Trailer floor rating

Is that the Dynamic Floor Rating? I don't believe it refers to the gross weight you will be hauling. It refers to the tensile strength of the floor i.e. the amount of weight needed to cause the floor to fail at a concentrated point. IMO, a 20k rating sounds fine (a much lighter trailer) but you should double-check with Wabash. I'm not an expert.

 

From what I gather, the weight rating is the most the floor can handle in '10 feet' of trailer length. This would also include fork lifts loading, etc.

Same reason a flatbed can haul a steel coil, but a regular dry-van can't. Concentrated weight. Most weight you're going to haul is palletized or floor loaded, so the weight is dispersed through the length of the trailer.

Only thing I've read about needing a higher rating is for the super-heavy paper rolls (because of the large forklift carrying them into the trailer). Generally, a standard fork lift bringing 2k-3k lb pallets onto your trailer wouldn't ever exceed your weight rating.

 

go with at least 26,000 floor rating if you want a long service life.

 

Most dry vans have floor ratings on 20k. But if buying used I would look for a higher floor rating only because of age. But if you're buying new You should be good.

 

Depends on what you haul. Think about this. If you hual stuff that is heavy loaded by a big forklift, you want the higher ratings. A 5000 pound roll of paper loaded by a 10k forklift is a lot of weight. A 3k forklift lifting a 2000 pound pallet of food isn't so bad. If it were me, i'd pay extra for the better floor so i have more flexibility with future loads.

 

If you've ever hauled powdered iron it's usually 45,800 lbs on 9 skids. 4 skids in the nose and 5 scotched over the tandems. Not counting forklift weight. Or slinky coils loaded from front to back right down the middle of the trailer are concentrated. I would go a little higher than standard 20-22k. If you haul loads like that all the time you need it. If only occasional you don't need to stress your equipment possibly having catastrophic failure.

 

Flatbed has two huge beems under it. Dry Van is an engineered structure and has wastbands act as the Beems though the whole structure walls and roof all combine to carry the load. Why they fold so easily. I think if it like a the box a single sleve of cookies of crackers come in. Or a crane boom. Fine when everything is loaded right. disastrous once they start to fail.

 

Flatbed has two huge beems under it. Dry Van is an engineered structure and has wastbands act as the Beems though the whole structure walls and roof all combine to carry the load. Why they fold so easily. I think if it like a the box a single sleve of cookies of crackers come in. Or a crane boom. Fine when everything is loaded right. Desterous