53' stepdeck - NEW or USED ??

ra

yep, heavy trailers last longer.

seriously though, weight is not a huge issue for me. The 47&48k loads I miss out on don't seem to pay that well and often when I haul lighter loads I wind up sniffing out a partial along the route.

I bought the Great Dane this morning, getting finance straightened out with local banker and hope to pick up within a week. Windsmith will probably be pulling it, and I'll be pulling the old Transcraft.

 

that's a good point Oscar, guess I should have asked you to spot me the extra 15-20k for an all aluminum MAC or Rettinour. haha !

I'm not even sure what that Great Dane is gonna weigh. My 53' steel Transcraft is 14kish with ramps. I'm thinking the Great Dane prolly 12,500 or so. Windsmith will be able to haul 47k easy with it, maybe close to 48k with 1/2 tanks of fuel. We'll see, prolly get ramps for it, add another 600 lbs or so at some point.

I do see your point about being able to haul heavy if you have too and saving fuel. But I gotta say I've been in the situation plenty of times where I would have hauled that 47-48k load of steel or lumber. But since I couldn't, I didn't, and almost always something better came along. I just had to look a little harder. So there is two sides to that coin as well.

Frankly, if I wanted to spend more for a trailer, it would probably have been for a low profile or a tri-axle, or a low-pro tri-axle. Not for something lighter. I do lose out on many great paying loads that are just a bit too tall for mine. If figure at some point I could probably get a low pro triaxle that doesn't weigh much more than the 14k trailer I got now. Then I could haul all the same stuff, plus those extra tall ones, plus some permitted overweight stuff too if I wanted.