Though he didn't build it himself, Roger Gutschmidt of Gackle, N. Dak., loves his trailer made out of a 15-passenger Ford 1-ton van.

"I bought it just the way it is. It's such a good idea that I might build another one myself," he says.

The seats were stripped out and the body of the cab cut off right behind the driver's seat. The previous owner bent the front frame pieces into a point, welded on a ball hitch and a jack, and extended the wiring for the lights.

They closed the trailer up front by welding on a large plate of steel, which they painted to match the rest of the trailer.

"I really like that it has 2 sets of doors' on the back and the side. This makes loading and unloading much more convenient and there's better access to the stuff loaded inside," he explains. "This cargo van is 12 ft. long and 4 ft. wide." It's a great size and you can haul almost anything with it."

Gutschmidt didn't like the bolt holes that were still in the floor from the seats, so he closed them with bolts dropped down rom the top, and nuts on the bottom. He also added "hold downs" on the inside walls for tying tarp straps to secure items.

"I have the keys for the doors so I can lock it up, which is nice," he says. "When I bought it, it had never been used, so I had to register it and get a vehicle identification number. I welded that number onto the inside of the frame. It's permanent and impossible to remove because the location isn't accessible with a grinder.

"I've had so many compliments on that trailer, I can't even begin to tell you," he says.