1115 – Add this to your portfolio: Tom talks Utility Trailers

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode of Screw the Commute, Tom Antion explains how owning a small utility trailer can save money, create side income opportunities, and improve business efficiency.
Key Points
• Tom owns three trailers (18-foot, 12-foot, and 8-foot) and says the small 8-foot trailer gets the most use because it’s convenient and practical.
Ways a Utility Trailer Saves Money
• Avoids vehicle rental costs for dump runs or hauling large items.
• Eliminates expensive delivery fees, which can easily exceed $80–$100.
• Makes it easy to buy used furniture, shelving, appliances, and equipment from places like:
o Facebook Marketplace
o OfferUp
o Craigslist
• Allows bulk purchasing and storage of discounted supplies or liquidation inventory.
Ways a Trailer Can Make Money
Tom describes several side-hustle opportunities:
• Hauling junk or debris for people.
• Helping with small moves, especially college students.
• Picking up free items and reselling them.
• Repairing or flipping inexpensive appliances and equipment.
He shares examples of:
• Buying a used refrigerator for $200 that lasted 10 years.
• Purchasing a crate of SWAT knee pads for $50 and reselling them individually on eBay for about $700 profit.
Practical Advantages
• Saves time by avoiding long delivery windows.
• Used trailers are inexpensive, low-maintenance, and often retain resale value.
• Insurance costs are very low because trailers have no engine.
Features to Look for in a Trailer
Tom recommends:
• A fold-down rear ramp for easy loading.
• Side and front rails for securing cargo.
• Tie-down points for ratchet straps.
• LED lighting for durability.
• Standard hitch sizes (usually 1⅞-inch or 2-inch balls).
Vehicle Considerations
• Many modern SUVs can tow small utility trailers.
• Even smaller cars can sometimes be upgraded with trailer hitches.
• Make sure the vehicle has proper trailer light connections.
Main Takeaway
Tom’s overall message is that a utility trailer is a simple, practical business tool that:
• Saves time
• Saves money
• Creates income opportunities
• Increases flexibility for entrepreneurs and small business owners
He emphasizes that many business advantages come from practical real-world tools and efficiency improvements, not just online marketing tactics.

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Episode 1115 – Utility Trailers
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1115 of Screw the Commute podcast. That's 1115. And you know, I talk about all kinds of things that affect your business and can help your business and can save you money and make you money. And so this isn't any online wizardry stuff that I've been working on. This is owning a utility trailer and how that can help your business. I actually have three of them. I have an 18 foot, a 12 foot and an eight foot. Guess which one I use the most? The eight foot. Just the little shorty is just so handy. Even though I have a gigantic SUV, the utility trailer is just awesome. All right. Hope you didn't miss episode 1114. That was video my video clone. First try and you can go to the show notes and actually see it. And 1113 and 1109 are all about audio cloning your voice. And, 1109 shows you tons of ways to use the audio clone. All right. Pick up a copy of my automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Version 3.0 is the current. However, there is something in there about short keys, which I've been promoting for many years and helps you like crazy. But it's no longer a program. It's a browser extension, so it's still awesome. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV.
[00:02:02] Okay, let's talk about the benefits that you can make money and save money by owning a small utility trailer. And then later I'll tell you about your car, your hookup, and some of the things you want to make sure the trailer that you pick has. All right. But first of all, let's go on savings. So anytime you have to go to the landfill or the dump with stuff, you don't have to rent a vehicle to do it. You can just throw it on your utility trailer and use the equipment. You know, if you've been following me for a while, you know, I go crazy on Facebook Marketplace when I need stuff. And a lot of times it's too big, but I just throw it on a trailer. I really especially love that on on shelving. I hate putting shelving together. I hate paying retail and then have to come home and work and put it together. Shelves are a dime a dozen on Facebook Marketplace and offer up and so forth, and they're already put together. In fact, I tell people, if I'm going to buy this, it has to be already put together because I bought one one time and they had thought they were helping me and being nice, and they took it all apart. And I'm like, no, don't do that.
[00:03:19] I don't want to put it back together. So buying any kind of used equipment, it saves you the delivery charges, which are sometimes 80 bucks or more. Now, if you had to have a dishwasher brought in and installed and haul away the old one, okay, that could be worth it. But just delivering regular stuff and giving the delivery person a tip, you know, you could be 100 bucks extra on stuff. I mean, a trailer could save you money in just a few few uses of it. Now, if you want to make money with it now, I got several. I'm going back and forth with making money and saving money. So if you care to do so, people will offer you money to pick up stuff for them to haul stuff away for them. I mean, you could literally make a side hustle. In fact, one of my students did this and wrote a book book on it. Picked up free stuff off of Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and then resold it. Some of it was perfectly usable. Somebody just got got a new one and they put the old one out on the street and and said, here for free some things. If you're really handy, like appliances, maybe there's something wrong with them that, uh, a $2 part would fix. But somebody just said, I'll just buy a new one and you can resell.
[00:04:39] In fact, I bought a refrigerator for my school for $200, and it would have been a $900 refrigerator new. And it lasted ten years. Okay. In fact, I have a refrigerator in my garage right now. I paid 100 bucks for. And my girlfriend likes it better than the, the what would be $15,000? Uh, what is it subzero that I have in the kitchen? All right, so you can get great, great deals like this, but if you couldn't haul it, then, you know, it gets gets to be crazy. So another thing you can make money on is people ask you, hey, can you call all this drywall to the dump for me and give you 50 bucks or something? And people making small moves, you know, maybe to college and things, uh, they'll give you a couple hundred bucks for. So those are some other making money side gigs and, and more saving stuff. You can buy in bulk supplies cheaply. Because if it's a gigantic box of stuff or a crate, then you can buy it and store it away and save a lot on stuff that you use all the time and you can pick up liquidation deals. I actually bought a whole case of Swat, brand new Swat knee pads, and I kept one for myself. And I still have it to this day. And I sold the rest of them on eBay one at a time and made, I don't know, $700 on a crate I paid 50 bucks for.
[00:06:13] So, so yeah, you can do that as a side hustle. It also saves you a lot of time because, I mean, you know, these people, these delivery people, you call them on Monday, okay, when's it going to be delivered? They say, okay, what'll it be between. The old joke is between 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, you're going to be there. So so yeah, so you can you don't have to wonder or sit around all day waiting for deliveries if you can go pick it up locally. Some of the benefits of, of trailers are they're really cheap and they're low risk asset. If you buy it used, there's minimal maintenance on them. You might have to put bearings on one, which is almost nothing to do. I've never even had to do it. And if you bought them used, they usually hold their value and you can sell them for whatever you had in them, or even more, say, and the insurance on them is super cheap. There's no motor or anything on them. Now, some of the things you want to have when you buy a trailer is a rear ramp that folds down. I can't tell you how wonderful that is. You know, because even if they go to Best Buy and buy a refrigerator, they're going to roll it up there on a dolly.
[00:07:33] You know, it's so hard to pick it up and sit it down over the side rails, which is another thing you'd want to have. And even if they don't have connectors on them, you can go to Harbor Freight. And I, all my trailers have a whole bunch of tie down slots where I just drilled holes and bolted on these little connectors so I could hook up, you know, ratchet straps and stuff to them. And most of the smaller ones are going to have a 1 in 7 eighths inch ball. Now I upgraded to two inches because it matches my the ball that's on my truck that I pull all my trailers with. I don't want to have to change the ball just to fit a small trailer. I upgraded to a two inch and that was nothing. I just went down to the trailer shop and the guy put a two inch connector on instead of a one and 7/8, and that was a done deal. Now. Your car. If you're buying a new car. Even small SUVs can have trailer hitches now. And their low capacity, they're not built for hauling, you know, bulldozers. All right. But you see them all the time now and I even aftermarket put we have a VW bug that I bought years and years ago.
[00:08:49] And we upgraded and put a put a trailer hitch on it. Now we had to upgrade the springs and stuff, but the car's been paid off for years. And then we have these little utility trailers, and now the VW bug can pull it. And for moving back and forth and stuff and picking up boxes and, and, uh, and like I said, we did get a lot of shelving and, you know, all of it's easy on a little utility trailer as opposed to even the SUVs trying to put the seats down and shoving it up clear to the, it's hitting you in the head while you're driving, you know. So, so small utility trailer is great for that. But but if you're renting a new car, uh, make sure that's part of the deal that it's already set up because you got to have lights and stuff. So when you're checking the trailer out, you want to rear ramp, you want at least side rails and front rail, uh, you know, around it so that you can tie stuff easily and you want to make sure the lights work. Now, it's not a problem if you're handy with tools to re wire and light a trailer, you can buy a kit for less than 40 bucks at Harbor Freight that's got all the wires and everything in it, but it's nice if it works already right off the bat.
[00:10:09] And LEDs are the best because they last forever. So there you go. Very, very handy thing. Like, like I said, this is not typical online woo woo stuff. It's it's like, this is stuff that helps your business can make you money and save you money. And both of those things are part of my success because I've been doing this stuff for many, many years, and I can't tell you how many times I had to get the little trailer out just to go save myself time, money and make deals and not have to put damn shelves together, which I hate doing. And there you go. So that's utility trailer, so check it out. Uh, if you want to listen to this again, it's episode 1115. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. Hey, and make sure you grab a copy of that automation book and that shows you tons of ways to save time. And that's at screwthecommute.com/automatefree, and of course, my mentor program and my school. So check it out at greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org. And I'm going to go hook my trailer up and go buy a shelf. All right, catch you later.