Buying a Used Catering Trailer: The UK Checklist That Saves You Thousands

A used catering trailer is the fastest way into street food without a new-build bill. A tidy secondhand unit sells for a fraction of new and it is ready to trade on Saturday. The catch is that a trailer hides its problems better than any machine in a fixed kitchen, and the expensive ones are all in the gas and the paperwork, not the paint.

Twenty five years in and around commercial kitchens has taught me where these units catch people out. Here is what to check before you hand over money, and how to sell your own trailer for what it is actually worth.

The Gas System Decides Everything

Nearly every catering trailer runs on LPG, and the gas system is where a bad unit gives itself away.

• Cylinders live outside, never inside. LPG is heavier than air and pools at the lowest point, so the cylinders belong in a dedicated external locker or a cage, never in the serving space. The locker should be sealed from the interior, built to at least 30 minutes fire resistance, and vented low down as well as high. A trailer with a gas bottle sitting inside the unit is an immediate walk away.
• Look at the detail. Cylinders upright and strapped, a regulator, and short flexible hoses that are dated and in good order, not perished. Propane, the red bottle, is the normal choice, because butane performs badly in the cold.
• Every appliance needs a flame failure device. If a burner goes out, the gas must cut. No flame supervision, not legal, not safe.

Ask for the CP44

This is the single question that separates a sorted trailer from a headache.

The CP44 is the gas safety certificate for a mobile catering unit. It is issued after a Gas Safe registered engineer, one who holds the commercial mobile catering competence, checks the whole LPG system: cylinders and storage, regulator, pipework, hoses, isolation, ventilation, flame supervision and every appliance.

A domestic gas engineer cannot sign a trailer off. Neither can a commercial engineer without the mobile ticket. Ask to see a current CP44, and check the date, because most markets, food festivals and event organisers will not give you a pitch without one, and plenty ask for a fresh certificate every six months. No current CP44 is the seller's problem, and if you buy the trailer, you have just bought it too.

Weight and Your Licence

The trailer that looks perfect and you cannot legally tow is a common and expensive mistake.

• Know the gross weight and the nose weight before you arrange anything.
• Check what your vehicle and your licence category can legally pull. Newer licences have towing limits that catch people out, and a fully kitted trailer is heavier than it looks.
• Sort the towing before you agree the deal, not in the seller's yard on collection day.

The Rest of the Build

• Hand wash basin with hot water is mandatory for a food hygiene rating, and it is separate from any sink used for food or washing up.
• Fresh and waste water tanks, with waste capacity at least equal to fresh.
• Power is usually a 16 amp hook-up or a silenced generator, with RCD protection throughout. Check the consumer unit and the sockets.
• Extraction over the cooking line, a compact canopy with baffle filters and a fan, working and clean.
• The trailer itself: tyres and their age, brakes, lights, the coupling, the floor, and water ingress in the roof and corners.

Selling Your Trailer

If you have finished up or you are upgrading, a working trailer with the paperwork in order sells fast.

• Sell it with a current CP44. It is the first thing a serious buyer asks for, and having it ready closes the sale.
• Put the weight in the listing. Gross and nose weight up front saves you a dozen messages and stops the deal dying on collection.
• Photograph the data plates. On CaterBids, photograph the plate and CaterBot pulls the specs, dimensions and a pallet or transport quote back automatically, so you are not sat typing out a listing.
• Price it honestly. Real condition, real photos, real price, and a trailer that runs sells for more than one sitting cold.

Your Used Catering Trailer Checklist

• Cylinders in an external vented locker, never inside the unit
• Flame failure devices on every appliance
• A current CP44 gas safety certificate, dated, from a mobile-ticketed engineer
• Gross and nose weight confirmed against your vehicle and licence
• Hand wash basin with hot water, fresh and waste tanks
• 16 amp hook-up or silenced generator, RCD protected
• Extraction working, tyres and brakes and coupling checked

Buy a trailer checked properly and you save thousands and trade from day one. Sell yours with the paperwork sorted and you turn a parked unit into working cash. That is the whole game: BUY, SELL, SAVE, with zero final value fees when you sell through CaterBids.

This guide is general trade advice, not a substitute for a Gas Safe inspection. Always have a mobile-ticketed Gas Safe registered engineer check any trailer's gas system.