Thinking of loosing the reefer

I split the difference and got a couple 50' ers. as many noted they load them as if 48's

 

well Gears, i'm 47. after pulling around that co. reefer for 2+ years i welcomed the flatbedding challenge. 1) i get the workout that refr. never gave me unless a pallet had spilled. 2) i generally get loaded or empty when i arrive, appts. and long waits have been non exsistent so far.

just some plus'es i like so far.

 

I was running a step deck with ramps, you will not belive how many doors that will open for you, and how much freight will go on the thing with out requiring a tarp.

I carried 3/8" and 1/2" chains and ratchet binders.

You will never see me with a straight flat bed the reason is with a step deck when im throwing chains on it I am standing on the ground not hopping all around 5 feet in the air.

Also with a step deck, it is not hard to get 2 paying loads on 1 trailer.

For instance, when the Army was deploying a battalion from Camp Roberts CA, they shipped all of thier equipment to Ft. Lewis Washington, they were shipping duce and a half trucks that were paying to the truck 2.25 a mile. Well me knowing my truck and having ramps, I took 2 trucks, thus got paid for 2 loads.

I backed the first truck on my trailer and used my ramps to run the drives on it up on my step. I then put the 2nd truck on facing forward. Chained em down, and was getting 4.50 a mile, Then I picked up a partial which was 20 big truck tires, I was able to stuff them all under neath the duce and a halfs, it paid another 600.00 if memory serves (keep in mind the rates on this are being pulled out of my memory and it has been 5 years ago)

But I made a fist full of pesos on that run. Best part is when I got up to Ft Lewis, I was in there about 10 am because I had to kick off the partial in Tacoma first, so as you can immagine there were literally a hundred trucks there waiting for a 3 space dock, well I pulled in where the RGN's were unloading, and had a bunch of super truckers tell me "Your doing it wrong, that is where the RGN's unload"

I then pulled out my ramps, Unloaded the trucks, and was out of there within an hour while everyone else who had loaded 1 truck and didnt have ramps had to sit there all day to get unloaded.

I was able to grab another load out of the area and boogie down to the bay area to unload it fast enough I got 2 more trucks out of camp roberts and made it back up to Olympia so fast that I wound up parked with a couple of guys who had been there when I unloaded the first time who were just now getting loaded and ready to head out of the area.

That is the beauty of running a step, you can make a lot of money with em if you do it right. and you wont wind up tarping hardly at all if you do it right. I know I bought brand new tarps and when I got out of the business a year later they were still brand new used them about 5 times I think.

I wouldnt go for a staight flat bed because the loads that go on them often pay by the hundred weight, or they are a load of pipe, or a load of lumber, or a load of what ever stacked 9 bundles high and not paying worth a ####.

I will leave that kind of hauling to TMC and Swift.

Another thing is often times construction machines will pay like a full load, some times you get 2 machines that make 1 load, it really depends on who is shipping them. I used to haul heavy equipment all the time, A backhoe and a small dozer would fit very nicely on my trailer, and I could still fit a partial on my step.

If the economy picks up again you will see me back out there pulling a step deck, I will be having one built to my specs, it will be a 50' with a 10' upper and 40' lower deck so I can set a high cube container on the lower. It will also have a moveable king pin so I can slide my 5th back and move the king pin back to make it california legal.

The reason for this is you can haul heavy equipment to california and make pretty good money going that way, coming back however, there is jack that pays well as far as machines go. But there are cans that come through the port of La and the port of Long Beach that do have some good money on them.

I used to do this all the time until they changed the law so as that I could not over hang a can on my 11/37 step. Really pissed me off but thats life I guess.

One more thing, one of the greatest things about hauling machines is that most of them have pretty good tie down points. expecially military vehicles. I carried a bunch of shackles with me and it made it super easy to get hooked up, that and a couple of ratchet binders with folding handles and you would be amazed at how easy it is.

It is one hell of a lot less work than lumping out your own van for #### sure. Id rather chain a load down then have to lump 2 pallots by myself.

 

They still use a lot of 48's in the Northeast. So if you don't mind traffic and cold and tight quarters and and and..........