Trailer modification

So lately with the onion and potato season among us, I have been having to leave a lot of loads out of the option for me because I did not have a vented van.

My great Dane came with "pigeon hole" vents, but not "produce" vents. The brokers I was talking to said I needed 100 in^2 or larger vents.

Great Danes don't come with those kind of vents. At least, the parts guys at Great Dane I talked to told me that.

My options were to either keep my pigeon holes (not a good option) or find a way to put in "produce" vents.

First off, these are NOT cheap vents. So I balked at the idea a couple of weeks ago when I really started to get into this.


But when you are loosing freight that pays good rates, it starts to really look different.

Most dealers I talked to, wanted $200 to $275 per vent. Depends which one you got. The ones in the front were more expensive than for the door. It also comes with an interior trim piece. I got my vents from Kiezer's in Sioux City IA. I stopped in and talked with their parts guy about them, hesitated until I had a better idea what some of the other things I was getting done this week and then had him ship them up to me. Spee-Dee delivery is TOPS over any other expediter in my book.

Sorry I didn't take during pictures, but if you are an O/O and have the option of putting these in, do so. It's as easy as drawing a line around a box and cutting a hole with a reciprocating saw. My back door is steel lined and chewed up the 100 tooth blade for plywood I had. The 6 TPI recip blade cut it like no tomorrow.

I used a 4" grinder with a thin kerf cut-off blade for the front and the recip blade to get the plywood on the inside to start. I used the Circular saw to do the final cutting on the inside when I put the trim piece in.

All the vents were caulked when installed with clear silicone caulking for weather-proofing.

They were fastened to the trailer with 3/16" pop-rivets.

I still need to find a "cable" retainer or some other option to hold the vent on the door open. I will also likely have to add steps to the front so I can get up to open and close the front vent.

And that's how I spent my first day this week at home.

Before
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After

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My next big modification will be to add a lift assembly to the front axle on the hendrickson Air-ride for the trailer.

I pull enough light loads, I think it would make sense. That I am not sure if I will do myself, or plan to let the mechanics I have doing my work do.

 

thinking he's referencing this one.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ing-forum/188704-lift-axle-for-flatbed-2.html