Advice on Flatbed Trailers?

What he said. I got a flatbed gig from Feb-June this year and ended up having to buy one after being told I'd have one to rent. Would have rather rented cause I didn't want another piece of equipment to maintain.

Long story short, I bought a '96 all aluminum East 48x96 for $9,500. Trailer is pretty cherry, no cracks/welds, floor is a 9.5/10. But nobody wants the 96" wide, the 102" were all almost double the price.

 

So far the only problems have been the dump valve took a dump and a few LEDs went out in one tail light. Both covered by warranty, no problem.
BTW, the warranty on the lights and wiring is a full 10 years!
Pulls like a dream and as SHC said it's hard to press the arch out, when loaded. With a 40 foot can, you have to throw a 4X4 under the back end and a 2X4 under the front end to get the four corners to comply with the regs, no matter how heavy the can is.

 

BTW, because the deck is made of square aluminum tube, it is easy to poke a hole in it, the top is not very thick. However, proper placement of dunnage will prevent that problem.

 

They have a lounge and a gravel lot that I can barely maneuver in. It does beat a truck stop though. Lol

 

I have a 94' transcraft. going on over 12 years now. had to have a few welds over the years, but cannot complain. A neighbor of mine has bought several utility flats. 48 by 102. he say's he has had no problems with them. I load/run/unload right with him. he hauls heavy single coils as I do. For the money. for the money. they seem to hold up o.k. I will be looking at getting a newer trailer soon. maybe in the next 6 months.

 

You don't need to buy new or almost new to find a good trailer. You can find something little older that is in good shape, pay cash or pay it off quickly and then trade up in a year or two.

 

IMHO, wouldn't buy an East at all. I used to work for a company that had a bunch of them. Couldn't keep lights working. Spend an hour or more fixing broken wires, go load it, as soon as any of the arch was pressed out, you could watch lights go out. Time to splice wire again. And the arch pressed out of them pretty easy too, and I didn't think that was too good.

 

If you haul coils.....buy a Mac! General freight the other brands work fine. But there is no trailer on the marked that can touch an 80k Mac.

I agree on the East comment. I've had 3 and the only one that didn't sag is the MMX and it's still rated 8,000 less in 4' than the Mac!