Flatbed or Curtain side?

Yes, that is the one I am talking about. I have ran slag out of there for years, and I never knew they had a back entrance??? I always came in off Clark St and went past the tin mill to the Levy yard.....learn something new everyday

 

Yes off the Clark Street. I used to detour through the old J yard

 

i just swapped from a dry van to a conestoga system, i have 48ft x 96inch x 100 inch height, can carry 46500lbs, cant say too much about freight as i am still trying to find a niche, only been running it 3 weeks, pluses, easy to open and close, no tarping, so far no lumper fees, quick getting loaded and unloaded. Have to be very careful on getting good dimensions from shipper, i have been putting partial loads together, lost 2 so far because of bad information from shipper and loads would not fit together, will try not to do partials anymore as they are a pain to put together, here are some pics of my setup, also be aware that it can be quite expensive to equip a flatbed when starting out, i spent $1600 on chains/binders/straps/dunage/edge protectors/coil racks etc, and much of that was used stuff, also need to carry items to patch tarp from time to time, i did not need a headache rack as the trailer has a bulkhead with storage and a toolbox. Will be interesting to see how the tarp system opens and closes with the weight of snow on it, anyway good luck to you
Rich

 

I personally would be scared to buy a 96" wide conestoga. I guess as long as you stay away from lumber you should be fine. Good luck with it, just keep the tarp tight and keep up with maintenance. They can be expensive to repair if you let small things go. What brand of tarp is that?

 

its a Cremaro, im headed to MI, been stuck in some crappy areas, gonna try move some steel/auto freight...

 

Good luck, I'm in Ohio and only haul steel and things are pretty slow around here.

 

FWIW-

A curtainside will allow you to haul a lot of freight that shippers won't load in a roll-tarp, beverage loads for example. With a curtainside you can load at least 102" wide, you can't do that with a roll-tarp.

A roll-tarp will let you load with a crane and haul longer than your deck length, both things you can't do with a curtainside.

It all depend on what loads/lanes you want to run.

 

Do you have stuff going to Minneapolis? I have returns out of Minny going all over WI, but primarily to Milwaukee.