Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

Speaking of fontaine, guess I'm gonna buy one of these.

Funny thing: I have the same one as a 2007. Gonna need a refurbishment tho. Prior owner only used it in winter and never washed it :'(

Hard to justify the extra $10k for all aluminum.

I need a spare anyway.

 

With an 18" king pin set back wouldnt one with a 40ft lower deck be better?

I have a 53' with 43' lower deck and honestly couldnt imagine less than 40' down there. Do you need 10' on the upper deck? I rarely use it and when I do,.. I almost never need more than 8' up there. My tarps and dunnage almost never get moved.

EDIT:
I have pretty much the identical 53' version. Infinity with the X-beam cross support for coils etc. Rated 80,000 lbs.

Mine has been a pretty decent trailer. One of the hub seals had a minor leak. And recently the air chamber that controls the lock pins for the sliding rear axle stopped working. I've slid the rear axle maybe 4 times in total,.. so I am sure its from lack of use.

Other than the way they mount the lights (Rivets,.. difficult to service) I have no complaints. It tracks true and very predictable when backing up.

Hurst

 

Time is important. Don't have time to order one or it'd be quite different. I use the whole deck. Top n bottom.
18" kingpin is what mine is. It's fine.

 

When talking to the salesman I pointed out the two flaws I see in my current infinity:
The proprietary wiring harnesses and the proprietary winches.
Several brands rivet light housings in. Dumb, but I don't design them.
I swapped my axles from grease to oil bath earlier this year.

 

Well I had to open my big mouth. I had a snap binder pop open on me today. Got hitch pins in the ones that I didn't have slack to wrap around.

 

Doubled up baling wire. Cheap. Never fails...............

 

It can happen. Same as a strap can come loose,.. so to can chains and binders.

Its good that you caught it and saw that it happened. Now you can share the feeling I had the first time it happened to me. I use bungee to wrap the arm. Not 100% sure on the legality of using bungee,.. so if you do use it and DOT jumps your case or writes you up over it,.. do not be angry with me. I'm not telling you to use it,.. only that I do and have had good results.

If someone could find anything on wrapping snap binder arms with bungee regarding DOT,.. I would be very thankful. I looked and couldnt find anything. I have had 2 different inspections,.. once with an over size at a scale house. Another pop inspection at a rest area in Ohio. Both times I had snap binders with bungee wrapped around the arm and neither said anything about it. I'd like to ask them one day,.. but not when I have them wrapped and could be written up over it. Dont ask dont tell is how I usually handle DOT. I never volunteer anything. Thank you sir,.. yes your right sir,.. have a nice day sir.

Hurst

 

Ya when I found it it was hanging by one hook. Lucky I didn't loose a binder. It was really fun redoing that chain to. Had about half an inch of road grimy ice coating everything I had to bust off first.

 

I hear you on the icey chains and binders. Thats always fun.

Hopefully you get a laugh out of this.

Here is how dumb I was when I first started with flatbed.
I would keep my ratchet binders on the back of my headache rack just hanging there freestyle. After about the second day,.. I noticed 2 of the ratchets had the ends fall out. One landed down in my lower bin,.. the other is probably still on the side of I80 in Iowa somewhere. Thankful it didnt hit another vehicle.

Learned to either hang chains in the lower hooks,.. or run a bungee through them to keep them from unscrewing. Then I learned that if I planned to keep them back there during inclement weather,.. it would be prudent to spray some lithium grease or at least some WD40 periodically to prevent them from drying up and becoming difficult to use. Thats my rookie lesson of the day. LOL

Hurst

 

What was involved with doing that,.. did you have to replace the axles or can the current hubs be modified?

Mine says maintenance free hubs. But as I already had a leak in one last year,.. I dont think anything is truly maintenance free. Mine is a 2012 registered as a 2013.

What tires are you using on yours.
I recently switched from Yokohama and now using the BF Goodrich ST230 exclusively. I'm seeing 120k miles out of them plus no pitting after 50% tread like the Yoko's were doing. No uneven wear either.

Just curious if you know of anything else in the $380 - $400 range that works well. I cant see buying $560 tires that dont last any better.

Hurst