Rawlins Daily Times, Janice KurbjunBy Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer
Of all the Little Snake River Valley vocational agriculture metal shop projects, one outsizes them all.
Measuring 41 feet long and 8 1/2 feet wide, senior Chaunce Criswell’s trailer occupies nearly one-third of the garage space at the Little Snake River Valley School.
“As the American dream grows, you need a bigger, tougher machine,” Criswell said. His project even has a hydraulic lift that angles 22 feet of the 30-foot deck toward the ground for easy loading. It is powerful enough and has enough leverage to function as a jack, too, lifting the heavy iron off the ground enough to change the rear tires.
Criswell pulls on fireproof coveralls — a requirement since he singed the others — twice a day to work on his project. He’ll even stay after school to get work done.
“I ordered the parts toward the beginning of the (school) year,” Criswell said. His family purchased the parts while the school allowed the use of the shop and its equipment. Criswell started working in October and has had little help from anyone but his teacher, Dale Wille.
The hulking web of interconnected beams has Criswell’s custom mark all over it, literally. The fancy metal light fixtures, a total of 29, that run the length of the trailer have a Baroque-like curved design with two Cs, Criswell’s initials, on either side of the opening for the light. These and the winches still need to be attached to the deck.
“I hide the tools I like to use,” Criswell said with a laugh as he moved toward the torch tucked far into the corner of the shop. “Why would anyone use this one when that one is right there?” He gestured toward the smaller, older machine in the center of the room. “They don’t know this one’s better.”
Lighting the torch with a simple spark, he turned some knobs, adjusting the flame to cut part of the metal winch.
Criswell’s trailer is a custom design, but some of the parts were pre-fabricated, including the winches, the hydraulic lift and the torsion axles — each of which can handle 10,000 pounds and allowed Criswell to widen the load-bearing frame for better support.
Could his untried, untested custom design fail? “I’m trying to think of a part I’m worried about,” Criswell said. “But really, I can’t think of anything. But, if it did break, I could fix it.” He grinned and said, “I mean, I put it together in the first place.”
Criswell thinks the vocational agriculture program at his school has utmost practicality. Almost all the LSRVS students participate in the classes. According to him, all of what the students learn in the classes is applicable.
“You can diagnose your sick dog or really understand your food,” he said.
Criswell plans to enter the trailer in the county fair with the goal of moving on to the state competition. If he goes to state, he is up against kids around the state from larger programs. Trailers usually don’t win in the contest with calf tables and loading chutes, but Criswell hopes his attention to detail and custom engineering design will prove the extra step necessary for success.
The trailer is a practical project for Criswell and his family. He’ll take it home when it’s finished, with hopes to put it to use as a hot shot worker, hauling materials from Casper to the energy fields.
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