Any curtain side haulers out here? Please share your experience

That is a very specific trailer, with the bracing running down the middle. Local lumber yard runs some curtain sides, with the braces on the outside. On them, you can remove one brace at a time, if you remove more than one, the roof will fall.

In my opinion, a conestoga trailer would be much better.

 

I pulled some similar to that one for a company I used to work for a couple years but it didn't have the braces in the middle it had them on each side.

They were kind of a pain because there are about I don't know 30 latches on each side you have to latch to secure the curtains, and some times you would have to remove one of the support poles to allow a fork lift driver to get to the product and there pretty heavy, probably around 80 lbs so they will want to fall back at you if your not careful and smash you in the forehead lol. And then of course you have to put them back.

Never backed into a dock with one but the one I had did have rear doors that would open so it would be possible to get loaded from a dock.

Those curtains don't last forever tho. You see scraps on the side of regular van trailers? Well when that happens on a curtain trailer it doesn't leave a scrape it leave a cut in the curtain.
They are reparable but usually the repairs don't hold for very long and they have to be replaced.

Couple thousand to repair and 10 to 20 thousand to replace. With that being said they are pretty durable because the material they use on the curtains pretty thick and heavy duty thus the high price.

In theory though you should have access to more different kinds of loads flat bed loads and dry van loads but can get loads for a flat bed that require a crane to drop the product onto the bed. Have to be loaded with a fork lift.

 

Most popular style of trailer UK n rest of Europe these days

 

Yes but they have sliding roofs.

 

Where?
In UK that's a rarity,mostly chipliners,load bark in from top then open curtains to tip,most curtsinsiders have fixed roof,tilt trailers back in the day used to strip down but not many now,used to be favourites on ferry unaccompanied work

 

In Europe ,sliding roofs are the norm in general work.(go anywhere to load anykind off product)
I know that UK trailers that are on dedicated runs have fixed roofs.
You also need to remember that UK trailers are higher .