Hook and Keeper for Enclosed Trailer Door - Aluminum - 4" Hook

Video Transcript for Polar Enclosed Trailer Door Hook and Keeper Review and Installation

Adam: Hi, everyone. Adam with etrailer.com. Today, we're going to be taking a look at the Polar Hardware Hook and Keeper for your enclosed trailer doors. So, both of these brackets are going to be made of aluminum, so they're going to naturally resist against rust and corrosion. They're not going to be as strong as some of those stainless steel or zinc plated ones that we also offer, but they are going to be stronger than nothing, and of course a little bit stronger than plastic as well.This enclosed trailer specifically, and some of the others from the factory didn't really have a keeper for our door. So, there was a couple times we we're working on this doing a video, and it was hard to keep this door open.

So luckily with this, you can just mount it up pretty easily like that, and now we're going to have a nice little spot to hook this hook onto the keeper like that. And now we really don't have to worry about having that situation happen again. I used to literally just put a little bungee cord here and tie it off somewhere here, and it necessarily wasn't the best way to do it. This way, it's nice and mounted up. So once we're done, it's going to be just as easy to undo it too.

And this looks a little bit more professional, especially if you have a enclosed box trailer on a construction site, and it might even have a big wrap on the side of it with your business' name. We just want to make sure that we just have the proper equipment for our equipment, just so we look professional.The one thing I do recommend getting is some hardware that will fit your trailer. And also, we are going to use some butyl tape underneath here, just so when we do drill through, we can seal that up, just so water's not going to get into those holes we drilled. So, it isn't too difficult to get these installed. Yes, we've got to drill holes, but we'll go all over that in the install right now.

Our rod here is going to be about four inches, so first thing we need to figure out is make sure that our trailer door is going to be able to open up all the way. And of course, just make sure we have enough gap between here and our other bracket, and see if we're going to have the right amount of space for this to hook up properly.So I'm just going to find a little spot here. And as I open up this door, I want to make sure that we are going to have a good spot to put the other section so it will line up properly. So as I shut this door about here, and one thing we just need to make sure is we're going to have it in the right orientation as well, so it can make that contact. So as we kind of come in like this, my idea is just to kind of, as I'm opening that door, it's going to slide in there and obviously that it's going to be able to support it.

So, it is going to work, but I know I can get through this door, but I just want to make sure on the inside of the trailer itself, we're going to be able to get to the back of our bolts. So, this is where the bolts are going to come through, so we're good there. So now we'll go ahead, mark our marks, and we can start drilling this bracket to get this one installed first.I always just like to use a paint marker just like this. And we don't need a whole lot. I've seen enough just to know where I'm going to be going. So now, we just want to go ahead and pick our right drill bit. I'm using a 3/16ths inch drill bit, but we could go bigger or we could go smaller. It just depends on what kind of hardware you guys are planning on using. So, just grab that and then you can go ahead and start drilling away. Perfect. And then now we're hitting the wood, so I want to go a little bit faster. Awesome. And then we'll do the same exact thing for the other four holes we marked. So, when making any holes in our trailer here, what we want to do is use some butyl tape so that we can get all of that water from getting into those holes we drilled. This is just going to prevent any of that water getting down in there, rotting stuff out, and just causing unnecessary damage.So, this is what it'll kind of look like. You guys can do your own little twist to things if you want, but all we just want to make sure of is that it's going to cover the hole and we have a washer on the other end of our hardware here, because we will have to supply them for these brackets we're putting on. So with that into place, we can go ahead and try to get that lined up in the hole, just like that, get it all the way through. Then we'll do that same exact thing for all of our other bolts. So, we did have to source our own hardware for this, like we said earlier, but what you guys need to remember when picking these is first, we just need to make it small enough to go through the bracket. And second, I do suggest going all the way through and then putting a nut on the inside. If you're just self-tapping on the outside of these enclosed trailers, eventually you're going to see some flex in that outer paneling. This is just going to be the better overall way to do it with our enclosed trailer here.So now we're going to go ahead and put our nuts on one side like this. We're going to do that for all of them, and then we'll go around front and tighten them all down. So, by going all the way through and putting a bolt on the back end, we don't have any flex. This bracket is completely solid. If we just used self-tappers, which I recommend not doing, we would see a bunch of different flex of this outer shell here. But with this, it's good. And if you guys get a little bit closer, you guys can see how that tape is making that seal really nice. You can either maybe cut off all the excess or just kind of work it with your hands and kind of just get it into that groove a little bit more, but we won't have any issues with any water getting into these holes, and that is exactly what we are looking for.So, when we are putting the second bracket on, it's going to be extremely important to line it up properly as we kind of move this in. This is pretty much where we want it. So, right about there. But we do got to remember too, we are going to have to pull it in a little bit more just to get that undone, and we will have a little bit of play up and down. So, that'll give us a little bit more wiggle room. I think this is where we're going to do it, and we can go ahead and take a marker, and we'll mark it up. And now, we can get to drill it. You guys know the drill. Put some tape over top of it. We're going to get our bolt, push it through. Get a washer, and once we get all these lined up, we're going to go ahead and just put some nuts on the back, and then just tighten them up just like before.So, once you have everything mounted down correctly, we just want to make sure that it lines up properly. And if it does, and it does, we're pretty much good. Now we can be able to keep this door open and not have it slam shut on us, and that's happened a couple times to me. But other than that, that's pretty much all there really is for the Polar Hardware Hook and Keeper for your enclosed trailer doors.