Trailer Haunts, the Truly Mobile Attraction

By Rich Strelak R&J Productions-Las Vegas

We own and operate Haunted Houses, but how many of us are actually in a "house"? In our infancy we were just that, Haunted Houses. Usually operated by local charities and Service organizations, the attractions occupied vacant old dilapidated houses, the kind of ambience you can't buy! It seemed every city had a few of these scary old buildings; most were even donated for use during the season.

As the industry grew, so did the attractions. Drawing more patrons, these "Haunted Houses" started to come under more scrutiny. Old houses were not really structurally designed to accommodate the traffic generated by the attractions. Local authorities decided that to protect the masses, these events needed to be licensed and inspected. Operating in a real "Haunted House" began to have its drawbacks.

Operators started to seek alternatives to old abandoned buildings. The next logical step was abandon commercial buildings. Designed to accommodate the public, they had the features that would please the local inspectors and satisfy the size needs of the growing attraction. In most markets they were relatively easy to find. Realtors could make a quick dollar for a small lease time. Additional exposure for the property could help develop a long-term occupant. It worked for both parties. The drawback was what is called "curb appeal". An old 5 & Dime usually isn't as scary looking. Some bypassed this problem by added a façade, a fake front, that could represent the old look and feel of the original "Haunted House". So our Haunted House really became a Haunted Building.

While available in most markets, some people had trouble finding such abandon gems. What type of large structure could be temporally available for such a short time frame? Enter the Tent Show! Now our shows were know as temporary events, heck you can't get more temporary than a tent! Usually cheaper than renting a building, this type of attraction allowed for a wider selection of locations. Now the façade was a definite necessity to obscure the tent or every haunt would look like a Psycho Circus! Although not without it's limitations, the tent show became the new venue for Haunted Houses or Haunted Tents!

Like every other venue, tent shows have their limitations as well. Need I say weather! Many use a black or blackened interior tent. In the warmer climates heat has been know to accumulate enough to set off heat sensors! Meanwhile our northern constituents can really be freezing their butts off by the end of the season! The entire show must be built on site from the ground up and that takes time. Walls, props and effects are transported to the site, unloaded, built, electric lines ran, then you run the show, dismantle everything and reload it in the trailers. Some one decided to skip all that loading and unloading and a new form was born, the mobile Trailer Haunt. Now we have Haunted Trailers?

More shows will turn to this style of attraction in the future for several reasons. Attractions in actual houses, like Raven's Grin Inn, are a thing of the past. No new venues like this are being allowed. Vacant commercial buildings are becoming more and more difficult to find. Many Realtors do not want to do a short-term lease. They feel it jeopardizes the chance to obtain a long-term lessee and many find that they can make more money by writing off the loss of income as opposed to a short-term lease.

If you do find a Realtor willing to do a short-term lease, you will probably find they want full retail price or more for the space, say $1.75 and up per sq foot! The Realtor is also going to wait until the last possible minute to sign any contract, hoping to land a permanent tenant. This puts the Attraction owner in a precarious position. If the Realtor rents out from under you, where do you go?

Each year more and more attractions are searching for new homes. Some are trying to rent a space for the entire year. This makes it difficult to be profitable if you have to pay an additional $35,000 for the privilege of not tearing down and resetting. The mobility of the Trailer Haunt allows you to set up in any vacant lot or unused portion of a parking lot. With a shorter set time than a Tent Haunt it increases the availability of choice locations. Your local Wal-Mart parking lot may be perfect and willing to rent it out for six or eight weeks for a Trailer Haunt, but three months for a Tent Haunt?

So what is the Trailer Haunt and how does it work? Instead of building the attraction on site, you create your scenes inside several trailers. The modular pieces are assembled, hopefully by a very experienced driver, to create the overall attraction. Obviously there will be major modifications done to the trailers since most trailers have one large door and maybe one small side door. But before we run out and start buying trailers, you might want to figure out what type of trailer. There are several types to choose from. Each can accomplish a different need. Some may not be readily available in your market.

TRAILERS

There are several types of trailers; semi-trailers, refrigerated trailers, moving trailer, electronic equipment trailers, UPS trailers, flatbed trailers and mobile office trailers, just to name a few. What you use will be dependant upon the needs of your attraction design and the availability of used trailers in your market. Let's discuss each to see which fits your needs.

Semi-trailer- easiest to obtain, these are usually 8 feet wide and various lengths from 28 to 52 feet. Floor to ceiling is 8 feet. Usually it has a roll-up rear door or two swinging doors. Most have a side access door usually within the front third of the box. The floor is wood or metal and approximately four feet from ground level. It is quite easy to cut new doors anywhere along either or both sides.

Refrigerated trailer- is identical to the regular semi-trailer. Big difference is that an insulation wall cuts in on your inside useable space. Floor is usually slotted metal. It is also approximately four feet from ground level. Bonus if you get one with a working reefer unit! Imagine a snow cave that's REALLY below freezing! You will have to watch door placement if you intend to utilize the cooler unit.

Moving trailer- used by furniture moving companies, these trailers are closer to the ground, usually about 28 inches. This gives you a lot more headroom, 10 to 11 feet to the ceiling. The drawback is that you have two "humps" for the wheels and an elevated area in the nose of the trailer. This is necessary because the wheels are the same size as the semi-trailer and of course it still has to attach to the truck. This gives you about 28 to 30 inches between the wheel wells and an 8 by 8 foot elevated "dance floor" in the nose. If you can work around the floor plan the advantage is the height from ground level cuts down the length of your ramps which we will discuss later.

Electronic Equipment trailer- these are mostly used to transport equipment for conventions. They are close to the ground, usually closer than moving trailers, but have small wheels in the rear so to eliminate the wheel wells. Floor is usually metal. You get a flat floor space all the way to the dance floor (you still need to hook to the truck), high ceilings, and close to the ground for shorter ramps. Sometimes additional doors are already cut into the sides of the box. The biggest disadvantage is cost. There are fewer of these trailers available so even fairly beat up ones are three times the cost of a regular trailer. Starting price on these is about $10,000.

UPS trailer- is almost identical to moving trailers. They have the interior wheel wells and the dance floor. Metal floors. Difference is no side door and the rear door does not extend to the floor. It has a lip so the door is level with the wheel wells or approximately the same height as a semi-trailer. There are also heavy-duty shelves that fold down from the walls and attach to a set of rollers that extend the length of the trailer. Depending on your supplier, for a couple extra bucks you can have it delivered with the rollers removed and rear door cut down to deck height.

Flatbed trailer- basically a semi-trailer without the walls! Can be useful in certain applications. Some haunters use them as a mobile stage, then store large set pieces or ramps on them in the off-season.

Mobile Office Trailers- these are the trailers you see at construction sites or are used as temporary office or schoolroom space. The advantage is width. A singlewide is 12 feet wide and a double is of course 24 feet wide. The double wide is essentially two half trailers.(see picture) The entire length is open and when the two halves are assembled you have a large space. These are designed to be modular so they are usually built as large open spaces, perfect to build wall and rooms in. There are even triple wide units that feature a middle unit without sidewalls, now you are talking 36 feet in width! The biggest disadvantage is transportation and set-up. These units require a special trailer-moving tractor. Once in place they have to be leveled with piers placed every six to ten feet. Doublewide units require someone to "skate" the units together. The driver can only get them close. A company that specializes in mobile home set-up must then physically shift the trailers together. Certain locations require a separate inspection for these types of trailers. Singlewide units may have to be anchored. Another consideration is these people must then unlevel and unskate the units before you transport and then skate them together and lot-set them for storage. These are not built as over the road trailers so they are not designed to remain on the wheels. These units are closer to ground level, usually 36 inches or less. They are usually already wired for electricity and most have heating and/or air conditioning units. The biggest advantage is open space. Cost is dependant on condition and features of unit, $2,000 to $5,000 starting price on a singlewide.

RAMPS

All trailers put your attraction above ground level so ramps will have to be made to get your patrons up and down. ADA requires one foot of ramp for every inch of rise. No ramp can exceed thirty-six feet without a switchback. A switchback is a platform a minimum of four feet by six feet. You must also have a level ramp at your entrance; you cannot walk up an incline into the door. Taking this into consideration, if you are using a semi trailer set-up you will need forty-eight feet of ramp with two platforms, one for the switchback and one for the entrance, then the same for the exit. That's ninety-six linear feet of ramp and four platforms!! You may wish to check with your local inspectors. Some locales are not as stringent if you are classified as a temporary attraction. One alternate is to have a lift for a wheelchair. Your other patrons can then utilize stairs. This can end up being more costly than ramps unless you design to enter and exit in the same area and do not use the courtyard area.

Your decided method of entrance and egress and decision of whether to keep your patrons on one level or utilize the interior ground area will be one of the first deciding factors in developing your floor plan. Next we must decide on basic size. Will you have availability of a water (fire hydrant) hook-up to accommodate a sprinkler system or will you need to stay under the square footage that necessitates one?

Remember cost vs. benefit. This type of attraction can be as big or as small as your budget and imagination will allow. Each feature you add increases the entertainment value hence the ticket price, but it also increases your expenditure, set-up time and tear-down time. Decide your over all budget and basic size of attraction you would like to develop. In our next installment we will delve into the design aspect of the Trailer Haunt, the Truly Mobile Attraction.