- Trailer Knowledge
- Buying Process
Key Takeaways
- The north metro is a different hauling market than the urban core - acreage, gravel drives and room to park change what people buy.
- Enclosed cargo and dump trailers are the two workhorses here, and both are where the Interstate line is strongest.
- The store sits on the I-35 corridor about 30 miles north of both downtowns, so you never tow through city traffic.
- Browse trailers near Minneapolis to compare sizes.
The North Metro Is Its Own Market
Drive north on I-35 out of Minneapolis and the metro changes character somewhere around Blaine. Subdivisions thin out. Lots get bigger. By the time you are through Lino Lakes and Forest Lake and into Chisago and Isanti counties, you are in five-acre parcels, gravel driveways, pole barns and hobby farms, with contractors running crews out of yards behind their own houses.
That geography decides what people haul. In Uptown or St. Paul, a trailer is something you borrow for a weekend and have nowhere to keep. From Andover to Cambridge, a trailer is equipment you own, park on your own property and use most weeks of the year. Two things follow. Buyers here size up rather than down, because storage is not the constraint. And the property itself generates the work: gravel to top up, black dirt to bring in, brush to clear, machines to move.
Enclosed Cargo: Rolling Storage That Locks
Ask any electrician, plumber, HVAC tech or finish carpenter working the north suburbs what changed their week, and a fair number will say the day they stopped loading and unloading a pickup bed. An enclosed cargo trailer is tool storage, jobsite security and a dry place to work, and it stays packed between jobs.
That matters more when the jobs are spread out. A crew working Blaine on Monday and Cambridge on Thursday is not going back to a shop in between. The trailer is the shop.
Why the Interstate line comes up here
Interstate is built on a DuraFrame steel framework with .024 inch aluminum siding standard and a .030 inch upgrade available, and TrailersPlus is its only retail seller anywhere. The why Interstate page covers the build in detail. The LoadRunner sits in that family and is the model most trades end up on.
Dump Trailers: Gravel, Black Dirt and Everything Acreage Produces
Anyone with a long gravel drive knows it needs topping up, and that a load of Class 5 arrives where the truck can reach, not where you need it. A dump trailer moves it the rest of the way and tips it without a shovel.
Past that the list is long: landscape rock, black dirt for garden beds, brush and storm limbs, roofing tear-off, old deck boards, the contents of a pole barn that has been filling since 2014. Landscape and excavation outfits working the north metro's steady build-out run them daily.
Sizing by width
A 6-wide suits homeowners and property owners and maneuvers between a barn and a fence line. A 7-wide is the working size for crews moving material every day. Interstate dump trailers use 10-gauge steel floors and walls, which is the spec that matters when the load is rock rather than mulch.
Equipment Trailers for the Machines Acreage Brings With It
Five acres tends to arrive with a compact tractor, then a zero-turn, and eventually a skid steer or mini excavator borrowed often enough that buying one starts to make sense. Moving those is an equipment trailer job, not a utility trailer job, because the deck length, ramps and axle rating are built for it.
Size above your current machine if you expect to grow into a bigger one. Trailers outlast equipment, and a rating that fits today often will not fit what you buy in three years. If your machine is near the line, bring the model number in and we will check it against the listing rather than eyeball it.
Utility, Tandem and Car Haulers
Open utility trailers do not get headlines, but they get used constantly. Yard waste, a mower, a load to the transfer station, helping somebody move a shed. Singles handle light weekly work; the tandem versions ride flatter loaded and hold their line better on gravel, which is why they are the ones people keep long term.
There is also a real project-car population up here, with the garage space to support it. Enclosed car haulers show up at Back to the 50s and every small-town car show between here and Duluth.
Why North Metro Buyers Skip the Trip Downtown
Towing through the core is nobody's idea of a good afternoon. The store sits right on the I-35 corridor, roughly 30 miles north of both downtowns, so the drive home with a new trailer behind you is highway the whole way, and so is the drive back for service.
Across the company there are more than 11,900 trailers and over 100 models per location, and 95 percent of a TrailersPlus trailer's weight is sourced in the USA. Twenty-five years, 92 locations and a 4.8 rating from more than 10,000 reviews is the short version of why people drive past other lots. Financing spreads the cost across the seasons the trailer is earning, and every new trailer includes two 40-point safety inspections. Browse inventory near Minneapolis and come size it out at the store.
Frequently Asked Questions
What size cargo trailer do most north metro trades end up with?
Most working crews land on a 6x12 or a 7x14. The 6x12 fits a full tool inventory and still parks in a normal driveway. The 7x14 is the jump people make when they carry materials as well as tools, or when two people need to work inside it.
Are dump trailers only worth it for contractors?
No. Property owners buy them constantly. Any parcel with a gravel drive, a garden that takes compost, or a fence line to clear produces enough loose material to justify one. Compare capacities in the dump trailer inventory.
Can I haul a compact tractor on a utility trailer?
Sometimes, but an equipment trailer is usually the better answer. Equipment trailers are built with the deck length, ramp design and axle rating for machinery. Check the operating weight against the listing, and if the numbers are close, ask before you buy.
What is Interstate, and why have I only seen it at TrailersPlus?
Interstate is America's number one brand in cargo trailers, and TrailersPlus is its only retail seller. That is why it does not show up on other lots. The build uses a DuraFrame steel framework with .024 inch aluminum siding standard and a .030 inch upgrade.
Can I buy without going through a bank?
Yes. Financing runs through Sheffield Financial and RockSolid Funding at fixed rates with no early payoff penalty, and Rent-to-Own through C3 Rentals requires no hard credit check.
