About Performance Trailers
Parker Trailer Sales, Inc. was founded in 1984 by Roy Parker with a simple mission: to build dependable trailers that met the real-world needs of hardworking customers. What began as a small operation producing boat trailers quickly grew as demand increased and new dealers began requesting additional trailer styles, sizes, and configurations.
Rather than limiting the company to a single product category, Roy listened closely to customers and recognized opportunities to develop trailers for a wide range of industries and applications. Over time, the company expanded its capabilities and began manufacturing a comprehensive selection of trailers designed for contractors, landowners, farmers, equipment operators, automotive enthusiasts, and everyday users.
One of the company’s most significant early developments came in the mid-1980s. Roy recognized the need for a trailer that could safely transport materials while also providing a practical and efficient method of unloading them. He spent countless hours researching, testing, modifying, and perfecting a scissor-lift dump-bed system. That innovative concept helped pioneer the functionality that would eventually become standard in the modern dump trailers produced by manufacturers throughout the industry today.
During that same period, dirt-track racing was extremely popular across the South—and it was one of Roy’s greatest passions outside of the trailer business. His time racing at local tracks introduced him to other racers who needed durable, highly customized trailers capable of transporting their cars, tools, parts, and equipment from one event to the next. Roy began building specialized car haulers for competitors throughout the local racing community, combining strength, functionality, and performance-driven design.
It was through this connection to motorsports that the Performance Trailers brand was born.
Although the company no longer follows the dirt-track circuit, the Performance name has remained an important part of our identity for almost four decades. It represents the same values that shaped the company from the beginning: dependable construction, practical innovation, attention to detail, and trailers built to perform under demanding conditions.
In 2022, after nearly four decades in the trailer business, Roy made the decision to retire. As part of that transition, the company sold the manufacturing facility it had called home for approximately 30 years. However, retirement proved to be short-lived. After only two weeks, Roy realized he was not quite ready to step away from the business he had spent a lifetime building.
The welding machines were fired back up, production resumed, and several of the company’s most experienced and longest-tenured employees returned to help begin the next chapter of Performance Trailers. Among them is a remarkable team member who has been with the company for 41½ of its 42 years and, at 83 years young, continues to bring decades of knowledge, skill, and dedication to the shop.
While Performance Trailers may no longer be the 250-plus-employee operation it once was, our commitment to quality has never changed. Today, we operate with a smaller, highly experienced team focused on producing dependable, professional-grade trailers as efficiently as possible. The size of the company may have evolved, but the workmanship, pride, and dedication behind every trailer remain firmly intact.
Today, Parker Trailer Sales, Inc. continues to manufacture trailers under the Performance Trailers name, offering a full line of utility trailers, dump trailers, car haulers, equipment trailers, cargo trailers, and custom configurations. Our products range from compact 5-by-8-foot single-axle utility trailers to 40-foot gooseneck models equipped with mega ramps and heavy-duty 15,000-pound tandem-dual axles.
From a small boat-trailer operation to a respected manufacturer serving customers and dealers across multiple industries, Performance Trailers has continued to grow, adapt, and evolve without losing sight of the principles on which the company was founded.
More than 40 years later, we remain committed to building strong, dependable trailers that are ready to work—and built to perform.
