A few questions about Trailer Haunts

[SomeThingInTheIce]

terrormasue,RJ will be a big help, he has huge trailer haunts that are mobile. I have HauntWorld #1 and #2 that have articles about his haunts and then later another article was done about them. If it was done in a trailer, he'll know how to do it.

Hey Guys,
Rich here, just got back from Canada!!

Looking over the thread (Larry called, so I guess it's either response or continue to get calls!!!)
I'm running out right now but will respond later tonight when I can have more time!
Just wanted to make an acknowledgement so no one thinks I'm just avoiding it!!

Love the subject! (working on my haunt now!!)

Later,
Rich

[RJ Productions]

WOW. Lot’s of questions and good comments! You guys want all the secrets!!
How I’m I ever going to make a buck as a consultant!! OK. I’ll try and answer some of the questions anyway:

First let me address Terrormasue:
1.Do you remove the tires and lower the trailer?

NO too much work, possible damage to the trailers

2. Or do you jack up the trailer a bit so the tires are off the ground.

Not necessary. Between the tires and the landing gear (the “legs that lift the trailer to get the truck under it) it is secure enough.

3. Do you secure the trailer to the ground and if so how?

Only mobile homes are required to use hurricane straps.

4. What do you support the trailer with if you do jack it up.

Again, you don’t

5. What is the best method to connect the trailers together?

Trailers are never actually connected. You move the trailers as close as possible, then you utilize a walk-plate between the trailers in case there is a small gap so no one catches a heel or trips going from trailer to trailer.

Here’s few other questions and comments:

Removing wheels…Once you start making it permanent, building codes come into play.

Correct. In most cases you will not even deal with the Building or Electrical depts.. By staying on the wheels you are not a “building”. Not to say that you don’t want to follow as many of the codes as possible. I would wire it as though it was a building, just be aware you may never see an electrical inspection.

How can you pass and inspection with a Trailer Haunt? Fire protection or electrical?
Is is ADA (American Disability Approved) accessible?

As I stated, most trailer haunts would not have an electrical inspection but you build it as though you would. Everything in conduit. Utilize watertight connections between trailers, a breaker box to your main connection (either regular power or a generator). Fire protection will be a normal inspection. They will test your smoke detectors, when activated all confusing lights and sound much shut down and emergency lights must activate. You need an emergency evacuation PA, depending upon jurisdiction it may be a simple as a battery back up manned PA to an automatic announcement system. They will look for fire extinguishers, we do NOT mount the extinguishers in the pathway to be accessible to the general public (the normal procedure in a public space) we place an extinguisher at every actor location away from the public. Reasoning is the first year they required them marked and in the open. We had 3 extinguishers fired off by customers the first week! I explain the problem and tell them they are placed WITH each actor so they are a manned unit. If you want ask them to come in before you open and train your people how to use an extinguisher.

ADA-

We had ADA problems one year. Then one Haunt Owner checked the regulations and threatened to take the Fire Dept to court. ADA refers to PERMANENT structures, not temporary structures. Remember the trailers are 48 inches off the ground. Following ADA you need 1 foot of ramp for every 1 inch of height so you need 48 FEET of ramp. You can’t go more than 30 feet without a switchback and you can’t ramp directly into the structure so you also need two platforms. Now you have to duplicate it for the exit!!!

The thing that always got me was that you need the ramps for egress and exit, but you could have stairs for the emergency exits!!!

Speaking of exits: the requirement will be either 50 or 75 feet to an emergency exit. Now this is walking feet along the path not the length of the trailer. I would do 50 (we had our at the required 75 feet, then the FD changed and switched to 50 feet!! Had to cut 2 new exits which required moving walls, changing electrical adding emergency lights!!!!) so you can have the doors 100 feet apart (if you are exactly between them you are never more than 50 feet to the nearest door.)

Hsmag had a lot of good comments, check out his post. However jacking over the trailer IS dangerous. If you can’t get a driver that can get them close enough then get a forklift. Depending on where you’re at there may even be a business nearby that already has one, a couple of free tickets and they can “bump” them for you. Just remember to get the guy to separate them for you also!!

Terrormause is concerned about being in a pasture. I would be worried about sinking. Does the area get very wet? I friend back east put his trailer in storage. He came back in the spring and a couple trailers had sunk the landing gear into the ground!! I might drive the trailers onto sheets of plywood and place plywood under the landing gears.

Fire retardant: I go through and spray EVERYTHING…EVERY YEAR… I had the Fire Inspector a packet it contains forms that I have made that state when the batteries where changed in the smoke detectors, the MSDS sheets for the fire retardant, and a form that states when and who applied the retardant. I usually wait until the day before inspection to do a final spray. That way during the inspection it still smells like retardant!

Shawnc on building with only fire retardant materials:
This always frustrates me! Tell me ANY onther business that has to have EVERY piece of equipment fire retardant?? Just go to your Fire Dept’s main office…. Let’s see desks, files, curtains, flags, displays…the list goes on. I’d stake my entire attractions that NOTHING has had a flame retardant applied!! Again, spray the crap out of everything, focus on the EDGES of curtains, furniture, etc. Fires hardly ever start in the middle!

SPRINKLER SYSTEM: is dependent upon the square footage. If it’s under 1,000 square feet you don’t need a sprinkler. If there is a 20 foot separation between 1,000 sq. ft sections you don’t need a sprinkler. If you are over the 1,000 feet or too close to another section or another structure you will need a sprinkler. If an Inspector states you do not need a system, ask him to put it in writing!! First year the Chief Inspector looked at the plans before I purchased the first unit and said I did not need a sprinkler. Said I didn’t need it in writing, he would go to bat for us. Set up and ready to go, he came to us and stated he found out he was wrong and we needed a sprinkler!!! Get it in writing or install a system!

Here’s a TIP that could save you a big hassle. Make sure something goes wrong!! I usually have one emergency light that doesn’t work. The fire inspector “finds” the bad light. I explain that I always have spare batteries on hand, send someone to get a new one and change it before he leaves. Now he’s happy! He found a problem (he’s doing his job) you addressed the problem immediately, everyone’s a winner!

The Trailer Haunt Style has its advantages and disadvantages. As with any haunt style the trick is to capitalize on the strengths and offset the disadvantages. Now of course I haven’t given away ALL my secrets, but this gives you a good idea. Re-read the articles in Hauntworld and you will have a good background!

Good Luck!! Well back to the Haunt, it's actually going to cool down to 98 degrees!!!

Rich

[terrormasue]

Rich---

Thanks so much for the info. I so appreciate it. Where do I send the check, money order, homemade cookies or my first born? You might not want him though, he eats to much. Anyway, again thank you and thanks to everyone that posted. Very valuable information. So, off I go to build my porch!! Happy haunting everyone. I will try to take pics of my progress and get them posted. I am glad I have 13 months to get this whole thing done, I will need every day of it.

[hsmag]

Thanks for the props Rich. Your post expanded a lot on my earlier post.

As for jacking it up with hydraulic jacks, we were short of time and in the parking lot of a banquet hall so a forklift wasn't available. That is a GREAT idea though.

I don't recommend jacking them up as one wrong move can result in permanent damage to the trailer or something busting or flying back and hitting you, causing serious injury or death. I knew of some people who got killed while working on the underside of a semi-trailer. I was merely stating what we had done at the time. Of course, 15 years ago, working for a charity haunt, the safety guidelines weren't as strict (at least with us it wasn't) and we didn't know nearly as much as we know now.

Another thing I want to add to this (and this applies to ANY haunt. Not just trailers) is: know who your current fire marshal is and keep communication with them. We ended up in a bad situation in 2000. We had one fire marshal for years and he loved our haunt and was lenient with us because the proceeds benefited the community and we had been helping out the fire dept for years. In the middle of September of that year (just before we moved the trailer onto the lot to setup) the fire marshal retired and a new guy took over. He made it clear that he hated haunts and didn't want to see us open. We had to jump through hoops just to even open. He said we needed grip paint on any sloped surface and the battery powered exit lights in order to open. We got those done then he said we'd need to rebuild all the staircases for the emergency exits to his specifications. We did that then he said we'd need a sprinkler system added to every trailer and all the wall panels would need to be cut down 18 inches from their current height to accommodate this system. We were only about a week from opening night. As daunting as this was we got it finished right around the day before we opened. Then he said there would need to be glow in the dark arrows painted on all the floors showing the path. We worked up until about 2 hours before we were opened and he came back to inspect and reluctantly let us open.

The point is, know your fire marshal because they could retire or transfer at any time and you want to talk to the new fire marshal as early as possible if this happens. They may not be as willing to work with you as their predecessor and you need to give yourself plenty of time to get things in order so that you can appease the new marshal.

[RJ Productions]

I agree with the Fire inspector comments. What realy pisses me off is the fact that it is almost a universal attitude. 90-95% of inspectors do not like haunts!! Then they do everything in their power to keep you from opening! They request things that are not curent codes, but things that THEY want. And it doesn't even sem to be a safety issue, to some it up I actualy had an inspector state ".. I don't like Haunted Houses! I don't thing it's fair that I work all year and you only work for one month." I wish I would have had a tape recorder, I would have been getting him fired! I politely explained all the work involved in the off season, all the money that it takes, etc. I joked about how people see big lines on Halloween and think we have those kind of lines from day one( I wish) and he mellowed slightly.

Now our attitude is much different. We are always very polite, but we know the rules. If the requests are way out of line we try and rectify them with the inspector, if not we respectively take it up the chain of command. Remain as professional as possible.

Maybe what we need are some collected facts we can present in our presentations. Because in actuallity Haunts are a VERY safe business. We have fewer incidents that most businesses out there. I explain that in ten years we have not had a single incident with our insurance (knock on wood). We have an excellent safety record. Why ? Because we proactive NOT reactive. IN the ten years all haunts combined in our county have only had one fire issue. It was last year and it was arson. But because we all use fire retardant and have systems in place the damage was confined to one small space which was repaired and they opened that night! Name another business which such a track record?

It is a real joy those odd times when you have an inspector who doesn't cop an atitude, whose real concerns are actually safety. Then like you said you just hope he doesn't transfer or retire!!

[hsmag]

I actualy had an inspector state ".. I don't like Haunted Houses! I don't thing it's fair that I work all year and you only work for one month."

That's a real shame. They don't realize that MANY haunters work their day job 9-5 Mon - Fri, then AFTER they get home from work they're working on stuff for the haunted house until late at night. In addition, on the days of operation, haunt owners are usually there all day working anywhere from 8-12 hours just to make sure things are ready to open, the show runs smoothly and everything gets locked up at the end of the night.

And those haunters whose main job is the haunt are putting in those long hours nearly every day of the year.

More often than not, people think running a haunt is EASY and that you just show up, scare people and make money but there's so much more that goes on behind the scenes. Haunting can be a fun job, but it can also be extremely time consuming and stressful.

It seems the only ones who truly appreciate all the work that goes into these events are fellow haunters.