How To Build Your Own Weed Eater Rack For A Trailer

Are you sick and tired of worrying about your weed eaters shifting around inside the trailer while you're on the road? Unless you secure them safely to the walls, you always run the risk of accidentally damaging these pricey tools. All it takes is something bulkier and heavier rolling over the trimmer's shaft, and your brand-new Stihl weed trimmer tool is no more. Unfortunately, weed eater racks — despite their rudimentary design — are usually as expensive as the equipment they're meant to hold. But with a bit of ingenuity, you can design and build your own DIY weed trimmer support.

There are myriad ways to make a DIY trailer weed eater rack. Essentially, you just need something that can safely support the weight of the tools and transfer the load to the walls of the trailer. The ideal configuration might change depending on the type of trailer you have, since open trailers have shorter walls than the enclosed ones. Your budget, DIY skills, and availability of materials will also dictate the rack's design. To give you some inspiration, we've lined up two DIY designs that should be easy enough for anyone with basic handyperson skills to tackle. One involves a quick but effective solution that needs simple, cheap components, like strut channels and spring clamps. The other rack solution is more permanent, but gives you the flexibility to utilize bits of scrap wood and possibly build the contraption for free. We'll walk you through both rack designs below.

Are you looking for a wallet-friendly weed eater rack solution you can slap together in a short time? If you don't need a long-term fixture to hold the tools, or you just don't have the time or resources to build something permanent, here's some good news. You can create a weed eater rack using nothing more than a couple of strut channels with slotted holes, some spring clamps, and adequate fasteners. You'll pay between $60 and $75 for a rack that holds a single tool — about $40 to $50 for the channels, $6 to $8 for the spring clamps, and $15 for the anchors.

First, assemble your materials. Pay attention to the kind of strut channels you're using. For one, they'll need slotted holes to hold the clamps. Crucially, you'll need to decide on the strut material. Strut channels usually come in a number of different metals. Now, if you have an open trailer, you'll want a metal that resists moisture-caused corrosion. Stainless steel, aluminum, and (to a lesser extent) galvanized steel are all suitable choices. On the other hand, if the trailer is enclosed, you may not need to worry about weather-resistance too much and opt for the cheapest channels you can find. Clamps and screws are easier to select; just make sure you find ones that are suitable for your trailer wall panels. Typically, you can use wall anchor screws on the panels you'd find in an enclosed trailer.

With the materials assembled, secure the strut channels vertically to the walls of the trailer. Then, drill through the clamp handles, and use screws to attach the clamps to the strut channels, with the grips facing down. Now, you can use the clamps to hold your weed eaters securely in a horizontal position against the trailer wall.

The spring clamp solution we described above may be an ingenious way to secure weed eaters in a trailer, but it's not for everyone. If you want something more substantial than a pair of spring clamps and have an enclosed trailer with walls to mount to, your materiality options are virtually limitless. Best of all, you can use scrap pieces of lumber, plywood, MDF, or any other similar materials to build the rack. Once you've identified the key rack components, it will be easy to visualize the design and select the best materials from whatever you have on hand.

To fashion a sturdy DIY weed eater rack, you'll need vertical support brackets to actually hold the tools, and fasteners to attach the brackets to the trailer wall panels. If you have scrap bits of plywood or MDF, you can cut out the supports in any shape or form you like, as long as they're wide enough to give the weed eater enough clearance from the wall. While you're at it, cut out notches in the supports — ones that will fit the weed eater's shaft.

Then, consider how you will secure the supports to the trailer wall. Battery-powered weed eaters generally weigh less than 15 pounds, whereas their gas counterparts can weigh 20 pounds or more (so you're looking at a total weight of 30 to 40 pounds for a double rack). If you're concerned that the wall panels won't hold the weight safely, attach a large piece of plywood to the trailer wall first. The ply will act as a sturdy mounting plate that distributes the load over a larger part of the trailer wall. Then, reuse old door hinges to hang the supports onto the mounting plate. Alternatively, use a special enclosed trailer mounting kit to attach the supports to the wall.