20ft Container Chassis Trailer – Skel Trailer for Shipping Containers

About this unit

The 20ft Container Chassis is part of our container chassis and trailers range, held for sale and hire from our Queensland depot, delivered Australia-wide. Every unit is inspected before it leaves the yard: doors swung, seals checked, floor sounded and the frame photographed as found. Delivery is quoted against your postcode and site access, and we tell you before you commit whether the truck can set the unit down where you want it. Modification is available on this unit — doors, windows, partitions, insulation, power and fit-out — quoted separately and built in our own workshop.

Hire is available for short and long terms, with the same inspection standard applied to hired units as to sold ones.

20ft Container Chassis is a trailer built to carry a container on its own frame, held in the 20ft Container Chassis chassis and trailers range and released from our Queensland yard for delivery to every state and territory in Australia.

Recorded specification for this 20ft Container Chassis: length 20 ft. Anything not listed here is quoted on request rather than assumed.

Every listing on this page describes the actual unit. Condition is inspected and photographed before dispatch, the price shown is the 20ft Container Chassis only with delivery quoted separately against your postcode, and nothing on the page is a stock claim we cannot stand behind.

Buying a 20ft Container Chassis

The 20ft Container Chassis is sold as an individual unit, inspected before dispatch and priced as listed. If you are weighing up a 20ft Container Chassis against a newer or larger equivalent, the condition report and the access to your site matter more than the model year.

Twist locks, ratings and brakes

The twist locks are what hold the 20ft Container Chassis to the frame, and worn locks let it shift — which is dangerous and not roadworthy. Check the ATM against your tow vehicle, confirm the coupling type, and look hard at the brakes and bearings, because on a used chassis those are the serviceable items that decide the real cost. Ask when the bearings were last packed and whether the trailer is currently registered in the state it will operate in.

Do you actually need a 20ft Container Chassis?

A chassis only pays for itself if the 20ft Container Chassis moves regularly. If the 20ft Container Chassis is going to sit in the same spot for years, hire a truck with the right trailer for the one-off move and put the money into the 20ft Container Chassis instead. Buy the 20ft Container Chassis when repositioning is part of the business, or when the 20ft Container Chassis has to follow the work from site to site.

What we check, and why it matters

The failures that cost money later are rarely visible in a photo. Door seals that have gone hard let water in along the floor. A floor that sounds hollow has lost its ply or its timber. Corner castings that have been impacted affect lifting and securing. Every unit is checked against those points before dispatch, and the findings are photographed so there is a record you can compare against on arrival.

Before you commit

Two things decide whether a unit works on your site: access and ground. Measure the gate, walk the route the truck will take, and check what is overhead. The ground needs to be firm and level — anything sitting on soft ground will settle and twist, and doors stop lining up when it does. Send a photo of the gate and the drop area and we will tell you honestly whether the delivery will work before anything is booked.

Getting it to you

The price shown is the 20ft Container Chassis only. Delivery is quoted separately against your postcode and site access, and it is the honest way to do it — a drop fifteen kilometres from the yard and a drop twelve hundred kilometres away are not the same job. Units are released from our Queensland yard and delivered to every state and territory in Australia. Queensland drops generally run on our own trucks; interstate moves on scheduled freight, with the booked window and carrier details confirmed in writing before dispatch.

Tell us about tight gates, low branches and overhead lines when you ask for a price. If a tilt-tray cannot reach the drop point, a crane or side-loader will, and knowing that up front is the difference between an accurate quote and a second invoice.

Changes, fit-out and modification

Anything that needs cutting, welding, wiring or lining is done in our own workshop rather than subcontracted, which is why we can tell you what a change will actually cost before you commit. Doors, windows, partitions, insulation, power, plumbing and full fit-outs are all container modification work we quote on the details of your job rather than off a price list.

Hire instead of buying

If the need is for the life of a project rather than forever, hiring is usually cheaper and you do not carry the asset, the transport or the maintenance. Buy when the 20ft Container Chassis is permanent, when you need a specific configuration, or when the hire term would run past the purchase price. Short and long terms are both available, and we will quote it against the same unit you are looking at here.

Further reading

For heavy vehicle and trailer requirements, see NHVR. Nothing on that site is specific to this 20ft Container Chassis, and we do not give regulatory advice — but it is where the rules that apply to owning and moving a 20ft Container Chassis are published.

Related in the catalogue

• 20ft containers
• enclosed trailers
• Browse all containers and trailers

Page catalogue: Container Chassis and Trailers.

What condition means on this 20ft Container Chassis

Condition on a 20ft Container Chassis is not one thing. It is a set of separate questions, and buyers who treat it as a single yes-or-no usually end up disappointed on one of them. The ones that matter are structural soundness, water tightness, the state of anything that moves, and cosmetics — and they fail independently. A chassis can be structurally perfect and still leak at the door seals; it can be watertight and still have a floor that gives under a pallet truck.

The grade this 20ft Container Chassis is offered in is as a skeleton frame built to carry a container. That describes what it is fit for, not how it looks. Cosmetic marks — scuffs, faded paint, old decals, minor dents that do not affect the frame — are consistent with any working grade and are not defects. What would be a defect is a hole through the panel, a soft floor, a seized lock or a bent frame, and none of those are being offered here.

How this 20ft Container Chassis is inspected before dispatch

Inspection happens on the actual unit, not on a sample. The checks that are run every time are the ones that have caught problems before: twist locks operated, axles, bearings and brakes checked, lights and wiring tested, king pin and coupling inspected. Each is a physical action rather than a visual glance, because most of the failures that matter are invisible from three metres away.

Where a check finds something, it is either rectified or disclosed. A door that binds, a seal that has hardened, a light that does not work — these are documented rather than smoothed over, because discovering them on delivery day costs you a week and costs us a reputation. If you want the photographs of a specific check before you commit, ask and they will be sent.

Specification and what is not included

The recorded specification for this 20ft Container Chassis is length 20 ft. That is the list we will stand behind and the list the 20ft Container Chassis will be checked against before it leaves the yard. Where a specification is silent — and on a used or ex-fleet unit it often is — the answer is that it is not claimed, rather than assumed to be standard.

What is not included matters just as much. Delivery is quoted separately against your postcode and site access. Any modification — moving containers between sites, fit-out, extra doors, power, insulation — is quoted as a separate scope once the layout is known. Consumables, fixings and site preparation at your end are yours. Nothing is bundled into the price shown on this page, so there is no surprise line on the invoice.

Delivery and site access

Delivery is quoted against your postcode and what the truck can physically reach. That second part catches people out more often than the first. A chassis this size arrives on towed behind a prime mover, and the driver needs a clear approach, room to set down, and ground that will take the load. Overhead branches, power lines, a steep driveway, a soft verge after rain, a gate narrower than the load — any one of these can turn a straightforward drop into a failed trip.

So the question we ask before quoting is not only where you are but how the truck gets in. Send a photograph of the approach and the drop point and the quote will reflect reality. If the truck cannot reach, the answer is a crane lift or a smaller unit, and it is better to know that before the truck is loaded than when it is idling at your gate.

Delivery is available across Australia; the yard it leaves from is in Queensland.

What modification is possible on this 20ft Container Chassis

Modification is quoted separately once the layout is known, because the honest answer to "how much" is that it depends on what you are trying to achieve. A door in a flat panel is a different job from a door in corrugation. Windows in a lined space are a different job from windows in a bare shell. Power is a different job again depending on whether it needs to be certified for the use you have in mind.

The work is done in our own workshop rather than subcontracted, which is why the quote can be specific. Come with a sketch, a purpose and a constraint — budget, timeline, or the fact that it has to pass an inspection — and the scope can be priced against that. Common changes for a 20ft Container Chassis of this kind are moving containers between sites, container cartage and a yard shunt trailer.

Hire as well as purchase

Hire is available on this chassis for short and long terms, and the same inspection standard applies to a hired unit as to a sold one. That is not a marketing line: a hired chassis that fails on site costs the hirer a day of labour and costs us the relationship, so the incentive to check it is identical.

Hire suits a project with a known end date, a trial before committing to a purchase, or a peak that does not justify owning a unit outright. Terms are quoted against duration and delivery distance. If you are weighing hire against purchase, the useful comparison is not the monthly rate — it is the monthly rate plus delivery, collected twice, against the purchase price less whatever the 20ft Container Chassis is still worth at the end.

Buying this chassis instead of the alternatives

The alternative to a 20ft Container Chassis is usually a flat-top semi-trailer with container pins. That option wins on one axis and loses on others, and which axis matters depends on your site. Purpose-built structures are easier to finance and easier to insure as fixed property; a 20ft Container Chassis is faster to place, easier to relocate and usually cheaper per square metre of covered space.

The question worth asking is how long you need it, and what happens at the end. If the answer is "two years then we move", a 20ft Container Chassis that can be picked up and taken with you is worth more than a cheaper structure that cannot. If the answer is "twenty years and it never moves", the calculus changes, and it is worth saying so before you buy.

What buyers usually ask

Is the price negotiable? The price shown is the 20ft Container Chassis price. Delivery, modification and hire are separate. Ask about multiple units in one delivery — that is where there is usually room, because the saving is in the trip.

Can I inspect it first? Yes. The yard is in Queensland and inspections are welcome by arrangement. Bring a torch and a tape measure; the two things buyers most often wish they had brought are light and a way to check that the dimensions suit what they intend to put inside.

How do I pay? Bank transfer or PayID. The order number goes on the transfer reference so the payment can be matched without an email chain. Card payment is not offered because the surcharge would have to be added to the price.

What if it is not what I expected? Say so before it is modified or dispatched. Once a unit has been cut, painted or delivered, the scope of what can be undone shrinks quickly — which is why the inspection photographs exist and why we send them.

Do you deliver to my area? Delivery is Australia-wide. The quote depends on distance and access, and both are things you can influence by describing your site accurately.

What to check when it arrives

Check the 20ft Container Chassis against the photographs before the truck leaves. That sounds obvious and is routinely skipped, because the driver is in a hurry and everyone wants the job done. Ten minutes spent walking the 20ft Container Chassis with the listing open on your phone is the cheapest insurance in the transaction.

Look at the four things that are expensive to fix: the floor, the door and its seals, the frame at the corners, and the roof. Everything else is cosmetic. If something does not match, note it on the delivery paperwork and photograph it before signing. A note made at delivery is a conversation about a fix; a note made a week later is a conversation about who is responsible.

Then leave it alone for a wet week before you load it, if you can. Water finds the weak point on its own schedule, and a dry week hides more than a wet one reveals.

Cost of ownership beyond the purchase price

The purchase price is the smallest part of what a 20ft Container Chassis costs over its life, and the parts that follow are worth planning for. There is delivery in, and — if it ever moves — delivery out. There is the surface it sits on, which determines whether it stays level and whether the doors keep operating. There is whatever it takes to keep water out as the seals age.

And there is the cost of the space it occupies, which in a city yard is not nothing.

Against that, a 20ft Container Chassis depreciates far more slowly than a fitted-out building and can usually be sold into a live market rather than written off. The resale value is the reason used units hold their price, and it is the reason buying a sound used unit rather than the cheapest available one tends to work out better over five years.

Looking after a 20ft Container Chassis

Maintenance on a 20ft Container Chassis is mostly about water and movement. Water gets in at seals, at fixings, at anything that has been cut through the shell, and at the roof seam. Movement matters because a chassis that sits on an uneven surface will twist, and a twisted chassis stops being watertight and starts being difficult to open. Level ground and a firm base are not cosmetic preferences; they are what keeps everything else working.

The routine that prevents most problems is short. Clear leaves and debris from the roof so water does not pool. Run the doors and any other moving parts through their full travel every few months, because a mechanism that is never used is a mechanism that seizes. Look at the seals twice a year and replace them when they harden rather than when they fail. Touch up any bare metal before rust gets a hold — rust is cheap to stop early and expensive to stop late.

The terms used on this page

A few terms come up repeatedly when buyers discuss a 20ft Container Chassis, and they are worth defining plainly because they are often used loosely. Cargo-worthy means the 20ft Container Chassis would still be accepted for freight — structurally sound, watertight, no holes. Wind and watertight means exactly that: it keeps weather out, without any claim about freight certification. As-is means what it says, cosmetic and functional faults disclosed but not rectified.

One-trip, sometimes called single-trip, means the 20ft Container Chassis has made one loaded voyage and is effectively new in service terms. Grade A describes the best cosmetic condition in a used band, not a structural standard. High cube refers to the extra height — around 9ft 6in against the standard 8ft 6in. Cor-ten and corten steel are the weathering steel most containers are built from. Where a term on this page is not one of these, it is being used in its ordinary sense and not as a rating.

Next step on this chassis

If this chassis looks like the right unit, the fastest way to a firm number is to send the product name and your postcode. That gets a delivered price, which is the only price worth comparing against another supplier's delivered price. If the layout needs changing, describe the change at the same time and both can be quoted together rather than in sequence.

If it is not quite right, say what is wrong with it. Too long, too short, wrong colour, wrong grade, wrong end of the budget — every one of those is a useful description, and it is quicker than starting the search again from the top of the catalogue.

Photographs of this unit

Specification

Length	20 ft
Category	Container Chassis and Trailers
Availability	In stock — inspected in our Queensland yard

Delivery & hire

Delivery is quoted by postcode and site access — tilt-tray where the truck can reach, crane where it cannot. Hire is available on this unit for short and long terms, with the same inspection standard applied to hired units as to sold ones. Modification is quoted separately once we know the layout you need.