Christmas Tree Loads...Do they pay well?

20,000 pounds vs a van floor?

To me Ive been taught you can maybe bridge 12,000 pounds on 15 feet or 20 but 20K? That's alot. Correct me if Im going off the deep end on this assumption which I should not be making.

I enjoy learning from your posts. However. In one company we hauled freuhauf flatbeds with very large wood planks with all sorts of daylight (Makes me wonder about the tarping in the rain...) under the pallets on the premise that if a plank is really bad, chop it out and drop a new one down.

 

I can't remember exactly how heavy the loaders were. I do remember all the pictures of trailers where they had broken through the wooden floor. These were basically robot forklifts loading palletizing bottled water.

There were no people inside the warehouse loading the trucks it was all automated. Lots of breweries and bottled water places are fully automated loading like this to cut labor costs. Those robot forklifts are really heavy (guessing 2x or 3x heavier than typical non-automated loaders) and they have preloading inspection standards to ensure they don't break through the floors of trailers.

One of those is if there is any daylight coming up through the wood floor from hairline cracks or whatever then most likely that floor isn't going to hold up. Another is any trailer 10 years old or older is rejected out of hand regardless if it looks pristine or not. If you had patches from repair work on the floor I believe was also cause for rejection.

This is a warehouse loading bottled water out of Plainfield, IN close to the Indianapolis international airport. I'm sure lots of drivers on this forum that have done any dry van out of that area have been there and know what i'm talking about. It cost me a decent load once with my old trailer that I sold, was why I remembered and why I don't wash out my new one ever.

 

Some wood floors in trailers are sealed with a clean clear coat.. they look nice, wish they were all like that

 

It's a spec. With Great Dane (and most others) it comes standard they seal the first 8 feet of the floors close to the doors. It helps protect against weathering at places where trailers are dropped empty with the doors wide open to the elements. You can spec to have the entire floor done that way but practically no fleets or dealer spec trailers out here are spec'd with it. That's a one off spec some picky operator would get. I spec'd a trailer with the whole floor sealed like that but didn't pull the trigger on it. The sealer stuff makes the wood very slippery. Broom slides across it like it's greased.

 

spec'd? ok

I've seen entire floors done on a few, can't say the manufacturer did all or part of em. looked as though the work was done after on some. perhaps an off day for the trailer shop though some look real good No not all are like that. just a plian old natural wood surface

 

xmas tree leads... excuse me..

carry on

 

A lot of paper mills that ship roll stock are picky like that about the trailers too. Some of those rolls weigh 10,000 lbs plus the weight of the forklift big enough to pick it up. That's a lot of pressure centered on one little spot of the floor. If it were my equipment I wouldn't like it.

 

Sorry off on a tangent related to the topic.

 

I had my trailer cracked like that. Forgot to slide the tandems and had to spend $1200 on the damage repair. Now I dont even move those loads anymore

 

Yes it's a specification where you sit down with the dealer and tell them how you want your equipment built. The first 8 feet is standard treated an entire floor treated costs more. It's not so much a sealant that is sprayed or brushed on, not with Great Dane. It's actually some sort of pressure treatment process before the wood is installed.