Where Do You Buy an Enclosed Cargo Trailer in Lafayette, LA? What a Local Dealer Should Show You Before You Sign
Where Do You Buy an Enclosed Cargo Trailer in Lafayette, LA? What a Local Dealer Should Show You Before You Sign
If you're searching "cargo trailer dealer near me" from anywhere in Acadiana, here's the short answer: we've got nine enclosed trailers on the ground at 2601 SE Evangeline Thruway in Lafayette today, from a 5x8 single axle up to an 8.5x20 tandem, and you can walk the row Monday through Saturday morning. This post is the rest of the answer. It's what we'd tell you on the lot if you pulled in, so you know what to look at before you put a deposit on anything, here or anywhere else.
What's actually on the lot this week?
Nine enclosed trailers, two brands. Eight are Rock Solid Cargo and one is Wells Cargo. Here's the row as it sits this morning:
- Rock Solid 6x10 single axle, bullnose, ramp door. The lawn-care and small-shop trailer.
- Rock Solid 6x12 single axle with the blackout package. Same job, a little longer, and it looks sharp behind a black truck.
- Rock Solid 7x12 tandem, Silver Frost Polycore skin, ramp door.
- Rock Solid 7x14 tandem V-nose in indigo. This size is the one we sell the most of. Two 7x14s left the lot in the first two weeks of October.
- Rock Solid 7x16 tandem with the 7-foot interior and the Therma Cool ceiling. Stand up straight inside it. A 7x16 sold the first week of October too.
- Two Rock Solid 8.5x16 tandems with the Plus 6 package, one white, one charcoal. The contractor box.
- Rock Solid 8.5x20 tandem with the Therma Cool ceiling and ramp door. Our biggest box on the ground right now.
- Wells Cargo 5x8 single axle, ramp door, Bulldog hitch. Small, light, and built the way Wells has built them since the fifties.
Every one of those shows a live price on the inventory page, and the block at the bottom of this post pulls the same numbers. We don't type prices into blog posts because they go stale. The inventory page doesn't.
What should a dealer let you check before you buy?
Anything you want. That's the honest test of a trailer lot. Here's our list, in the order we'd walk it with you.
The frame. Get down and look under it. You want steel tube main rails and tube wall posts on 16-inch centers. Both of our lines run 16-inch walls. Count the roof bows while you're at it. A bow every 16 inches carries a ladder rack or a rooftop air conditioner better than one every 24.
The roof. Stand inside and look up. A one-piece aluminum roof has no seams to leak. If you see seams, ask what's sealing them and how long that sealant lasts in a Louisiana summer.
The skin. Screwed-on aluminum is fine and it's what most trailers in this class wear. Screwless or bonded panels mean fewer places for water to find its way in. Our two 8.5x16s and the 7x12 wear Polycore composite, which is the step up.
The door. Ramp door or barn doors. Ramp doors load a mower or a four-wheeler by themselves. Barn doors are better for a trailer you back up to a dock or park tight against a wall. Open it, close it, latch it. The spring assist on a ramp door should let you lift it with one hand.
The axles. A single 3,500-pound axle is plenty for a 5x8 or 6x12 hauling lawn gear. Two 3,500-pound axles with brakes on at least one are what you want on anything 7x14 and up. Louisiana requires brakes on any trailer with a gross weight over 3,000 pounds, so a tandem without brakes is a problem waiting for a trooper.
The underside. Ask about undercoating. The tongue and the rear end rail are the two places a South Louisiana trailer rusts first. If you're going to park it near salt water, at the camp or on the road to Grand Isle, have that conversation before you buy, not after.
We'll put any unit in the air so you can see all of this. If a dealer won't, that tells you something.
Rock Solid or Wells Cargo? Which one are you?
We stock both because they're built for two different buyers. Rock Solid is our volume line. It's the trailer most people in Lafayette, Broussard and Youngsville end up with, and it's the shell under every Ragin' Custom food trailer we build. Wells Cargo is the premium line, with the bonded skin, the one-piece roof and the full undercoat as standard.
If you're hauling mowers five days a week and parking it under a carport, the Rock Solid does the job and leaves money in your pocket. If the trailer is your shop, your race rig or your livelihood and it's going to sit outside for fifteen years, the Wells Cargo earns the difference. We wrote the whole comparison up in Rock Solid vs Wells Cargo: which one to buy, down to roof bow spacing.
What truck do you need for an enclosed trailer?
This one surprises people. An enclosed trailer is a wall. A 7x16 box is about 7 feet tall and 8.5 feet wide at the fenders, and at 70 on I-10 it drags like a parachute. Here's the rough guide we use on the lot:
- A 5x8 or 6x10 single axle tows fine behind a mid-size truck or a V6 SUV with a Class III hitch.
- A 6x12 or 7x12 single or light tandem wants a half-ton.
- A 7x14 or 7x16 tandem, loaded, is a half-ton job with a brake controller and a weight-distribution hitch. A three-quarter-ton is more comfortable.
- The 8.5x16 and 8.5x20 tandems want a three-quarter-ton. You can pull them with a half-ton empty. You won't like it loaded.
Check your door-jamb sticker for the truck's gross combined weight rating and bring it with you. We'll do the math on paper before you hook up. If you're still deciding between a box and an open deck, Enclosed vs. utility: which is right for you walks through it.
Can you buy an enclosed trailer and have it delivered?
Yes. We deliver free within 50 miles of the lot, which covers Broussard, Youngsville, Carencro, Scott, Breaux Bridge, New Iberia, Abbeville, Crowley and Opelousas. Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and Alexandria are a flat fee by distance, and we run that way every week. If you'd rather pick up, we hook it up, check your lights and brake controller, and send you home with the title work done.
What about financing, rent-to-own and the paperwork?
We offer financing and rent-to-own on the enclosed trailers on the lot. The financing page explains how each one works and what to bring. One thing we say plainly up front so nobody is surprised later: deposits are non-refundable. A deposit holds a specific trailer and takes it off the website, so we treat it as a real commitment on both sides.
Title, registration and the Louisiana tax paperwork get handled at the desk the day you buy. You leave with a tag or a temporary, not a to-do list.
Are you going to use it as a food trailer?
A lot of the people who search for a cargo trailer dealer in Lafayette are really shopping for the start of a food business. If that's you, don't buy a stock box and try to cut holes in it later. We build food trailers on the Rock Solid shell from the frame up, with the sink package, the hood, the electrical and the serving window placed where the parish inspector expects them. Start at the food trailer builder and we'll quote the whole build, not just the box.
Why buy from a dealer in Lafayette instead of ordering online?
Three reasons, and none of them is loyalty.
First, you see the trailer. Photos don't show you roof seams, screw heads or a bent fender. Second, the warranty has a shop behind it. Our service bay is on the same lot, and the brands we sell are brands we can get parts for. Third, when you need a hub, a jack or a set of lights in three years, you have a counter to walk up to on the Evangeline Thruway instead of a chat window.
The row is open Monday through Friday 8 to 5 and Saturday 8 to noon. Come walk it. Bring the truck if you can, and we'll hook one up so you can feel it.
Come see the enclosed row
Ragin Trailers, 2601 SE Evangeline Thruway, Lafayette, LA 70508. Family-owned since 2016. Hours Monday to Friday 8 to 5, Saturday 8 to 12, closed Sunday. Call 337.504.3820 and tell us which size you're looking at. If it's on the lot, we'll hold the conversation, not the trailer, until you've seen it.