Any advice for a rookie car hauler?

I like the M2. The problem with most dualies, including ours:a dualie can and will pull a fully loaded trailer but they don't seem to be made to endure that type of workload 24/7/365. A lot of car haulers will rag a dualie out in two years' time because of that. The M2 OTOH is a class 7 vehicle; class 7 and 8 tractors are designed to haul this much freight on such a constant basis. You'll probably notice how the M2 will pull a load with ease where a dualie will sometimes sort of strain with that same load. I guess that's why I'm trying to talk the boss out of buying that 3500 he's got his eye on.

Another thing about the Kaufman: I've seen guys running like a scalded dog with those trailers, but we keep ours at about 55 to 60 mph. The reason is that those axles are packed (IOW they use grease instead of an oil bath like you'd see on a full-on semitrailer). I imagine that's because higher speeds would probably burn through that grease pretty quick, and really don't want to know what happens after that (it would be ugly and expensive). Also, I'm not sure what speed the trailer tires are rated for; that may be another reason why the boss has us keep that speed where he does. I'm not a mechanic so these are just my pet theories.

 

Hard to say, maybe one of the other guys can chime in here. Our rates are determined a little differently; I've seen anywhere from $500 to $1000 or so depending on how far the vehicle is going, and what type and size of vehicle it is. We get a lot of stuff from Central Dispatch and Dispatch1, so that's how they list the rates.

 

I pull a Kaufman 2 car wedge OTR and I generally run the posted speed limit. My employer has about half a dozen of them and we have never had any problems with the wheel bearings, but our shop does a really good job of maintaining our equipment and they repack the bearings on a regular basis. In addition, we run top of the line tires on all of our equipment.

One thing to watch out for is the bushings they use to attach the axles to the trailer. The original ones are nylon and they will wear out within the first year. This will throw off the alignment of the axles just slightly and you will start to see some odd tire wear. We replaced the nylon bushings with bronze ones and that problem went away.

My regular trailer is a 2014 model and really has been trouble free.

 

That info about the bushings is very interesting. Ours was purchased used and had the bushings replaced already. Now I know why. And I agree 100%: repacking the bearings on a regular basis goes a long, long way toward keeping your equipment off the side of the road.

 

@Chuckberry1 , there's a carhaul section of the forum, in the industry specific section. Most any question you'll have will have been answered in there at some point or another.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...r-hauler-and-auto-carrier-trucking-forum.393/