Flatbed

When you say drop deck.... Do you mean step deck?

 

Single drop deck/step deck yes in mho. You can haul just about anything on a drop that you can on a straight plus the so-called "specialized" stuff. Check out the truck papers for stuff like the loading ramps/spacers and things that make drops more versatile... heck you can even get em equipped with slider curtains these days.

 

I only carry steel traps but I run the Midwest. Too get the most bang for your buck, I recommend getting the lightest step deck you can afford. The aluminum step I have is 52 ½ ft with 10ft top and 42 ½ bottom and I can scale 49,500 worth of freight legally with my heavy kenworth. Its helped greatly compared to my old steel 48ft which I was lucky to get 45,000 pounds on the deck legally.

 

steel tarps would be very helpful if you have the room to carry them, I hauled a lot of steel with just lumber tarps they work fine but when the load is only 1ft off the deck and all you have are 8ft drop lumber tarps it sure is a pain, especially with winter coming, and the possibility of multiple picks and drops. I would recommend finding a set of used lumber tarps and cutting them down if you have to buy them yourself.
P.S. if you are paying for your own tarps stock up on carpet, rubber mat and anything else soft you can use to protect your tarps from sharp edges

 

Depends on what your going to haul for the most part, for me i can not use a step because i load from docks at some places and other places specify no step, as far as the speacialized stuff a step is good if thats mostly what your going to haul . Like i said in the beginning depends on what your going to haul mostly.

 

One thing I learned about flat & steps was, after I had my spread flat for 4-5 years, I thought about going to a step. then I got a great paying load offer. 1 time I was offered this load it paid very well & had reload 40 miles away to within 2 blocks from my home. I got semi dedicated on this run 2 times a week. 1500 miles round trip. this was a few years ago. the point to this story is. it was skidded coils, that had to be rear load/unload. you had to back to a dock. if I had a drop deck this opportunity would not have been available to me. just something to think about. no backing into docks to get any rear loads.

 

Those dock plates not only go up.... They go down as well!

I've loaded next to many of step decks that were backed into docks.