Van Trailer - Difference < > Spring or Air?

I pulled spring ride 48 foot reefers for years. Actually I never pulled an air ride reefer. I hauled by weight hich meant most of my loads were floor loads and I never had the need for more room than my 48 footer had. I was usually heavy already. I just don't see the need for 53 foot reefers other than for backhauls.

Just be VERY observant of the floor condition. Walk the whole trailer floor jumping up and down looking for soft spots because they will swallow a forlift in short order. Go ahead and ask me how I know. Be very critical of any repairs such as patched areas or welded cracks. f posible run a hose in there ans see if water comes out anywhere other than the drain holes because if it does you will have soft spots eventully because there is cracks somwhere.

Oh and look at the door hinges and seals very closely. If the doors don't seal right you will loose product in the rear of the trailer

 

being an ex cop you are just going to LOVE the refer biz..

lol, ya that is sarcasm.

 

I would invest in an air ride new as you can afford with a spread axle tandem,it saves alot of problems down the road,that spring type is a throwaway these days,broken springs,rough ride,alignments are harder,and when it is all said and done the only good use for it later is for a storage trailer,as you will have a hard sell to sell it later.just about everything is air ride,and the spread gives you 40000 on your tandems,also better to have a dump valve in your tractor to raise one axle to sharp turning radius,without wearing the tires out real fast. Let us know how you make out. You can rental purchase one or just rent one too.

 

Spreads are nice but they eat tires big time. And learning to back one up can be a challange at times. it will pivot on whichever axle has more weight on it at any given time. Whih means it can change from one axle to the other in a second. our MRI trailers are spreads, and with the tight places we go we flat out destroy tires long before they wear out.
oh and a dump valve will void your axle warrenties.

 

Yep, now they have those 'Super Spreads' that have a 12' spread, wonder how much you can scale on those tandems?