Trailer, wall construction and manufacturing method

A trailer, which comprises:

• a bed including a floor structure comprising multiple crossbeams extending transversely in spaced, juxtaposed relation and a floor deck mounted on said crossbeams;
• a king pin hitch mounted on said bed;
• a wheel truck mounted on said bed;
• a superstructure mounted on said bed and enclosing an interior, said superstructure comprising a pair of sidewalls, a front wall, a rear wall with a door opening, a door movable between open and closed positions with respect to said rear wall door opening;
• a top rail mounted on top of said walls and forming an upper rim of said superstructure;
• a rub rail connecting said walls with said floor structure;
• and corner posts forming corner intersections of said sidewalls and said front wall;
• said sidewalls and said front wall each comprising multiple, horizontal wall sections including:
• first and second faces;
• multiple spacers extending between said faces and forming corresponding wall section hollow compartments;
• first and second ends;
• a first edge with a groove;
• and a second edge with a tongue;
• each said corner post including a pair of channels oriented at approximately 90° with respect to each other and receiving respective wall section ends at an intersection of adjacent walls;
• said top rail including a chamber and a passage open upwardly into said chamber;
• top-most wall sections of said sidewalls and said front wall extending through said top rail passage and into said compartment thereof;
• said rub rail including a channel receiving the tongue of the bottom-most wall sections of said sidewalls and said front wall;
• said rub rail being connected to said sidewalls, said front wall and said floor structure;
• and
• said wall sections, corner posts, top rail and rub rail being connected by one or more of the fastening means chosen from among the group comprising adhesive, welding, snap-fit and mechanical fasteners.

A method of manufacturing a trailer, which comprises the steps of:

• providing a bed with a floor structure including multiple cross members extending transversely across said bed and a floor plate mounted on said cross members;
• providing a superstructure mounted on said bed and including a pair of sidewalls, a front wall and a rear wall;
• enclosing a superstructure interior with said walls and said floor structure;
• constructing each said wall with multiple, horizontal wall sections each having a first edge with a tongue and a second edge with a groove;
• inserting said wall section tongues in said wall section grooves to connect the wall sections associated with each wall;
• providing multiple corner posts with pairs of corner post channels oriented at approximately 90° angles;
• locating said corner posts at corners of said superstructure;
• inserting said wall section ends into the corner post channels;
• and
• forming intersections of said walls at said superstructure corners.