Back several years ago I had a friend that was the Director or the American Quarter Horse Association. She had seen our Company BBQ Trailer that we had put together and wanted to know if I’d sell it to her to auction off at their Annual Meeting that was taking place out at Los Angeles, California. It looked pretty good back in the day, but it had been pulled many miles and would need a makeover before it would have been suitable to send. Besides, that would have left us without a trailer to drag around to job sites to cook for the crews.

I suggested we could just build her one from scratch. Our old trailer had a storied past. It originally was a car hauler trailer that one of the radio stations in Austin had that they hauled an antique car around on to parades and such. Some thief came along in the night and stole it. When it was eventually recovered the fenders were all beat up on it, but otherwise it was in pretty good shape. But it looked a real sight, so they sold it to me for a little of nothing. I brought it out to our shop and the guys built a new set of fenders and it looked like new again.

It set around and all it was really good for was something to loan out to some of my good buddies that needed to haul something. To put a stop to that, one day the idea came about that we needed a nice BBQ Trailer we could use to feed the crews when they had done good on a project and that kind of thing. After mounting a pit and a wood box, we started adding this and that to it until it had everything but the kitchen sink, so we added that too. It was really a jazzed up deal.

When the opportunity came along to build this trailer for AQHA, we were able to use ours as a pattern. Knowing what all we wanted to put on it from the start, it turned out so much better than our original trailer. It even had a self contained generator. On ours we carried a generator along which wasn’t a real problem but didn’t feel like a complete self contained unit.

The first three photos are all the finished product as it left for California. The bottom 2 pictures are the original trailer with a few pieces missing, refrigerator and the like. It’s becoming a little worse for the wear, but still serviceable. They both have things like a push button lift for the pit door. The AQHA even had a remote that seemed to be a hit at the auction, I hear.

All this talk about “we”and all had very little to do with me. Both of these trailers were mostly the skill and hard work of Chris Chapman, whom I can proudly say worked for the company for about 20 years, but left to start his own fabrication and welding business located in Smithwick, Texas a few years ago. I am so proud of Chris and the man he is. There is no better fellow around that I know of. I love him like a son.

I don’t remember the actual price the trailer brought at that auction but it was many thousands of dollars. I believe it was lady in Arizona that bought it as a gift for her Son in Law.