Trailer (vehicle)

A trailer is generally an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of goods and materials.

Sometimes recreational vehicles, travel trailers, or mobile homes with limited living facilities, where people can camp or stay have been referred to as trailers. In earlier days, many such vehicles were towable trailers.

In the United States, the term is sometimes used interchangeably with travel trailer and mobile home, varieties of trailers and manufactured housing designed for human habitation. Their origins lay in utility trailers built in a similar fashion to horse-drawn wagons. A trailer park is an area where mobile homes are placed for habitation.

In the United States trailers ranging in size from single-axle dollies to 6-axle, 13 ft 6 in (4,115 mm) high, 53 ft 0 in (16,154 mm) long semi-trailers are commonplace. The latter, when towed as part of a tractor-trailer or "18-wheeler", carries a large percentage of the freight that travels over land in North America.

Some trailers are made for personal (or small business) use with practically any powered vehicle having an appropriate hitch, but some trailers are part of large trucks called semi-trailer trucks for transportation of cargo.

toy trailers and motorcycle trailers can be towed by commonly accessible pickup truck or van, which generally require no special permit beyond a regular driver's license. Specialized trailers like open-air motorcycle trailers, bicycle trailers are much smaller, accessible to small automobiles, as are some simple trailers, pulled by a drawbar and riding on a single set of axles. Other trailers, such as utility trailers and travel trailers or campers come in single and multiple axle varieties, to allow for varying sizes of tow vehicles.

...
Wikipedia