Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/764538
While the huge invest- ments some owner-opera- tors and small fleets make in distinguishing their tractors from the madding crowd tend to grab a lot of the custom-equipment headlines, Zach Beadle, working with his "expert welder" son, as he says, put $17,000 into this 1986 Trailmobile he bought for a grand total of $500 to, well, put it work hauling freight and making money, pronto. Beadle hauls livestock, hay and occasionally heavy equipment and more with a variety of trailers he's col- lected over the years, behind a sweet 1970s Peterbilt cabover. He bought the flat- bed after seeing it in a yard where he delivers hay "for several years," he says. It'd "just been sitting there rot- ting," but the 1986 Trailmo- bile still had "a good frame 22 www.bigrigowner.com J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7 REBORN RIG What does it cost to rebuild and extend a 1986 48-foot Trailmobile flatbed? By Todd Dills Zach Beadle bought this 1986 Trailmobile flatbed for only $500. Seven months and $17,000 later, Beadle's trailer looks like new.