How cold should a unit go? Buying a reefer trailer very soon

Really? Maybe that's why they're out of business. First trailer I bought was a 2000 Trailmobile, before I knew better. Never again. The good news is that there's enough out there that break a lot, so parts dealers are usually well stocked.

On that one (got rid of it this past summer) the floor was going bad. Not worth fixing. It had an '04 Carrier XTC with nearly 20k engine hours still running like a rock star. The guy I sold it to had two more Trailmobiles in his fleet and took it for a spare reefer and trailer parts.

 

Just to add: The reefer is a heat pump. It's pretty dumb and doesn't know absolutes other than the set point. In other words, reaching a given set point is meaningless without considering the ambient temp to figure the number of degrees dropping and how long it takes.

The time it takes to drop a given number of degrees is a good measure of the health of the unit. The absolute drop possible in 45-60 minutes is a good indicator of trailer health (insulation and seals). A healthy reefer on a decent trailer will drop 70-80º in under an hour. So on a sunny 90º summer day, you should see it get down to +10º before it starts to struggle (further drop is creeping down very slow if at all). As already mentioned, pre-cooled product on board makes that go a lot better and can mask a weak unit: less air volume to cool plus a mass of product that is already at an ideal temp.

Seriously.. a reefer that struggles with a 60º drop (+60ºF down to 0ºF), is a claim waiting to happen. On a 60º day you should easily hit -20º in under an hour (80º drop).

 

Certainly everyone is going to going to have different experiences with different brands of trailers. The Trailmobile we own, is still going strong. We have put well over a million miles on this trailer. We did install a new unit in 2011 due to C.A.R.B and worries of being fined. The '99 unit ran just fine. As far as the floor, we did have it checked and to our surprise, the crossmembers are NOT made of wood. They are a bone colored plastic composite i-beam. For parts, well the suspension is Hendrickson, which can be purchased @ any trailer parts house. Brakes are common as any other brake system. Trailer doors still close tight and seal great. We own a new Great Dane with a Hendrickson suspension and brakes look the same. Both trailers make same noise as forklift goes in and out.

 

0 is not really that cold when it comes to reefer trailers. Minimum for us hauling from a Walmart DC is -5 in the winter, and -10 in the summer. Ice cream is normally being held at -20. Have to agree with the consensus so far that the 2000 hours has to be on a rebuild. Have a 10 year old unit and it has well over 40k hours on it so those numbers seem a little low. Additionally, we're running dual temp trailers so I'm hauling half a trailer of frozen and half a trailer of fresh dairy products. Makes for an interesting move. I monitor my loads closely and adjust my temps to match the readings when we check the product at the first drop. For example, the fresh is going out at 35 but the secondary evaporator doesn't have the capacity the main has so if I'm seeing below freezing temps, I will raise it a couple of degrees.

 

Also looking for a wagon, Utility in Dallas says they have some Gordon trailers coming in over the next week or so. How are they with maint etc?
Thanks in advance.

 

There are also a ton of FFE (FeeFee) trailers in Dallas (surprise surprise) you can buy them buy the dozen for 10/11k range.