Equipment

By Tom Berg

It takes special people to be flatbedders. Tarping, however, is usually not on their list of favorite activities. A single tarpaulin can weigh 65 to 100 pounds or more. It must be half thrown and half dragged over the load, spread evenly with corners properly folded and tucked in, and the whole piece of slippery fabric secured with straps and bungies.

Tags: Trailers, Tarping, Side kits, Rolling tarps, Curtain-sider

By Tom Berg & Kate Harlow

When the economy took a dive in 2008 and the construction industry's work dried up, so did much of the market for dump trailers. As construction begins coming back, there's a growing demand for new dumps. Demand also is being driven by other emerging trends in the market.

Tags: East, Mac Trailer, Clement, Dumps, NTDA, Beall, Trailers, Vocational

By Kate Harlow

When you are getting ready to put a dry van trailer out to pasture and begin the process of searching for its replacement, there are many things to consider: maintenance costs, fuel-economy regulations, payload and the weight of the trailer, to name a few. One way to navigate through the maze of options is to follow some tips a few trailer manufacturers shared with us.

Tags: Trailers, Payload, Dry Vans, Capacity, MPG, fuel economy

By Greg Smith, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Talbert Manufacturing

Long before a single load is booked or any wheels turn, someone - usually a fleet manager - needs to determine exactly what is going to separate the road and the load

Tags: Trailers, Talbert, Lowbed, Heavy Haul

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Carbon dioxide, condemned for being a greenhouse gas and the target of diesel emissions regulations about to go into effect, is actually good when used as a refrigerant

Tags: Trailers, CO2, Thermo King, Reefers, Carrier Transicold

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Truck bodies these days are more than just a box, and we've highlighted several recent developments in this article

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah is among the places in the U.S. where natural gas is being recovered in the ongoing energy boom. As in other areas, great quantities of specially treated water are being used to liberate the ga

Tags: Trailers, water truck, Fracking

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Anyone who's seen van trailers with sides bulging outward or dented from inside knows that at least some of that is caused by shifting cargo

Tags: Trailers

By Jim Beach, Contributing Editor

It's fairly well established that keeping track of untethered trailers improves a fleet's operations

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

One of the hottest segments of trailer building is flatbeds. The freight they carry is moving briskly, especially in the automotive and energy sectors, but prosperity is somewhat spotty, say fleet managers.

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Over the years, advances in trailer materials and design have added life, cut maintenance and operating costs and even improved safety. Based on our observations at trade shows, new product announcements and conversations with manufacturers and fleets, we came up with the following list of significant trends

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Are truck and trailer aerodynamics new? Not exactly. Labatt's Streamliners like the one shown on the right were built in the 1930s and might be the most aerodynamic looking tractor-trailers ever produced.

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

"Box" and tank trailers can carry any number of things, and their interiors are specially designed for durability, long life, low maintenance and light weight. We found a number of interesting examples at the recent Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., in late March

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

When you're delivering temperature-sensitive cargoes, things can get nasty if the produce, meat, ice cream or whatever's in the trailer shows up too cold or too warm

Tags: Trailers

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

You can hide a multitude of sins inside a van trailer, but with an open deck trailer, any indiscretions are out in the open for all to see - including DOT roadside inspector

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Last March, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced results of crash-testing of several van trailers whose underride guards did not perform well, except in a couple of cases

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

They've pretty much taken over the vehicle lighting business, and they don't cost nearly as much as when they first appeared about 20 years ago. So LEDs - lamps made with light-emitting diodes - aren't stolen like they once were

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Sales of flatbed trailers have revived along with the rest of the heavy truck business

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

How important is saving weight? It's vital in some operations, such as hauling bulk commodities, especially if trailers are always loaded to the max and tare weight must be cut to enhance payload potential

Tags: Trailers

By Truckinginfo Staff

The National Transportation Safety Board says more needs to be done to make tanker trailers less prone to rollovers, including mandatory stability control systems, following its investigation of a 2009 rollover accident involving a tractor and tanker trailer

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

New federal "roadability" regulations that clear up who's supposed to be responsible for intermodal equipment infractions - basically, the owner of the chassis in question - have been in effect since December 17

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Transport refrigeration units - TRUs - are the main thing separating temperature-controlled trailers from dry freight vans. But insulation is just as important.

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

People who operate refrigerated trailers know a lot about their businesses, but even the most experienced would tell you that they don't know it all.

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Testing on regular runs showed Duplainville Transport which aerodynamic improvers to use on its 53-by-102 van trailers, and experience shows substantial fuel economy gains with a quick payback on the extra money invested

Tags: Trailers

Five years ago, H. Wade Carden Jr. started HWC Transportation when his Philadelphia-area lumber business couldn't make economical shipments aboard heavy equipment then operated by for-hire carriers in the Northeast

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Wind is free, but harnessing it to perform work can be very expensive. That's the case with today's wind turbines that are built to generate electricity.

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Even through the Great Recession, many trailer and body makers spent time and money developing advanced products that promise to improve operating efficiencies and save money for their customers

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Liftgates take goods from a trailer or truck body to the ground, where drivers can roll the cargo into customers' establishments

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Water spray kicked up by heavy tractor-trailers blinds motorists, something that got a lot of attention in the early 1980s from government and industry

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

It would be a good idea if fleets and truckers had some way to judge how good trailer aerodynamic products are, and to properly install what's available

Tags: Trailers

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

There's a mighty transition going on at an old, established North American supplier to the trucking industry. Holland from Michigan is now a combined company with SAF of German

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Dart Transit, a pioneer in high-cube trailers for hauling low-density freight, is now seeking lower tare weight to serve customers who ship heavier cargoes

Tags: Trailers

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Lars Frantzich refers to his container carriers as "machines," not trailers. This gives a hint of the capability and versatility of the Hammar Lift self-loading container-hauling trailer, new to the U.S. market

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

For much of the history of trailer-on-flatcar operations, semitrailers had to be beefed up to take the beating of rail service

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Daylight's great for as long as it lasts, and then we switch on electric lights. But for lighting up the insides of trailers, forget old-fashioned incandescent and even late-model fluorescent types

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Falling from a tall trailer will almost certainly result in broken bones or worse for a driver or maintenance person, and will cost thousands of dollars in medical and worker's compensation claims

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

What makes a semitrailer easy to sell at a good price? Structural soundness, with emphasis on the floor and roof, and good appearance that comes from regular maintenanc

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Not many owners of semitrailers have bought aerodynamic fairings and low-rolling-resistance tires to save fuel, but a lot of them will have to under new rules from California's Air Resources Board

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

The California Air Resources Board is following through on its promise to clamp down on emissions from reefer diesel

Tags: Trailers

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

A bill to allow states to authorize heavier tractor-trailers has been introduced in Congress, and the idea might also be part of highway reauthorization legislation. But chances for passage are iffy, observers sa

Tags: Trailers