Hi Bones. Here are three pics of my 20' 12,000lb. trailer with homemade sides. I built the sides for our big move from S. F. bay area to east Texas three years ago. For the 2x4's I used plain ole green and cheap, the straightest I could sort of course. I did use pretty good plywood, although I got a pretty good deal on it. It's all screwed together with deckmate screws. It looked pretty gaudy when I finished, thanks to some bright but durable deck stain I had on hand.
The top rails on the sides are continuous. The cross braces on the top fit on studs with thumb nuts. As you can see I added eyelets to the top rails and slots at the bottom to access the bottom rail and D rings. As you probably know, sides like this just want to shake themselves to death. The one addition you can't see is a rear gate, which was just a piece of 1 1/4 subflooring plywood which I screw to the rear when loaded. This is just about imperative to make the box solid enough to go down the highway.
I really only intended for the sides to last through the move. I first hauled most of our household goods 30 miles one way to a 40' container we purchased and loaded where it sat. Then loaded a car and the rest of our goods in the trailer and drove it to Texas, another 10,000 lbs. worth. Since our move, the trailer has made two more trips to Ca. and back. I never have taken the sides off. When we purchased our used Kubota
L48, it came with a halfway decent 10,000 lb. trailer, so I've never really felt a strong need. I hope this is helpful, or at least entertaining.
Mike
