48' or 53' Trailer Van, which is better?

Go with a swing door. From my friend who's an o/o; the roll ups make it harder for forklifts to enter providing the shippers/recievers use one. Also, go with a 102in. more load space, the better. Finally, do not buy a trailmobile. They are overweight. Save yourself the cost of overweight tickets and buy a Utility.

KH

 

Go with the swing door with a 102" A rollup door on a 102" only gives you the opening width of a 96" . There are too many problems with rollup doors . They have to be maintained regularly and can cause injury when they close quickly if a cable fails .

 

I agree. 102 and swing doors. Tell me do they even make a 96 anymore. LOL!!! The only people i see that have roll up's is those guys that do local delivery.

Hubby said you would loose height on roll up doors.

Hubby hauls most of the time is a Hyundai he says he loves them and great danes are good too.

 

53, 102, air ride, swing doors, and your all set. but i must agree with jacks chick. if u are asking such elementery questions, i think u are not ready to b in the biz. and with your own authority!!!!! that is a lot to handle. I am talking from experience!!!! But i wish out the best!

 

you r 100% right. that mentality got me where i am today. before i started i had bout 10k aved upand a nice 401k.thats all gone now and my credit is shot. but this is an very expensive lesson to learn.

here is my advise 4 ya. do it the old fasion way. 2 years company driver-then o/o buy leasing on- then get your own authority. the forum info is gr8 but experiance is always the best teacher. plus due to your lack of experiance your ins payment will b pretty high, i was paying bout 800 mo ins alone.

 

[quote

Well that's easier said than done. I've gotten my CDL since dec '07 and have looked for company driver position since then with no luck. No one would hire me because I have "no experience". I guess now I'm fighting back and creating my own experience.[/quote]


You're right there people at least want you to have the 4 to 6 weeks worth of school and that's because it's a tough job, and you need 6 months exp out there but no school is that long LOL!!!

I can't recall what ind of exp you have, but you are right in one thing don't go in debt if you don't have to. old equip though can break down a lot once you get that truck rolling, things can pop up.

I still think your putting your cart in front of your horse. We made enough mistakes and had our own run ins when we had 6 years of company driver behind us. I think you'd be better off to hire you a driver that knows what he's doing put him in your truck and drive team with him and learn the ropes.

i can't recall i'll have to go back and read what your exp is i may have to go back and eat my words. LOL.

 

Hey Topideas... watching with interest.

As you know, you can do absolutely anything you put your mind to. Just know that there will be consequences, both good and bad, and you have to accept them all as a product of your choices.

The paperwork and driving down the open highway is not too bad. I can PROMISE you you will get in a lot of jams and pickles that will stress you out and you will WISH you had someone there with you to bail you out of it. And parking, man, I was practically gifted when it came to cones, but in real life the pressure is tremendous and nothing will work the way it was intended when backing. You will catch a lot of $##t no matter what you do, looking, adjusting too much, getting in the way, even pulling to the curbside to gather your thoughts.

You will learn quickly that you didn't just make this decision for yourself. By going out there as a novice you are also deciding for others that they are going to be delayed, their patience tried, and every question you ask will make it clear that you are doing this much at other's expense and good graces as well. It is essentially now their responsibility to make this work for you. There are many very decent people here as well that won't give me the time of day anymore, and I can completely understand it.

That said, good luck, it can be done. Go forth with deep pockets.