Carrier vs. Thermo King

Discussion in 'Refrigerated Trucking Forum' started by Ex-Trucker Alex, Mar 22, 2024.

  1. Ex-Trucker Alex

    Ex-Trucker Alex Heavy Load Member

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    Not a current driver, but used to be an overnight road breakdown agent for a trucking company which had a reefer division, and our reefers were about 2/3 Carrier, 1/3 Thermo King. Those Carrier units were certainly more reliable than the TK units were, but when they DID break they caused me no end of problems trying to get them up and running, especially in the middle of the night! We had a large number of reefers running citrus from Florida to the NE, and I could always find techs to work on them along this route but, man, heading west there were some LOOOOONG stretches where there was NOBODY who could fix a Carrier unit! Once had to send a driver from Montana all the way to Fargo to get his Carrier serviced!

    I kept a notebook of places where I could at least have somebody try to fix a Carrier, mostly either truckstop shops or a few TK mobile guys who kept some Carrier parts in stock, but it was really spotty especially in the upper plains and the mountain states. Is it still like that today??
     
    scarecrowman01 Thanks this.
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  3. MRMTRANS

    MRMTRANS Light Load Member

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    Don't know for sure, but it used to be way more TKs than Carriers sold. Thus more Carrier service shops. If you change parts on a reefer before their expected life, you might keep the breakdowns down.
     
  4. Ex-Trucker Alex

    Ex-Trucker Alex Heavy Load Member

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    And, right there, you've just hit on the main reason why that company is no longer in business. I seriously think it was a conscious decision to just run the equipment into the ground then declare bankruptcy and just walk away......
     
  5. scarecrowman01

    scarecrowman01 Bobtail Member

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    Mar 16, 2024
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    I am in that similiar line of work and I can agree 100% to this.
     
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