What Are The Disadvantages of a Conestoga

Height and width can sometimes be issues. It would be better if we knew more about your operation. If you're hauling random spot freight it's going to cost you some loads.

 

Oversize, and you've go a balloon affecting your mileage

 

This I would think is spot on. Do you have some connections or spot market?

 

The worst two things about conestogas is unless you are loaded perfectly something will almost always hang and you can’t shut it without moving stuff. The other thing that happens is something shifts a bit while driving and you can’t get it open. That’s really fun. Oh and the third thing is they have a stiff rubber seal running along both sides where you run the straps through and they make it a royal pain to strap. Takes at least twice as long. The fourth thing is if you catch a limb you can rip it. Quite honestly tarping actually isn’t that bad. I pull a flatbed or conestoga all the time and I’ll take a regular flatbed all day long.

 

Yes worse than a box, see that tarp flapping in the wind going down a road, that is wasted energy, they are also lighter than box trailers and get thrown around more..

 

That's a good idea. If you're hauling freight that's well within the dimensions of the kit you'll have no clearance issues. I lost about 1mpg when I had one installed.

That's 1mpg all the time...both empty and loaded. So you will take a decent fuel hit after installation.

Backing with one can be challenging in tight areas do to your additional width and also your line of site will be blocked by the kit itself. You may have to add mirror extensions.

 

Width was always a thing that I hated about them. The ones I pulled were 108" wide, anytime I had to bump a dock with it I always found myself offset to the driver's side because I was slightly angled trying to see the rear of my trailer in the mirror. Also, Jersey has a 102" restriction on I80. I never got jammed up over it but I'm sure if DOT was being picky they would pull you.

I hauled a lot of lumber back out of New England, a lot of it they would stack to 13'6" on an open flatbed. They'd get irritated when you came with a Conestoga cause it'd have to be a bit shorter. For steel hauling though, they were the way to go.