How to structure a site with product variations pages?

Question

I'm doing a website for a friend for his trailer business (riveting I know!), and was looking for some advice on how to build it out.

Basically there are a few major types of trailers, then each main type has a few variations in size. So it's something like:

Single Axels:

• 6x4
• 8x4
• 9x5

Tandems:

• 6x4
• 8x4
• 9x5

So each variations would have its own product page. This would consist of a description, some headings and a few image galleries.

All of the pages would have a very similar structure, as they're basically the same thing, just with different heading and pictures. I've made a quick and ugly wireframe to illustrate more clearly what I mean:

I'm just unsure of the best way to build this out. My first instinct (Which I think may be wrong), was to create a custom post type, say for Single Axels, and attach all the various custom fields needed. Then there would be a post for each variation (6x4, 8x4 etc). Now I'm just a bit confused as to how I display these posts as their own separate page?

Answer 1

I think a good/usable structure for this would be to use categories and tags.

    Categories - Single Axles, Tandems, etc...
    Tags - 6x4, 8x4, 9x5, etc...

This would also give the user the possibility to find 6x4's in both Single Axles and Tandems. Just an idea as I have absolutely NO knowledge of trailers.

Depending on available funds I would also go as far as to suggest using Marketpress by WPMU. I think they're a very simple option to use, if your client is seeking ecommerce capabilities.

EDIT

Looked at your wireframe again and I can see more positives behind using cats/tags:

    Category: 6x4 Trailers
    --Subcategory: With 300mm Checkerplate Sides
    ----Sub-Subcategory: With Cage

    Category: Optional Extras
    --Subcategory: Ladder Racks