November 26, 2013
Snow is spreading across much of the country, and maybe everyone’s biggest worry is just getting there. But if you’re motoring down the highway and a trailer ahead of you starts shedding sheets of snow and ice, that’ll make your trip even more interesting.
Tags: Trailers, WInter, Safety and Compliance
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, November 26, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(1)
November 4, 2013
Since its initial haul of a transformer to a new electrical substation in Ohio (“Count the Wheels Under This Heavy-Haul Trailer,”), Edwards Moving & Rigging has delivered three more of the huge and heavy pieces of equipment. There’s one more to go.
Tags: Trailers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, November 4, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
Who won the 2013 Commercial Truck of the Year award? Sorry, I can’t tell you, even if I knew.
November 3, 2013
Senior Editor Tom Berg writes about his experience judging the ATD Commercial Truck of the Year contest.
Tags: Hino, Kenworth, International, Peterbilt, ATD Commercial Truck of the Year,
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Sunday, November 3, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
October 24, 2013
Tom Berg has rediscovered on YouTube some of the wonder of watching "Industry on Parade" as a kid, with a video about the technology behind one company's wall liners, which he shares in his latest Trailer Talk blog.
Tags: Trailers, US Liner
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Thursday, October 24, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
October 15, 2013
This Strick trailer is part of intermodal history going back more than 50 years. It was one of a large group bought by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for coast-to-coast Flexi-Van service it ran with the New York Central System. This particular trailer was spotted in 2004 in Omaha, Neb., after it was retired from piggyback service.
Tags: Trailers,, Strick, Flexi-Van, CSX, BNSF
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, October 15, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
October 6, 2013
Sometimes really interesting things happen right near home. A few weeks ago I was on a Sunday jaunt with my wife and a granddaughter, driving through Sunbury in central Ohio, about nine miles from where we live. We spotted something big and heavy being moved through the village on a trailer that seemed to have a hundred wheels.
Tags: Trailers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Sunday, October 6, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(2)
September 24, 2013
Updated recommendations from TMC for trailer electrical systems say sealed wiring, water- and corrosion-resistant connectors and low-amperage lamp designs are the things to get for long life – not new advice, but information newly included in the group’s Recommended Practice 704.
Tags: TMC, Trailer, Trailer Lighting Systems, Trailers, Battery Electric Vehicles, Maintenance
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, September 24, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
What’s the oldest working trailer you know of?
August 29, 2013
What’s the oldest working trailer you know of?
Tags: Trailer, , Easton
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Thursday, August 29, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
August 19, 2013
Last week we ran a news story about the hauling of long, heavy concrete beams for reconstruction of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in northwestern Washington. You may recall that a section of the aging steel truss bridge tumbled into the water on May 23 when an oversize load hit an upper support beam.
Tags: Trailers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, August 19, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
August 5, 2013
With tractors getting heavier, Monarch Distributing in Indianapolis needed to lighten up its trailers to recapture payload capacity. Its latest group of 53-foot vans from Great Dane accomplish this by scaling 2,000 pounds lighter than previous units.
Tags: Trailers,
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, August 5, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
July 24, 2013
Makers of trailer aerodynamic improvers are well aware of truckers’ suspicions that the devices will be damaged, sooner or later. That’s why many of the latest ones are made with materials that are flexible and impact resistant.
Tags: TrailerTail
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, July 24, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
July 9, 2013
It takes a tractor to move a trailer, which is why we’re looking at this new product from a small company: Tractor AeroKit from Flow Below Aero Inc., in Austin, Tex. The kit saves fuel by smoothing air flow around the vehicle’s drive wheels.
Tags: Aerodynamics
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, July 9, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(3)
June 28, 2013
It’s 11 p.m. Do you know where my load is?
That’s a shipper asking a trucker the whereabouts of the trailer or container carrying his cargo. He’s not asking about a tractor and its driver; he wants to know about his load. From that point of view, it’s odd that trucking companies attached the first satellite and cellular-based tracking devices to tractors years ago, when products became available.
Tags: Qualcomm, technology, Trailer, Schneider,
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Friday, June 28, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
June 25, 2013
It looks like a common western belly-dump trailer, but this new model from American Carrier Equipment is 30% lighter, has 300% greater structural integrity and accommodates a 12.5% greater payload than competitive offerings, according to the builder.
Tags: Trailers, Dumps,
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, June 25, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
June 12, 2013
Household goods movers haul not just furniture, but sometimes automobiles owned by the people making the move. This of course enhances truckers’ revenue.
Tags: Trailers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
June 3, 2013
Senior Editor Tom Berg offers some personal insight into trailer underride guards and why they're so important in his "Trailer Talk" blog.
Tags: IIHS, Safety, Trailers, Underride
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, June 3, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
May 21, 2013
We in the industry are sometimes irked when we see inaccurate or incomplete stories about trucking in the general news media.
Tags: Trailers, Trailer underride guards
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, May 21, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
May 8, 2013
Maybe you saw it in March at the Louisville truck show – that transparent trailer in Ancra International’s booth. I spotted it earlier in the month, at the TMC’s annual meeting and expo in Nashville. Story-wise, the why of it is obvious: It’s a rolling stage on which Ancra displays a number of its freight handling and tie-down products.
Tags: Trailers, Ancra
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, May 8, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
April 29, 2013
Heavy-haul equipment has always fascinated me, ever since I was a little boy watching “steam shovels” dig basements in our then-expanding neighborhood in post-World War II Milwaukee.
The shovels (which were actually gasoline- and maybe diesel-powered) were carried to job sites on low-slung pull trailers. The trailers were pulled by dump trucks which, after parking the trailers on the street, also carried away some of the dirt from the new holes.
Tags: Trailers, MATS, Talbert, MATS 2013
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, April 29, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
April 22, 2013
In his latest Trailer Talk blog, Senior Editor Tom Berg takes a closer look at what first glance might look like an ordinary equipment trailer.
Tags: Trailers, Heavy Haul
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, April 22, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
April 15, 2013
Here’s a novel approach to making trailer skirts: Use reclaimed materials, consult with a veteran fleet executive to be sure you get the design right, and employ U.S. military veterans to assemble them while they attend school.
Tags: Aerodynamics, Trailer skirts,
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, April 15, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(1)
April 10, 2013
Here’s a new twist on aerodynamics: curved blades inside a rectangular structure that smooth air flow as it leaves a trailer’s surfaces. Called the VorBlade Invisible Fairing, the device is combined in rows at the trailing edges of a box trailer, reducing turbulence and the suction effect at the vehicle’s rear.
Tags: Trailers, Aerodynamics
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(5)
April 2, 2013
Last week a tractor-trailer carrying a memorial to veterans of the Vietnam War came to town, reports Senior Editor Tom Berg in his latest "Trailer Talk" blog. It was part of ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the United States’ official withdrawal from Vietnam.
Tags: Featherlite, Van Trailers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, April 2, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
March 22, 2013
Kenworth designers have turned to the trailer part of their T680 Advantage rig, integrating the smoothly styled tractor's aerodynamics into the lines of a 53-foot Utility van. The tractor has mechanical and electrical equipment meant to save fuel, but reducing air drag across the entire vehicle is almost as important, they said.
Tags: Kenworth, Trailers, Utility, Fuel Economy, Aerodynamics, Laydon
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Friday, March 22, 2013 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)