Transcript
Speaker: The one you call when you need a 10 up or down. I'm a 10 rental man. I'm working all day. Getting mistakes in the ground no matter what they say. From sunrise to the night.
Speaker: make sure everything's right. Yeah, I'm a 10 rental man.
Speaker: All right, welcome back to another episode of Under the Vinyl, a rental management media podcast. I'm running solo today. Nate's on the road, getting me back for those two that I missed earlier in the year. So um we're going to get right into it. We have a great guest today.
Speaker: ah This one's kind of perfect for me to run solo on because we have Adam from Lang Trailers, a restroom trailer company. We're going to talk about how ah restroom trailers are really taking over the event side and how ah more and more tent operators are buying trailers and getting into that side of the business.
Speaker: we all know that i love restroom trailers and port-a-johns just because it's much easier than putting up tents so i figured it was a good one adam welcome to under the vinyl how you doing today doing good thanks for having me kyle appreciate it yeah um well adam let's go way back in time because some people might not know this but you used to be a tank guy yes i am i still consider myself a tank i cannot walk past the tent without scoping it out um Yeah, so my family started ah a event rental company in 1991. It's called Windswept Event Rentals. We were in Lake Trove, Pennsylvania.
Speaker: um Started out with, you know, like most party-owned companies, was, you know, pop-up, high-peak marquees, Samsonite chairs, eight-foot tables, you know, the basics. um It quickly grew. You know, we kind of had like the... yeah full service model we rarely said no if if it made sense we would bring in new inventory and add it so we grew the fleet over the years you I kept adding larger scale tenting um more inventory tabletop accessories power generation ah HVAC units and then eventually restroom trailers
Speaker: So we we were kind of late on restrooms, but it was mainly because they didn't exist at the time. You know, we i so I didn't see my first restroom trailer. Like, first time I've ever been in one was in, like, 2007. Really? No, they existed prior to that.
Speaker: um and I tell this story all the time and it just resonates there. I just, I'll never forget it. Uh, it was early in summer and we were setting up a pole tent. I think it was a 40 by 60 or 40 by 80 and it was brutal hot and we had the usual setup. This was before we had 10 oxes.
Speaker: So we were out there with the sledges, just, just hammering the town and, Maybe three or four guys, box trucks, um setting up the tent. and And I remember seeing this trailer pull in. this ah this There's an older guy in an F-150 pulling a three-station restroom trailer.
Speaker: And he pulled right in. He didn't get out of the damn truck. He he yelled through the window at the bride like and gave her, like, right here. And she gave him a thumbs up. You know, he got out, he was like ah practically with a cane. He was this old guy. You know, just comes over, you know, winds down the jacks, does the stairs, connects the power, and it's like, see you Monday. And I remember we we immediately were like, what is that thing? And we went over and checked it out. Like, it's amazing.
Speaker: And... We went about our day. We kept slamming stakes in and building the tent up. And after we left, we found out later that this old man charged as much for that restroom trailer as we did for this entire 40 by 60 production with multiple trucks and brutal labor and loading and unloading and cleaning. And and it was at that day we're like we got to get in one of these. Yeah. ah So that that was kind of how our, art my introduction to restroom trailers started.
Speaker: So at that point, um, What was the first one you bought, if you don't mind back then? The first one we bought was a three station. Um, and honestly we ended up, we, we were like, I want that one. We, we bought that same one that we saw. We didn't really know.
Speaker: we didn't know any different. We didn't know there was other options. We didn't know there manufacturers. We know anything. So we just went out and bought that exact model. And then, uh, how big did you grow your fleet back in your rental days?
Speaker: ah We had the trailers up to 12. So we're in a little you you you're familiar with Latrobe, Pennsylvania a little bit. I mean, it's a little podunk town. We don't have a lot here.
Speaker: um So we had up to 12 units here that we wouldd service kind of like the the Pittsburgh area with. um It's crazy, though, you know. And I see this so commonly with tent guys.
Speaker: I just didn't know any better. I only knew special events. That was what I did. And, you know, we got into the trailers. It was like, oh, man, we can bring these to all of our tented weddings. Like they're already here. Everybody needs one of these.
Speaker: It was such a perfect marriage to our tent rental company. But in hindsight, we were kind of idiots about it. We only like looked at it. We looked at it like it was a brand. We got a new chair pattern or a new dishware pattern. We added it to our event site and we sold it with our event stuff. And we didn't we didn't realize that this was a whole nother business that It assists with tents, but it's not just a new rental item.
Speaker: And but we didn't do that. You know, we we treated it like a new chair. um and It was an add on to. Yeah. You wanted the tent and the trailer. That's exactly right. We looked at it as, hey, I'm already this is fish in a barrel. I tell people all the time, it's funny.
Speaker: Trash and restrooms are the absolute last thing that anybody thinks of for an event. So the tent guys have this wonderful opportunity that people think of the tents and tables when they call you. that That's something they book six months, eight months in advance.
Speaker: No one ever has the trailer or bathrooms figured out when they call the tent guy. So if the tent guy has restrooms, it's just such an easy add-on as long as your sales team is saying, hey, you know, have you, have you considered what you're going to do? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: It's just an, a very easy bolt on $2,000 or $1,800, wherever you're getting for your unit onto the existing temp order. Yeah. And to a job you're already going to.
Speaker: Yes. You already probably have ah a truck deadheading there with a crew in it. It's now pulling some money. It's a, it was, it was a great marriage, but Knowing what we know now, like living in this industry, you know, the special events industry is just, it's a tiny portion of where these things are going.
Speaker: And, you know, so many customers like us are just blinded by what they do and they miss this huge other revenue stream and they're focusing strictly on the new chair that they have.
Speaker: Yeah, it's funny, you know, when we started our restroom division, it was the same way. We were, oh, it's just a bolt-on to, we're going to basically only rent it to ourselves and rent it to weddings and special events that we do.
Speaker: And then I got a call about a long-term rental. And i was like, I don't know how to do this. i don't know what. And I was like, oh, screw it. We'll put it out there. So we took it.
Speaker: That trailer's been there for five years now. Yep. Just... I hate to say the word printing money, but at this point it is just printing money. It doesn't move. It sits there. We go pump it twice a week. It's hard to go back. Yeah, it's hard to get. I would rather do that than move the trailer every weekend, to be honest with you.
Speaker: This episode of Under the Vinyl is brought to you by Right Choice Decting. When it comes to climate control and structure support systems, Right Choice Decting delivers solutions you can count on.
Speaker: From high performance temporary fabric ducting that distributes heated or cooled air to durable thermo shield hardwall systems that create comfortable energy efficient spaces, Right Choice helps event professionals, tent manufacturers and rental companies maximize performance in any environment.
Speaker: you know, every customer, that when you buy a trailer, especially in the tent business, organically, you you immediately start getting rentals, but they're all the the the bolt-ons to your existing special events. It's, there're they're prevalent, they're easy.
Speaker: That's usually how your schedule fills. And just like you experienced It's usually this random call that you get. And that's exactly what happened to us. That's how we learned about it. We got a call from um Toyota.
Speaker: Toyota was remodeling all of the car dealerships in Pennsylvania. It was part of their like new branding. And the contractor that got that job called us and someone was like, hey, I got a, we're remodeling these bathrooms and the whole showrooms and we need nice facilities for the customers and everything.
Speaker: And we want to rent it for six months. And we were just kind of like, you want to you want to rent a trailer for six months? like we were We were so confused because all we ever did was weekends, weekends, weekends, weekends. once you start doing it, you're like, oh my God, this is this is so much better. yeah So ultimately, I think everybody would...
Speaker: prefer that you did nothing but those long-term rentals but the cash keeping the lights on in between those rentals is is what the special events are great for yeah so um you mentioned that you sold the business in 2018 when did you guys start laying trailers or make the decision to start getting into manufacturing did you make your own before you sold the uh tent rental business yeah so you know, like you said, we saw this magical trailer and we're like, that's amazing. Let's get one. Um, but you know after we got it, it was still really cool and amazing and doing well and renting and make the profit margins were phenomenal.
Speaker: There was a lot of things about the trailer that we didn't like. Um, we were having to do a lot of maintenance, like things were breaking a lot. Um, there was a lot of things with the design we didn't like.
Speaker: So we basically, um, in the rental side, we started saying ourselves, you know, we we really should, we really should build one that doesn't have this problem and doesn't have this problem. And so we started designing trailers in like, 2010, we started, started drawing up on paper and getting plans to make one, but we were so busy, you know, the tent rental world, you're just, it's hard to find time to do anything. it So we kind of had these plans, but it was always in the back burner.
Speaker: And then around 2012, we got this massive contract with Chevron, the natural gas oil fracking, kind of same deal. So far out of the realm, we stumbled into it because ah Chevron, when they did their first like well pad in Pennsylvania, they wanted to do this big, um, like grand opening. They flew in all the big wigs to the site and they had this luncheon and a tent. We did a climate controlled tent and staging and power.
Speaker: And it was just there for the big wigs. Soon as the big wigs flew out, we were there like an hour later to start tearing out the tent. And one of the like safety supervisors for the fractures came over and was like, Hey,
Speaker: can you guys leave this here and we'll rent it from you? And we had the bathrooms and he said, i we really want those bathrooms. We're sick of the plastic portables. you know It's one of the number one complaints our guys have. It's hot, they're wearing these flame retardant suits.
Speaker: you know, can we rent all this stuff and just leave it here? And we were like dumbfounded, you know, this was like, high like black tie event, high end everything. And now we're going to leave it for all these construction. Yeah. The oil field workers. So in my head, I'm like, these guys are going to destroy everything. So we threw out this crazy price.
Speaker: And they just were like, yeah, it sounds great. um It should be here for about a year. And then when we're done here, I want you to move here and here. And we also have four more of these sites. Can you can you bring them here, here, if here and So it was like overnight I needed, i think I needed eight big trailers, like bigger than what we had.
Speaker: So we immediately ran out to our manufacturers, the ones that were building, the ones that we didn't really care for, but I needed trailers. Nobody could get me trailers. It was like they had a 16 week backlog or something.
Speaker: So at the time it was like, well, we can either say no to this incredible contract or find a way. So we just went for it and we started building trailers. We built all these trailers to service us one job. It went for about two years.
Speaker: um which was awesome because you got to see, I mean, I wish I could say that we just knocked out of the park on our first one. Yeah. But we didn't. You know, like, we there was a lot of things about the first one. We're ugh. So we changed it. and Is it still around? Do you know where it is? Yes. It's, i mean,
Speaker: That thing is still a beast. It is still going strong. and um But there was a lot of things about it that, you know, your first design, you just, you don't know. So we built a second one, a third one. And each time we would get to actually put it in our field, I would be the one pumping it, delivering it, picking it up, cleaning it, maintaining it. And you'd start saying like, oh, this is a pain in the butt here. Or where if we could only access this, that'd be great.
Speaker: So we just kept... redoing the model and and trying to improve on any little thing that we could find. And, you know, by the end, we just, what we felt was a really phenomenal product. um And it was around 2017, my parents were, they were kind of already out of the the rental company, but as a family, we kind of made the decision that it's probably time to start looking for exit. Labor was getting really, really tough. Our company was doing really well, but it was killing us as individuals. You know, we were working 100 hours a week. It was, it was just tough.
Speaker: And we made the decision to sell the rental company and That gave my brother and I the opportunity to just focus on building wrestling trailers. So that's how Lang was created in 2017.
Speaker: um yeah We got incorporated and started building trailers. And shortly after the sale of the rental company was finalized. Nice. So 2017 starts, you start the business. Are you building all sizes at that point? Are you so trying to specialize?
Speaker: How did you decide where to go from there? Huh. So this was like, this was interest. It's kind of like the rental side of things. You know when, when we first got started, I knew what I knew and we were, we really had like two designs, two two models, that was And it was like every phone call I'd take, somebody wanted this, something different, you know? So for the first couple months, first year of being in business, we were just like, oh yeah, yeah, we can build that. And whatever somebody asks for, like, that sounds great. And we'd, you we'd try to redesign one and build a new one. And, and you know, it seemed like every trailer we built was a, was different, different, different.
Speaker: And it kind of led me to the original problem was like, you know, this is just like when I built my my first prototype, you know, anytime you build something for the first time,
Speaker: You don't know what you don't know. and you ugly you You do your best to do your best, but you you ultimately rarely are just going to nail it 100%. So we started finding that yeah right we had to say no. you know there We couldn't just say yes to everything. We wanted to start streamlining into a product line that was tried and true, something that we already worked the buns out of. I didn't want each of my customers Having to work the kinks out of everything. You know, it was like, I wanted to make sure what we were providing was was really good.
Speaker: So we started to try to specialize into like this floor plan and this floor plan. And when a customer would call, they're like, well, we have these two.
Speaker: And, you know, eventually we found that, okay, there was there was gaps. We only had a five station and a nine station. And we started getting all these calls for, i only need a two, i only need a two.
Speaker: So we tried to incorporate all those same proven concepts that we learned on the five station and nine station and then incorporate them into a new build. And instead of building that like knee jerk, like I wanted to and I need it in three weeks, we would proactively say, OK, and we see a void in our product line. Let's design a two slowly and test it and build it out right and then start offering it.
Speaker: um So that that was when we started after about a year of going crazy, just trying to build everything. We started to streamline a little bit and that was definitely the the better path. We were able to put out ah much better proven product ah much faster. So our lead times were much lower.
Speaker: And ultimately the the the customers that kind of got the benefit of lower lead times and better product. out yeah So um you start building trailers 2017, 2018 full time now.
Speaker: Yep. You're offering two or three lines. Yeah. Now COVID comes 2020. Yeah. How yeah terrifying, but it had have been good for you.
Speaker: So, you know, we came from the rental industry. I had the blinders on. When we first started, i was selling like exclusively to tent guys because like, look, guys, you're killing yourself putting up these tents just like I was. I'm telling you, if you buy one of these restroom trailers and see how profitable it is, how low labor it is, how easy it is, you're going to love it.
Speaker: You know, so... everyone we were working with when we started was was party battle guys because it was just you know we we had relationships we had ah a general understanding of their business you can speak the lingo that's a big thing I knew exactly what they were going through and knew wholeheartedly like it was very easy to sell the product to them because I didn't have to be a salesperson I just had to be honest like you're going to love this um so when we started that was like our and was all we were doing um And we had those same blinders on until we started hearing from our newer customers. You know, we'd have these other customers that started experiencing these these long-term rentals. And more than just like the, hey, i got one. You know, this one customer a year called me and it's awesome.
Speaker: They were just going out like crazy. Like I've got 15 units now out on long-term rentals. And it it began opening our eyes into the product lines and maybe some of the differences. Um, you know, so we went from a product that was built almost exclusively around the tent rental and event rental industry. We started,
Speaker: modifying our designs, modifying our floor plans, modifying our offerings to accommodate these guys that are doing this longer-term work as well. and That was a big turning point for us. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, I i always laugh because the event side, you assume that people want the high-end, the nice...
Speaker: And at the end of the day, they just want a place that's kind of cool in the summer, kind of warm in the winter, that they can go in and use the bathroom. you You can spend all the money in the world getting that high-end trailer, but no one wants to pay extra for it, I've realized.
Speaker: So that that is one of the biggest things that we learned. And when we first cut i got, when I first started, everybody was like, no, I want it to be, i want a chandelier in it, and I want crown-building and and our and and our luxury fireplace, and I want a couch in it too. And I'm thinking like, oh my God, like, is this...
Speaker: Is this what people really want? You know, at first I didn't want to say no. i was like, okay, well, that must be what people want. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Yeah. And, you know, my experience was because one of the the second trailer third trailer I bought, i did the same thing. i was like, oh, we got to go super fancy. And and they were offering these and, you know, it had a fireplace in it and all this stuff. And you're like, yeah, thats that's what we need.
Speaker: And then when we got these, like the fracking job, was like, oh my God, like I just got, these are you know hundreds of thousands of dollars in rentals per trailer. And they are going to just destroy this trailer.
Speaker: And that was when we kind of realized kind of what you had echoed, like and like i'm I'm proud to say that our pro series trailer, which is like our middle of the road, it's a, we call it our workforce. You can take it to a million dollar wedding or a coal mine.
Speaker: We've had three U.S. presidents use our pro series restroom trailers. And, you know, it just kind of proves the fact that like, You don't need absurdly decorative. People want cool, clean, comfortable, sanitary bathrooms, just like in their home. You know most people don't have fireplaces in their home bathroom. You know, you just want a nice, comfortable, clean bathroom that you feel safe being in. Yes. um And in my experience, you know, those high-end ones, that's the ones that you're spending the most on maintenance on because that stuff is the stuff that goes wrong. It's all delicate. It's fragile.
Speaker: um So that that was a big part of, you know, our line. We wanted to, yeah and one of the biggest problems we had with our rental fleet before we were building them, it's we found that a lot of the trailers, almost every single trailer is built out of Indiana, the state of Indiana.
Speaker: It's the ah RV capital of the world. most Almost every RV in the world has been produced in Elkhart, Indiana area since the inception of time. So everybody out there has this same mentality. They're all used to building RVs. They all came from that industry. the All the materials that are available out there, the the practices, the labor, the everything is built around RVs. And my trailers were built like RVs.
Speaker: The walls were this thin Luan material that, ah you know, you could pull a screw out with your finger. Um, If somebody kicked a wall, but they'd go right through it.
Speaker: um Screw retention was the biggest thing, like your your toilet paper holders, paper towels, door closures. Everything was held, screwed onto like a piece of paper. It took almost nothing to rip it off. So when we were taking these, when we were taking those trailers to weddings, it wasn't that bad. The people at the weddings just were generally nicer to the equipment, less abusive.
Speaker: Soon as you start taking it to public events, long-term rentals, um that's when you quickly see like, oh my God, this thing's made of paper. So that was a huge factor for us is we wanted a trailer that I could take to a wedding and then leave that wedding and take it to $100,000 rental at a coal mine and it's going to work and it's not going to get the shit kicked out of it. um that was That was a big factor for us.
Speaker: when we got started was trying to find materials that would work because almost every, anybody that was marketing a trailer friendly material, something built for trailers, it was all the same.
Speaker: It was very, very lightweight, very, very thin, It was built around like the concept of lightweight RVs. So we had a heck of a time when we were getting started sourcing materials because we had to look outside of the box. We looked completely out of the RV trailer industry. You mean you dispersed away from Elkhart, Indiana? Yes. We're like the only manufacturer that's not in Indiana.
Speaker: um So it was it was very it was hard it was a lot much harder road because all the tools were sitting in Indiana. All the vendors were sitting at handing you, hey, here's your walls, here's your I can build, i can get you everything.
Speaker: But we would ended up with the same product as everybody else. So that was a huge factor in trying to make sure that our trailers could hold up to absolutely any rental opportunity. We didn't want people saying no to an opportunity because their trailer was too fancy or not fancy enough or some just run of the mill, really pretty, clean, easy to maintain longevity.
Speaker: That's like our concept with all of our builds. Today, what is the number one trailer that rolls out the door size wise and your package? You know, it it's weird because i would say you have to segment it segment into markets. Um,
Speaker: as we've grown, so we've been really fortunate. Some of the customers that we've started with from inception, you know, these were guys that we sold their first trailer to. We've got guys now that have two three, 400 trailers. Um, and,
Speaker: trailers um and their number one selling product or most common build is is a little different than my, like the original tent rental guys. um You know, tent rental guys, party event rental guys, it's still your two station, three station, five stations.
Speaker: um Some of our bigger customers that have found their way into the upcoming markets, the the construction industries that are replacing the the the plastic portables with trailers.
Speaker: we're seeing huge, huge demand for large units. I would say this year we've had almost as many large, you know, 29 foot, like eight eight unit and 12 units.
Speaker: I've almost had as many of those going as my smaller units. But it's very different. You know, we, it really depends on the size of your company, your market. If you, I get this a lot where all get like a small party rail company and like, we want a 12 station. I'm like, well, I'll be thrilled to sell you a 12 station. That is, that is not what you want to be starting Well, and you know, and that's the difference between you guys and some of the other manufacturers. The other manufacturers just send the price and say, here you go. Yeah, you want a 12? That's what you're going to get.
Speaker: Yeah. If, I mean, if I didn't spend most of my life setting up at events, it'd be really easy to like, yeah, take the 12. But I know you're going to find out like, well, a station, a trailer that big has two air conditioners on it.
Speaker: And I guarantee that customer doesn't realize that now they need 40 amps of power at this event to run this thing every time they take it out, you know, and that's going to kick them in the butt every, every time they go out. Well, it it'd be hard to show up to a a hundred person wedding with a 12 station trailer. Yeah. As big as the tent you're bringing Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker: um Yeah, it's all. I mean, it's all that stuff. It's the things you don't know until you know it. Looking back, do I wish I owned a bunch of six and five stations? Probably not. I would buy twos and threes because the average wedding size now is 125 guests to 150.
Speaker: So price tags keep going up. Guest counts keep going down. Exactly. Yeah. But ah when I started buying trailers, no one was out there telling me that I was just that they were happy to be taking my money.
Speaker: Yeah, that's it's a. I mean, obviously from from somebody who sells trailers, the the larger the trailer, typically the the better for the company. So it's it is something I do see that people are oftentimes oversold. You they're convinced to buy something much bigger.
Speaker: There there is some truth to that. Like we sell a lot of my um five station. It's the reason I really push that trailer to a lot of people is because It's about the largest size. It's 14 and a half foot long, five individual stations.
Speaker: It can do events up to like 300 people. But it's also small enough that if you took that trailer to wedding for 75 people, it's not going to look like a tractor trailer sitting over there.
Speaker: And you can always take a five station to an event for 50 people, but you can't take a two station to an event for 250 people. So a lot of times when people are buying one trailer, we do tell them to go a little bit bigger, but it's important to think about like power. Power is the one critical thing that nobody ever thinks about.
Speaker: And a five station on the 14 and a half foot long body still only has one air conditioner. that's a critical like factor when people are looking at what trailer to get.
Speaker: Cause once you go over two air conditioners, you're, you're over one power is difficult. Yeah. And I will say, obviously I own a couple of your trailers as well. You're the way you guys do power.
Speaker: Absolute favorite. i wish everyone would follow that so much easier than ah I love it. If I, I don't deliver them that often. So when I go deliver, I know I can open my book that you have everything labeled by the color of the cord. It's perfect. Yep.
Speaker: Yeah, the we call that our our the lap system, the Lang Adaptive Power System. And, you know, we did that because that was a problem I had constantly ran into where, you know, I would put in somewhere and and, you know, my trailers all required the 30 amp plugs and could never find 30 amp plugs and the way they were set up it was it was just very difficult um for us we when we started designing trailers we wanted to make sure that our tent crew was capable of delivering these trailers so as you mentioned like we color coordinate everything like little keys for everything so that it's even if you don't know even if you don't have a ton of experience as long as you read the little step-by-step guide you you but i know you're going to do it right yeah you can figure it out yeah
Speaker: What are some of the key differences in a Lang trailer versus some of the other manufacturers out there? there's There's a lot of differences. What's really hard, it's kind of like tents. You know, if you don't know a lot about tents, when you look at a tent, like, oh, they're both white.
Speaker: They both have aluminum. and That one's cheaper. I'm going go with that You know, when you look at restroom trailers, you could so you notice differences in the design.
Speaker: But, you know, a lot of times you look at them, they're both fiberglass. they're both white fiberglass. But there is an enormous difference between panels. I would say one of the biggest differences between a Lang trailer and any other trailer is the wall structure.
Speaker: We use a very, very durable composite with a fiberglass barrier. So traditionally, almost everybody uses a pinch roll or a vacuum sealed panel where you take a substrate like a a wood wall or or aluminum wall and you glue or tape a thin sheet of fiberglass to it.
Speaker: So from the outside, my trailer and their trailer look the same. The biggest difference is is our trailer is a composite wall where we actually hand lay all the material to together. it We're laying woven, roving fiberglass and laying liquid resin ah all into one and permeated composite panel. So there's not a ah ah thin sheet of fiberglass taped to a wall.
Speaker: It is one solid structure like a boat. okay um So our wall structure is really, really impenetrable. It's the, and it's the whole trailer. We do our floor, exterior walls, interior walls, ceiling, roof, everything is that same composite.
Speaker: um um If you, at the trade shows, we we bring panels and let people hit them with dead blow hammers, just wailing on them and you just can't hurt them. um So that the overall structure of the trailer is probably the biggest.
Speaker: um Because of that composite panel, our screw retention is absurd. you can you could do a chin-up on two screws on our wall. um And some of the other ones you can barely hang a toilet paper dispenser off of. Yeah, one, somebody just bumps into the toilet paper and rips off. Yeah. um So that is a huge factor.
Speaker: um The overall design is what we do push a lot, like, years of maintaining the trailers is where a lot of our designs came from. Like a lot of my trailers I had in the rental field, like my electrical was all hidden in the roof.
Speaker: My plumbing was all hidden in the walls. Um, Anytime something broke, it was a nightmare. You'd have to sometimes cut, like take a sawzall and cut into your trailer just to access something.
Speaker: and So our trailers, we really strive for maintenance, like um all of our water lines. Every single water line is inside the trailer, hidden behind a little channel.
Speaker: And the reason you do that is, a it's from people that have the winter trailers. it's It's in a heated cavity, not hidden in ah in a wall, exposed. if you ever have something break and you know where especially if you're in the northern climate you will have something break over the winter it's just guaranteed you thought you winterized it you thought you got all the water out but somebody left somebody didn't winterize it properly and yet pipes and fittings break so there will be times that you need to access and maintain but we want to make sure it's all easy to get to easy to access easy to repair
Speaker: um Same with the electrical. Like our electrical is second to none. There is there's probably a mile of of wiring in a land trailer that doesn't need to be there because in my trailers of the rental fleet before we were building them,
Speaker: I had a mouse get up in my roof and it it ruined my life. it All of the lights in the entire trailer were all on running on one main power. And so every light would would ah have a butt connection to another light and a butt connection to another light. That one mouse took down my whole trailer.
Speaker: And you couldn't get you couldn't get new wires to the lights. We had to like expose conduit to to even rewire everything. So when we started building trailers, at every single light, every single light in our trailer is a home run. There is a wire running from the mechanical room to each light, every single one, whether there's 30 lights or five lights, there is an individual wire to each one.
Speaker: And there's little things like that in our trailers that most people don't realize until a mouse happens. And then you're like, oh, my God, I'm so glad that it was set up this way and I can pull a new wire to every single light.
Speaker: So lots of little details like that. Well, it's funny how you talk about your ah you're plumbing because I had a line freeze on my 9 stall over the winter and I was very happy that I just had to remove a channel to fix the line yeahp versus having to cut into the wall or under the counters or yeah, it was, I was appreciative of that.
Speaker: i think I'm glad it helped. But you know, it's funny to me, one thing you didn't mention is your spray bar and your tank. Like to me, I love that.
Speaker: So the the spray bar was, you know, another one, um What we found too is where it really became valuable. um All my trailers, I started getting a lot of odors in the the ones I owned before we started building them, especially when ah were a long-term rental.
Speaker: It didn't seem to be as bad when we would do a weekend rental. Couple reasons. One, and ah the I'm sure you've seen it too, all of the trailers, a lot of them have dump valves on the front of the trailer.
Speaker: That was a big problem because no matter how you cut it, you're leaving about 10% of the waste in the trailer unless you're able to really tilt it and everything. So when you do a long-term rental where the unit's staying in place, you know, where it's, you're bringing a service truck to it and you're not able to lower the jack and tilt everything.
Speaker: We were getting a lot of waste sludge in there, which not only was killing my capacity, ah but odors was a big problem. So that was one of the things we said is, you know, how do we, how can we help get these tanks cleaner?
Speaker: um And that's when the spray bar came in. You know, that that spray bar runs the entire length of the rear of the trailer, the rear of the tank. It kind of sprays water towards the dump valve. And the main focus is,
Speaker: especially on a long-term rent or if you just tilt the trailer a little bit and get a little slope on the tank, that nice layer of water pushing all of the waste towards the dump valve makes a world of difference in the cleanliness of that tank. What are your tanks made out of?
Speaker: Well, that's another caveat there. um We had a lot of tanks from other manufacturers. Some of them were, a lot of them were steel and I get why they did it. We we entertained doing it because it was such an easier way to build trailers where when I'm welding up the frame, I would just weld in sheet metal too and that becomes my waste tank.
Speaker: It's a way faster, way easier way to build trailers. But ultimately, you know waste is really acidic. And over time, that waste just shooing away at your steel welds, it eventually thins out the tank and welds and leaks through.
Speaker: And once that happens, it's pretty much shot. So we made the decision to make all of our tanks out of copolymer. So it's a blend between polypropylene and polyethylene.
Speaker: It's incredibly tough. It's the same material that you'll see like in a steel. If you go to a steel industry where they have big tanks of acid that they're dipping steel into, um same exact material.
Speaker: So it's really it's chemically resistant to everything. And what's really nice is it's really slippery. So it's smooth, slippery plastic. So when you have that waste, when you tilt your trailer and you get a little spray bar going, that waste just wants to slide down the tank as opposed to the steel tanks that, you know, it just, it gri it sticks to everything. It's just not as smooth.
Speaker: So we made our tanks out of, Not just the polypropylene material a lot of people use, but our our tanks are actually half inch thick. They're the thickest tanks in the industry.
Speaker: ah So very, very thick because I've had horror stories of people busting tanks. You're not supposed to haul them with waste in it. And I would never, ever do that in the rental industry. um But you know, like when I'm selling somebody a trailer, like I'm looking at them like, you're going to do exactly what I did. I know you're going to do it even though i'm telling you not to.
Speaker: So Who ever does that? What are you talking about? Now that's crazy. That's, that's insane. Who would ever think of doing that? So that's, we, that's why we made our tanks like almost twice as thick as everyone else's. Cause you know, I know you're going to do it even though.
Speaker: You know, it's funny as I said, I can't ask him that because as a manufacturer, he cannot. Yeah, i I'm telling you right now, you should not never do that. But we still build our tanks very, very strong in case somebody breaks the rules. Yes, and someone decides to do it that way.
Speaker: Like every tent rental company out there who owns a restroom trailer. Oh, that's funny. So how many and ah different packages do you guys have today for your trailers? Cool.
Speaker: So packages... ah Like your interior layouts. Maybe not layouts, that's the wrong word. But um yeah I know you have your Pro Series and you have a couple, you have one below that and one above it, I believe, right?
Speaker: Yeah, so I mean, in the standard restrooms, we have our Eco Series line, which is like our entry series. um Really awesome trailer. You know, what we found was the Pro Series. that was That was the flagship. That was the, I put everything I wanted...
Speaker: as a rental guy in that trailer. But the problem you have is when you give somebody, you know, the ability just pick everything you want, yeah that comes at a price tag. Yep. And we found like some of the entry guys, some of the guys starting out, it was almost cost for prohibitive. It was, ah it had everything you wanted, but it was like, i just can't swing it.
Speaker: So that's how the eco series was born. We basically said, all right, um I mean, still don't want to sacrifice any of the important things that I've, I've just couldn't live without things that are maintenance issues and things that are just, you have to have.
Speaker: So it still has all the integrity of a Lang trailer. it's still built of all the composite walls, still has all the accessible plumbing, still has all the general concepts. But we looked at it and said, all right, what can we strip out of the Pro Series that won't affect the person renting it?
Speaker: Like the guy rett walking into an Eco Series or walking into a Pro, they're just as happy. um Really only the owner operator would notice some of the missing features that we took out to get your costs down.
Speaker: So it's still a phenomenal Lang trailer that'll last forever. but it's at a better price point. and The Pro Series is that flagship series has all the things that we as rental operators wanted. um Then we have our Luxury Series, which is the higher end. The nice thing about our Luxury is it's pretty.
Speaker: but it's also bulletproof tough. So we do have customers that you do a lot of, if 80% of your business is high in events, our luxury series is great. And I have customers that have taken our luxury series to coal mines and it looks ridiculous there. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do but it it holds up. it's it's ah you know It's built really, really well with really, really durable products.
Speaker: Those are our three like, I guess options, you know, you you would choose from. But then we also have like the ADA lines, the lowering frame lines, shower trailers, laundry trailers, combo trailers. So there's there's a lot more options, but those are kind of like the series you can choose from.
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Speaker: Favorite trailer you've ever built?
Speaker: I, right, I can give you a quick response, but you got to tell me favorite in what way, like just overall in Lang's history, the favorite one you've built. Favorite one I've ever built was, uh, probably the biggest trailer ever built. or that It was a 44 foot long, 18 station shower. Uh, it was a monstrosity. It was huge.
Speaker: Um, My only, it's my favorite because it was probably like the most difficult challenge of engineering that we had to do. It's funny how those, the hardest ones are always people's favorites.
Speaker: Yeah. Yep. Most unusual custom request?
Speaker: Couches in bathrooms. You were serious about that? I was dead serious about that, yeah. Yeah, and we did it. That was at the time when I was like, all right. so Is that trailer still out there somewhere with the couch in it?
Speaker: yeah Yeah, there's a Lang out there. It's a 21-foot unit, a six-unit with a couch in the ladies' room. well Wow. One feature every trailer should have.
Speaker: partnerna The Lang walls. Okay, I like that. 100%. Most overrated option. On a Lang trailer or? On your trailers, yeah. Something that someone would say, i don't need that, but they really should.
Speaker: The lap system is something that new people don't think is important yeah um until they own trailers and say, I really wish it would have. Yeah, you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker: Yeah. It's good one. Best advice for someone new looking to get into restroom trailer rental. This is a good one. um Depends on who you are, but let's just use rental guys.
Speaker: Don't do what I did. um The number one mistake I see every rental guy do is you treat it like a new inventory item. You bury it in your site and you sell it to your customers as an add-on.
Speaker: um They all do well, but it's just another rental item. My advice to you is branch that out into a separate LLC. Still market it on your tent site. Still sell it at your tent company.
Speaker: but have a specific company or LLC or website just for trailers because... 80% of the market out there are people that need a trailer, but don't need a tent or tables and chairs, just need to rent a restroom trailer for six months.
Speaker: um Make sure you're capitalizing on that market. When somebody just wants a restroom trailer and they find themselves on your tent landing page with the pretty two brides and a big tent in the background, oftentimes they just immediately, not the company I'm looking for.
Speaker: So that's my advice to make sure you market it properly. Don't just bury it on your website. I'll add on to that. The other thing is you can get a rental to a wedding you might not have done the tent for. 100%. Versus if you put it on your tent quote, yes, you should still do that, but you still might get the rental even if they go with Joe's tent rental. You might get the trailer rental and honestly, you'll make more money because your labor cost is much lower. Yep. You'll be much happier doing the trailer. Exactly. Oh, favorite trade show to go to for restroom trailers.
Speaker: I'm a sucker for the ARA show just because I get to go see all the tent people that I haven't seen in years. Okay. um But um I would say the wet show, and the wastewater equipment.
Speaker: Technologies, right? um i care him I can never remember what it stands for. But that's that's definitely one of industry-leading shows for trailers. um then but it's It's a good one for sure. All right.
Speaker: whoo I don't know if you'll be able to answer this. What is the average lifespan of a trailer? And so this is because I'm wondering, what do you tell people they're supposed to last? So I try to keep people. um
Speaker: I can tell you that my first trailer, the trailer that I'm not cat satisfied with how I build it. It's not being taken care of as well as it should be. nope And it is still. Getting rich.
Speaker: Doing well. um I have customers that have had trailers that we built for, you know, nine years in the field that look brand new. And I have no doubt they're going to get another nine years out of it.
Speaker: ah It really comes down to your customer base. Like my customers that are servicing primarily ah construction and long-term rentals, your lifespan is gonna be shorter than the wedding guy. The wedding guy that takes it out every weekend, washes it every time, cleans it, the customers are real gentle on it, that thing's just gonna last forever.
Speaker: If you're running, you know, a thousand people a day through it, seven days a week for five years, It's gonna need some TLC after after a a few years.
Speaker: Fortunately, we have the structure, the Lang structure, the the walls, It doesn't to matter if you're at the, you know, rock concerts, coal mines, whatever. They just they just don't go bad. But, of you know, eventually your floor is going to get shot. You're, you know, they're going to rip sinks off the faucet and break a toilet, you know, like that kind of stuff. It really just depends on your customer base. But the structure lasts a long time. no matter what, the box will be good for a long time.
Speaker: Yeah, i mean, and it's like anything else. Like i've I had a customer that, um you know, he you wrecked the top of the trailer into a tree. It didn't fix it. You know, it didn't fix it for two years. And then now now we can start having problems. Once you get some water intrusion in there.
Speaker: Yeah, long as you're doing like general seal concepts, you know, every year checking your seals. If you drag the entire top of the trailer across a giant tree, go check it. You know, if something's ripped out or ripped off, make sure you fix it.
Speaker: Common sense maintenance um and and that thing's going to last you for for many, many, many years. What's the most missed maintenance step, you think?
Speaker: um Properly cleaning the tank. Charging waste tanks is a big one. Yeah, I remember I didn't know that in the beginning. Well, so what's funny about this one is, and i never i never thought how important it was, and I learned the same way almost every one of my customers learn. When you're doing weddings...
Speaker: You still should be charging your tank, but it rarely bites you because most waste going down the toilets in a wedding is booze. It's urine and you don't have mounding issues. There's very few solids being introduced during a wedding.
Speaker: When you go to a construction site and every morning it yeah at 6 a.m. the whole crew pulls in, it's a very different story. There's a lot more solids, a lot less liquids.
Speaker: That's what bit us, you know, like, ah because when we were just doing a events, we weren't charging the tank. We never had a problem. We do our first long-term rental. We're having all mounding problems that we couldn't figure out why. so I would say that's one of the biggest mistakes everybody makes is they don't charge their, they don't charge the waste tank. Yep.
Speaker: ah one of those things you don't know till you know. don't know. know said we We do our absolute best to educate our customers. And especially like when when an event rental guy calls us like, oh, man, I just got a six month rental where i was like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker: There's something that's really, really different about this job than what you're used to. Try to make sure you do this. that's We do our best, but it still happens. Well, Adam, ah we've had a great conversation. Where can people find you guys?
Speaker: ah So our website's really, really good. LangRestandTrailers.com. If you're thinking about getting in the industry, snoop around. You can get you can get on the YouTube channel for Lang Trailers.
Speaker: But give us a call. I mean, it's one of those things that
Speaker: via email or just snoop around the internet, you can learn a lot. But if we really have a moment to speak with you, learn what you're trying to do, what your customer base is, what your plans are, what part of the country you're in, um we're much more likely to make sure you get into the the right trailer as opposed to when you just say, hey, I want to quote for this.
Speaker: We may not know some specific details I wish I would have been able to tell you or or recommend something different. So definitely trying to call in is and so have a 10-minute conversation is the best way to to do it. yeahp Well, ah we'll link the website in the video and in the bio of all our postings. But Adam, it's been great. And this has been another episode of Under the Vinyl, a rental management media podcast.
Speaker: Thanks, Kyle.
