It's time I contemplated a trailer to house my gear. I live about three minutes from my local, have a rack in my garage and check the wind online before deciding what gear to throw in my ute for the impending session. Usually I'll throw two board and two sails in but sometimes only one of each, feeling confident of what wind I'll be greeted with on arrival. Occasionally I've had to do the race of shame back home to get suitable gear. A trailer would solve that problem, assuming I can fit all my gear in it. Getting a trailer may also be a way of putting a limit on the amount of gear I acquire, if I adopt the mindset that all my gear has to live in the trailer.

So, I'm not the handiest person on the planet, although I have actually done some basic welding a couple of decades ago. "If you can read you can do anything" I was told once by a really handy individual. I have access to a welder and all the tools I suspect that would be required for a DIY build. Is the the cost saving considerable if you DIY? (I still work 60 hours a week making other people wealthy, so this would be a windless-weekend project)

if I go ahead and DIY I want to put a lot of time into the design to maximise the amount of gear it will hold. I snapped these pics of the design I have in mind. (I snapped these at a rest area on a trip up north, I don't know what Ol' mate had inside it but it is about the size and style of what I have in mind.)

Another question, why are so many of the windsurfing trailers I've seen not extended out width-wise covering the wheels? I would have thought that extra 20cm or so on each side would provide considerable extra space inside.??

DIY or pay someone else to do it?

So my commodore is in the nursing home with dementia... and I've been googling vans as a replacement. I'm keen to find something second hand with a few criteria...

Hold lots of boards and sails
Tow at least 1.6T, prefer 2T
Auto so my wife can use it too
No sleeper, I'm not aloud out after dark
Decent service pricing
Diesel or Petrol

I've used Car websites and found a few that match my hard criteria.

VW Transit nice and compact
Toyota HiAce has a nice lot of room with forward seats and no nose
Merc Ambo looks quite roomy! Call the wind doctor, it's an emergency. Woo Woo
iLoad doesn't have the towing capacity
Ford Transit has a few fans

Vertical tail lift is good for a bit of shade...
Long noses are better for safety (maybe)...
Compact vans fit in stack up car parks...
Long high vans fit more stuff...

Any advice, what have you got and what do you like about it?
Any good load out ideas? Efficient space use is always good!