Need Advice on buying Dry Van

In 2008 I bought a New Great Dane SSL. The deciding factor for me was the fact that if you ever need anything, just call any Great Dane Dealership, give them the VIN number (last eight digits), and he will pull up your trailer on the computer and tell you the part number, price, and if he has it on the shelf, which they usually do. They also have an agreement that they are pretty much able to do this with Strick Trailers as well. Great Dane has the absolute best aftermarket system of any. All the competition will ask you for the VIN, and then they will tell you that they will call you back, they then contact the manufacturer, the manufacturer might have the info right then, or they might not, in which case he will call the dealership back, then the dealership will call you back, sometimes you might wait until the next day for this info, I have waited two days, not so with Great Dane.
One thing to remember, some food shippers will not load a trailer that has a translucient roof, (fiberglass), it must be an aluminum roof. A food grade trailer is generally considered to be a trailer that does not have plywood sidewall liners, (sacks of food products on a skid, could rub against the wall, and pick up a splinter that might not be detected.) The SSL that I bought had a steel lining over the plywood wall liners to prevent this.
A DuraPlate trailer is a trailer without the traditional wall posts, about one and one fourth wall thickness, you can go to the Wabash National Trailer website and research this out. The Duraplate is theirs, the wall thickness is not near as thick as the normal sheet and post type trailer. This will come down to a personal preference issue.
If you are going to haul anything that might need nailed down, you will need a wood floor. Wood liner refers to the plywood on the walls mentioned earlier. Scuff lining refers to the usually twelve inch high rub liner on the walls, just above the floor, they are metal or plastic, again this is personal preference. Etrack, logistic posts, logistic seams, refer to the slots in the sidewalls for attaching logistic bars or logistic straps, for securing the load. The logistic posts will give you more strength than the e track that is usually pop riveted to the wall posts, however, the etrac has a slot every couple of inches, whereas the logistic posts have the slots in each post and depends on the trailer spec, but usually about twenty four inches post to post.
Acid washed just refers to the acid used when they wash a trailer, known for getting the dirt off and leaving a shiny aluminum clean look. Roll up doors are well suited for city type work where you may open the door fifty or so times a day, and they are pretty much a one hand door to raise, also you can usually back right in to the dock and open the door from inside the building. Rollup doors are not known for keeping the freight dry, hence you see the plastic liners hanging out of the back of the LTL trailers as they go down the road.
If you are going to buy a used dry van, reefer, or flat, the first thing to inspect is the fifthwheel bolster plate, go to the side of the trailer and sight under the trailer where the tractor fifthwheel attaches, sight across to the other side, and make sure that the plate is FLAT, not bowed upwards, this would indicate a structural problem. The second thing to check is walk back to the area behind the fifthwheel plate and sight across, looking again for straight looking structure, then start with the front crossmember of the floor, and work your way to the rear of the trailer sighting across each crossmember as you go, ALL crossmembers should be straight and not bowing downward in the center of the trailer, this indicates the value of the trailer, bowed crossmembers would need to be replaced, as the coarse of time goes they will gradually bow downward, at ten years old they pretty much would need replaced. A lot of carriers buy the standard economy trailer, and then haul a lot of paper, (BIG rolls of paper sometimes weighing over five thousand pounds, so you would add the fifteen thousand pound forklift, and you have twenty thousand pounds going in and out of the trailer, with that weight mainly on the front wheels of the forklift, causing the floor crossmembers to collapse before they should). Other carriers use their head and order a paper spec trailer, which has the floor crossmembers at eight inches spacing, rather than the normal twelve inches. The wall posts on a paper spec trailer usually have three posts every four feet as opposed to the normal two per four feet.
Check for cracks also around the landing gear mounting aprons, and check for cracks where the crossmembers are welded to the tandem sliding rails. Check the structure holding the ICC bumper, and then go inside the trailer and walking all around, inspect for cracks or holes in roof, sometimes you can see light coming through while you are standing in a particular place, but if you move a couple of feet it might not show, so do this on a sunny day. Also check the nose rail at the top front as well as the top front corners to check for collision damage, then take a ladder and check the outer appearance of the roof and top rails as well. Sight down the wall also, some times a cheap (going to the auction type) repair job will show up when you do this.
It will usually take you an hour to look one over, don't be rushed, I usually tell the salesman that I will be back in after I look it over, so that I can take my time and not feel rushed. It used to be the rule of thumb that the standard trailer would last ten years. There are a LOT of shippers that will NOT load a trailer older than ten years, so let this guide you in pricing. If you have any more questions just p.m. me. Hope this helps.

 

What brand of trailer are you currently using ? , does it do the job , if so start out by looking at that make / model with maybe a few upgrades that it might not have.

 

Wow Taildragon, I don't think there is anything that anyone else could add to that book, except for suspension related stuff. I learned quite a bit from that.

 

I have an 09 Great Dane SSL, I'm looking for a Wabash Duraplate.
I have nothing bad to say Great Dane other than when these trailers break, they break. Blew an inside tire lost 1 bag, and a few airlines. My tandem locker took a hit has well. Talk about almost losing your tandems.

 

Mine is plain hardwood... Not to heavy, I have a plywood roof. Sure its covered by a sheet of thin metal.

 

Hopefully it is

 

I know, would SUCK BIG TIME if my wood rotted out thanks to water.

HEY, PG-13! Get your head out of the gutter