Food Trailers

A Commercial Kitchen That Tows

A concession trailer is not a cargo trailer with a window cut in it. It is a commercial kitchen built inside a towable shell, and everything that makes a restaurant kitchen work has to exist in 100 to 250 square feet: a serving window, cooking line, exhaust hood with fire suppression, a three-compartment sink plus a separate handwash sink, hot water, fresh and grey water tanks, refrigeration, washable wall and floor surfaces, an electrical distribution panel and usually a propane system. Get the build-out right and the trailer earns from day one. Get it wrong and you are rebuilding it before your first permit.

Our inventory covers the range: small single-menu units and hot dog carts, mid-size 8.5 x 14 and 8 x 16 concession trailers with fire suppression already installed, coffee trailers, and full turnkey builds.

Sizes and What Fits Inside

The single most common mistake is buying by price rather than by menu. Write the menu first, list every appliance it requires, add the sinks and refrigeration, then find the smallest trailer that holds it with room for two people to pass each other.

The Systems Behind the Serving Window

Serving windows

Window size and placement set your service speed. Concession windows commonly run 3 x 6 ft or 4 x 6 ft with a gas-strut awning that doubles as weather cover and a signage surface. Put the window on the curb side for the layout most event organizers expect, and keep the transaction point separate from the cooking line so an order handoff never crosses a fryer.

Exhaust hood and fire suppression

Grease-producing cooking equipment — fryers, griddles, char grills — normally requires a Type I hood with a fire suppression system over the line. Hoods are sized to the equipment beneath them, typically 4, 6 or 8 ft. Suppression systems are inspected and tagged on a recurring schedule. When buying used, ask when the system was last serviced and whether the tag is current; an expired system is a failed inspection and an unplanned expense.

Sinks and water

The standard build carries a three-compartment sink for wash, rinse and sanitize, plus a separate handwash sink, with hot water from an on-demand or tank heater. Fresh water capacity in a typical trailer runs 30 to 60 gallons, with a grey water tank that is larger. Many jurisdictions require grey capacity to exceed fresh — around 15% larger is a figure you will hear often — but that number is set locally, so verify it before you commit to a trailer.

Power and propane

Most trailers are wired for 30, 50 or 100 amp shore power with a breaker panel and GFCI-protected outlets. If you work events without hookups, you need a generator: 4 to 8 kW covers a trailer running fryers, refrigeration, lighting and point-of-sale, while a coffee or shaved-ice build gets by on less. A vented, isolated generator compartment keeps exhaust and noise out of the kitchen. Propane runs on 20, 40 or 100 lb cylinders in an exterior rack with a regulator, and the system gets leak-tested. Confirm both systems were installed by someone competent — this is the area where cheap used trailers hide their real cost.

How to Choose a Concession Trailer

• Start from the menu. Appliances drive hood size, hood size drives trailer length, and trailer length drives tow vehicle. Work in that order.
• Verify local health department requirements before purchase, not after. Requirements are written at the county or state level and genuinely differ. Call your inspector, describe the trailer, and ask what would fail.
• Check your tow vehicle honestly. A stocked 8.5 x 20 with full water, propane and equipment routinely runs 7,000 to 10,000+ lb. That is three-quarter-ton or one-ton territory, not half-ton.
• Inspect the systems on used units. Hood suppression tag date, water tank condition and odor, propane fittings, panel and wiring quality, floor beneath the sinks. Cosmetics are cheap; systems are not.
• Plan for power you will actually have. Most event organizers do not supply 50 amp. Assume you are bringing your own.
• Leave aisle room. Two people cannot work a line with less than about 30 inches of clear aisle. Cutting it to fit one more appliance costs you throughput every service.

Health Department Approval Is Local

There is no single national concession trailer code. Mobile food unit requirements are set by state and county health departments, and they diverge on the details that matter most: exact sink configuration, water tank capacities, hot water temperature, wall and ceiling finish materials, hood and suppression rules, commissary requirements and whether the unit must return to a base kitchen. A trailer that passes in one county can fail across the state line. Treat any general guidance — including ours — as a starting point, and get your specific requirements from the inspector who will be permitting you.

Delivery & Buying Online

We ship concession and food trailers nationwide throughout the lower 48. Freight is quoted flat-rate before you commit, and every unit is backed by our 30-day guarantee. Tell us the delivery ZIP and we will include the haul in the quote.

Related Categories

If you are converting a shell yourself rather than buying a finished build, start with an enclosed cargo trailer and outfit it. Vendors hauling equipment, tents and tables between events often add a utility trailer for the overflow. Fixed-location operators sometimes pair the trailer with a 20 ft shipping container for secure dry storage. Axles, brakes, jacks and lighting for the trailer are in trailer parts, and the full catalog is in our online trailer shop.