new to me old 8 car enclosed Nuvan

You will run out of room very quickly loading Pick ups on those. I used to go to Lincoln AL almost weekly and loaded the CRV's ( small SUV's ) and the Odyssey Minivans they built there. Only 4 units total would fit. Period. No more than 4 units AND they had to be the correct mix too. The front box HAD to have at least one CRV. Two of the minivans wouldn't fit because of the length. You can NOT lower the curtain in the back without at least one CRV. The back box had plenty of length to fit two Odyssey's but they don't even come close to having enough head clearance to stack one on top. We could manage to squeeze an X 5 or an X 3 SUV from the plant in Greer with enough 3 series into the front box and another in the rear box to barely fit 8, but a lot of times due to weight and clearance issues they would only build us 7 car loads. A few times I asked for an extra 5 series or smaller and was okay. They had me go weigh one load once because they didn't think I was going to be legal. I had 3/4's of a tank of fuel and I weighed exactly 12,000 on the steers and 34,000 on the drives. That's rubbin' right on the edge, eh ? Be careful and weigh that Truck empty and avoid anything bigger than cars unless the rate makes up for the second spot that you will have to leave empty because it will take up the space above ( or below ) it. Those Trucks are unfortunately not as flexible as a lot of other equipment but those screwjacks make them easier to load than most of the other stuff of similar vintage as those. Best Wishes.

 

Oh yeah ! I forgot to tell you this. IF you get things perfect ( be careful. I was right next to one when it got it's windshield broken AND the Load Supervisor had just given him the okay and took full responsibility for it ) you can manage to hang one kinda big unit up top in the middle with two small cars on the floor. That takes a little more time and don't attempt anything taller than an X 5 and bear in mind you need short cars underneath that.

 

Please clarify. From the questions you are asking, you bought a piece of equipment with no knowledge of how to load it or what you can fit on it?

 

There's a learning curve with any equipment. The Truck you bought was designed and built because the German Manufacturers ( Porsche, Mercedes and BMW primarily ) were getting in a "Prestige and Image" contest and thought it provided more protection from road hazards for their vehicles ( which it does to a degree ) and DEMANDED Enclosed Trucks in order to get the Contracts. But they had to face the truth when they all started building bigger and bigger SUV's and having to pay the extra money ( they had to pay for the empty spots that had to be left open in at least some of those contracts ) and eventually reversed their decisions and allowed their freight to go back on Open Rack Trucks. You will just have to play to your Equipments strengths. Cars and Vehicles that demand to be moved on Enclosed Equipment have to pay a premium rate. The folks that have this equipment know this and like any Trucking will get the revenue it requires or go out of business. There's still a lot of high dollar cars being shipped. The trick is knowing where to find it. I don't know any advise to give you there but don't give up hope yet. Dig deeper. Those things were pretty much first built and used for Porsche's. Those Dealers still probably prefer the Truck you have. Especially for long moves. Hopefully you can find some Brokers or Dealers dealing in those more expensive cars. One more thing, never accept a GT3 Porsche. They ride too low and WILL scrape the air splitter on the nose. At least the first years did and I'm sure that they would never have made them any higher. Best of luck !

 

I did not mean anything negative. Just looking for a little insight to be able to answer. There are a lot of people who stop by here that have no clue, CDL, common sense.
Anyway back to your issue. Having an enclosed piece of equipment, and not knowing what area you run, Tesla is looking for enclosed transports to move their product out of their assembly plant in Fremont, CA. They bought the old GM / NUMMI plant. Plenty of work and at a premium. The only drawback is delivery to the end use customer.

 

I ran a unit like that at Select 1 Transport where I learned to car haul. We called them wiggle wagons. Alot of dealers in the Pacific northwest love those unit because of the constant weather up there

 

I was under the impression that soft side wasn't actually considered enclosed?