of each pair. The pairs were set 30 ft. apart to create a 30 by 96-ft. clear-span area between the trailers. "I figured if the trailers could carry 40,000 lbs. or more down the road they could support a roof," says King. Two trailers were set to open toward each other while the other two were set to open to the ends of the building. A unique combination of steel and wood trusses was used for the roof. Wanting to use the building to work on his antique car collection, King needed about 13 ft. of clearance for a heavy auto lift. To get that, he fabricated 16-in. tall wooden box trusses. These were laid on top of the trailers before setting the 52-ft. gabled trusses in place. "About the time I finished, I heard about a local lumber yard that had changed a building design and had 29-ft., 6-in. steel roof panels for the taking," says King. "They even loaded them on the trailer for me. It turned out that there were exactly enough panels to cover the roof." His innovative storage building was nearly finished when King saw a neighbor's building with 16 ft. of headroom. Since his building was on a slight rise with a dirt floor, King decided to raise the roof by lowering the floor. A few hours of scraping by a neighbor with a large tractor and blade lowered the bay by about 3-ft. To stabilize the trailer walls, King dug dirt out from behind the rear set of wheels and under the fifth wheel pin in front. Both spots are the most solid and reinforced parts of the trailer floor. He set down concrete footings and then placed two sections of old telephone poles under each end of the trailer and cross-tied them with sheets of plywood nailed to the posts. Once each trailer was supported with the posts, King removed the remaining dirt and trailer axle and suspension assemblies, creating additional storage space under the now suspended trailers. With the help of a masonry contractor, King added concrete block walls on footings under the outside trailer edges. These, he feels, give added support and security to his walls. "I built the end walls out of wood with a lot of windows that had been left over from various construction jobs in the area," says King. "I used them on the wall spaces between the pairs of trailers as well. At one end, I have a 14 by 14-ft. roll-up door for access." King is happy with his building and the more than 4,400 sq. ft. of storage. This winter it stood up well to record snowfalls of more than 20 in. in one storm. Unfortunately for King, county officials are not as pleased. Unable to provide them with load carrying capacity for the trailers as structural elements, he may have to reinforce them again. "I have been told an engineer has to approve it," he says. "So far, the one I've contacted says he can only approve it if I put steel supports under the entire thing." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jeff King, 9 Trails End, Harwood, Md. 20776 (ph 410 202-1734).

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