Custom food trailers
Fully custom food trailers, built from bare steel in Texas.
No catalogue models. No imported shells with a logo on them. We start with a frame and we build the trailer around the food you're actually going to sell — then we finance it ourselves so you can go get it.
- Layout drawn around your menu and your service flow, not a template
- Spec'd to current Texas rules — with a written pass-inspection guarantee
- 8 weeks typical build time, with photo proof at every milestone
- Workmanship warranty in writing — 6 months cash, full term if financed
No obligation. No credit pull to get a quote. We answer in one business day or we call you.
What "custom" actually means here
Everybody in this industry says custom. Most of them mean you get to pick the colour of the wrap and whether the window goes on the driver's side. Here is what it means at our shop.
Before we cut anything, we sit down with your menu. Not "Mexican food" — the actual menu. How many tacos an hour at peak. Whether the consomé sits on the plancha or on its own burner. Whether you're prepping on site or bringing it in cold. Whether one person works the window or two. Then we draw a floor plan, send it to you, and change it until it's right. Only then do we start building.
That process is why our trailers feel different to work in. On a 16-foot floor you have about 100 square feet and two people in it during a rush. Six inches of counter in the wrong place is an order you don't get out. A cooler that opens into the walkway is a burn waiting to happen. That is the part you cannot fix later, and it is the part a stock trailer gets wrong by definition.
The base specification
Every trailer we build starts here, regardless of size or concept. These aren't upgrades — this is the floor, because most of it is what Texas and the fire code require.
| System | What you get as standard |
|---|---|
| Chassis & running gear | Axles and springs rated above the fully-loaded weight, with the loaded-weight documentation you need for your licence application. Electric brakes, breakaway kit, DOT lighting, spare and mount. Titled and VIN'd so you can register it. |
| Body & insulation | Welded steel frame, aluminium or FRP skin, insulated walls and ceiling. Sealed against weather and pests, which is both comfort and a code requirement. |
| Floors, walls, ceiling | Smooth, non-absorbent, light-coloured and easily cleanable throughout. Floor-to-wall junctions coved and sealed. No exposed wood, no residential drywall, no porous grout — all of which are standard reasons a trailer fails. |
| Water system | Fresh tank and a wastewater tank 15% larger (FDA Food Code 5-401.11), both permanently installed, sloped to drain and labelled. Separate, differently-sized inlet and waste connections so they can't be cross-connected. Vents terminating downward and screened. |
| Sinks | Three-compartment warewashing sink with compartments large enough to fully submerge your largest pan or utensil — we size it to your actual equipment, not to a nominal dimension — plus a separate, accessible handwashing sink with soap and towel dispensers. |
| Hot water | Hot and cold under pressure at every sink, sized to hold temperature through a rush rather than through one hand-wash. |
| Ventilation & fire | Type I hood with grease filters over any equipment producing grease-laden vapour, plus a UL-300-listed wet-chemical suppression system covering every appliance surface. Vapour-proof hood lighting. Extinguishers to rating, including Class K where there's a fryer. Note that Texas has no mandatory statewide fire code — the International Fire Code applies where your city adopted it, and editions and local amendments vary, so we build to your jurisdiction. |
| Propane | Cylinders mounted where NFPA 58 and your local fire code allow — never on the roof, never ahead of the front axle, never near the exhaust, never protruding past the body — in a vented compartment with the relief valve vent clear of every opening. Rigid pipe through penetrations, flex connectors kept short, shutoffs at appliance and supply, and a listed LP-gas alarm. |
| Electrical | All wiring in conduit, GFCI protection throughout, covered boxes, and a proper weather-rated shore-power inlet. No extension cords as permanent wiring and no double-male "suicide cord" — both of which are automatic fails and genuine fire risks. |
| Lighting | Food Code levels at every work zone — 50 foot-candles where anyone works with food or handles a knife, 20 at the sinks — with shielded or shatter-resistant fixtures anywhere food is exposed. |
| Openings | Service window sized to your service style, self-closing tight-fitting door, and 16-mesh screening at every vent and opening. |
How a build actually runs
Menu & layout call — free, no obligation
Half an hour on the phone or at the shop. What you're selling, where you're parking, how many people work the line, what equipment you already own. We come out of it with a size and a rough equipment list.
Floor plan & written quote
You get a drawn plan and an itemised quote — build, equipment, delivery, and your weekly payment if you're financing with us. We revise the plan until you're happy. Nobody pays anything at this stage.
Agreement & first milestone
Signed agreement with your spec attached, the warranty, and the pass-inspection guarantee in writing. First payment is a milestone, not a 50% deposit.
Frame & body — photos to your phone
We cut, weld and skin. You get dated photos of your build with your number on it. Come by whenever you want; you don't need an appointment to look at your own trailer.
Equipment, plumbing, gas, electrical
The systems go in and get tested. Water pressurised and checked at every fixture, propane pressure-tested, suppression system installed and tagged by a Texas-licensed firm, electrical load-tested.
Our own 42-point check
We run the same checklist an inspector runs, before you ever see an inspector. Anything that wouldn't pass gets fixed here, on our clock.
Delivery & walkthrough
We tow it to you and spend as long as it takes going through every system. Then we stay on the phone with you through your licence application and your first inspection.
More detail on the build process and the payment milestones →
Sizes we build
| Length | Best for | Typical crew | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 ft | Tight menu — coffee, raspas, funnel cake, a single-item taco program | 1–2 | Very little dry storage. Plan a restock mid-shift. |
| 14 ft | Full taco or birria program, small fryer bank | 2 | Sink sizing gets tight if you use big stockpots. Tell us early. |
| 16 ft | The default. Full prep line, hood, fryers, two-person service | 2–3 | Nothing much. This is the size most people should buy. |
| 18 ft | Mariscos, pizza, larger fryer banks, three working | 3 | Weight. Check what your tow vehicle is actually rated for. |
| 20 ft+ | BBQ with an onboard smoker, high-volume event rigs | 3–4 | Tow rating and parking. Some city spots won't take it. |
Full size guide with floor plans →
Why buy from us instead of the national shops
| Your Food Trailers | Out-of-state builders | Marketplace / used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it's built | Our Texas shop | Missouri, California, Florida | Unknown |
| Built to Texas code | Yes, by default | Generic spec, adapted | Usually not |
| Financing | In-house, weekly, no cap | Third-party lender, $20k–$35k cap | None |
| Credit check | No | Usually yes | n/a |
| Payment structure | Milestones with photos | Often 50% deposit | Full cash up front |
| Pass-inspection guarantee | In writing | Rarely | No |
| Workmanship warranty | 6 months cash, full term if financed | Sometimes 12 months | No |
| If something breaks | Drive to our shop | Ship it, or find a local welder | Your problem |
| Speaks Spanish | Yes, including contracts | Rarely | Varies |
Questions about custom builds
What's included in a custom food trailer build?
A finished, road-legal, inspection-ready unit: frame and axles rated for the loaded weight, insulated and sealed body, commercial-grade flooring with coved and sealed wall junctions, three-compartment sink and separate handwash sink, fresh and wastewater tanks (waste 15% larger, permanently mounted, labelled), on-demand or tank water heater, Type I hood with UL-300-listed suppression where you're producing grease-laden vapour, propane system mounted and vented to fire code, GFCI-protected wiring in conduit with a proper shore-power inlet, lighting to Food Code levels, 16-mesh screening, service window, and your equipment set and connected.
Can I supply my own equipment?
Yes, and plenty of people do — a smoker they already own, a plancha from a family shop. Two rules: it has to be commercial-grade (residential appliances are an automatic inspection fail in most jurisdictions), and we need to know about it before we cut the layout, because a fryer added after the hood is built means a suppression system that no longer covers everything it needs to.
What size trailer do I need?
Most people land on 14 or 16 feet. 12 ft works for a tight menu and one or two operators; 16 ft is the sweet spot for a full prep line plus a second person; 18–20 ft is for smokers, big fryer banks, or three people working. We size it around your menu, not the other way round — here's the full size guide.
Do you build food trucks too, or only trailers?
Trailers. It's what we're good at, and honestly it's what we'd recommend for most first-timers: no engine to break, no drivetrain to maintain, cheaper to insure, and when it's paid off it's an asset you own outright rather than a depreciating vehicle. If your spot genuinely requires a self-propelled unit, we'll tell you and point you somewhere good.
How is a custom build different from buying a stock trailer?
A stock unit is built to a generic layout and you adapt your menu to it. We do it the other way: you tell us the menu and the service flow, and we draw the layout around it — where the plancha sits relative to the window, how many steps between the fryer and the pass, whether the prep cooler opens into the walkway. On a 16-foot floor, six inches in the wrong place costs you an order every rush.
Do you deliver, and what does that cost?
We deliver across the country. Texas and Colorado are home and where most builds go, and we tow regularly into Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas too. Delivery is quoted with the build so it's a known number, not a surprise at the end. We don't just drop it — we walk you through the propane, the water system, the suppression, and the shore-power hookup on site, and we stay reachable through your first inspection. Colorado is a two-day tow from our shop, around 920 miles, so we schedule it rather than squeeze it in.
Those are the states we tow to routinely. We go further when the build is worth the trip — recent ones include a hot dog trailer to Atlanta, Georgia, a 24-foot BBQ rig to Columbia, South Carolina, and a breakfast trailer to Layton, Utah. So if you're outside the list, ask. We'll quote the tow and tell you honestly whether it makes sense.
Start selling before you finish paying.
Tell us what you're going to sell and we'll send back a floor plan and a weekly payment — no obligation, no credit pull.