Trailers...New vs Used.

[Electric Chicken]

If you had to buy a dry van trailer today, would you rather have an older air ride or a newer spring ride?

The ideal is a newer air ride but let's pretend they don't exist because, effectively, they kind of don't right now.

 

[389 Hood]

Older air ride. Just go through the bushings first before putting it on the road. When those pivot arm bushing go bad, you have a chance to lose the axle right out from under the trailer. I have a pic of mine somewhere, maybe on my phone where the stub completely wore out the bushing. We only found it because when torqueing the lug nuts, the entire axle moved back and forth. It's something you cannot see even from underneath because of the plates the bushings are housed in.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Older air ride. Just go through the bushings first before putting it on the road. When those pivot arm bushing go bad, you have a chance to lose the axle right out from under the trailer. I have a pic of mine somewhere, maybe on my phone where the stub completely wore out the bushing. We only found it because when torqueing the lug nuts, the entire axle moved back and forth. It's something you cannot see even from underneath because of the plates the bushings are housed in.

My OCD would have me basically overhauling a used one. Mechanically at least, perhaps not cosmetically.

 

[389 Hood]

Not a whole lot mechanically to do. Brakes, suspension, electrical either works or it doesn't and the structural side of it. Buy something used in the south, or west/mid-west, not from the Rust Belt. Maybe a grocery wagon used by a southern chain.

 

[Mike]

Older air ride, depending on how old.

I would not be opposed to running a spring ride short term if I needed a trailer and a reasonable priced one was available.

 

[Electric Chicken]

How old would you all go for? You see these old ragged out boxes collapsing in the middle when a forklift rolls in. I wouldn't go that nasty.

At what point is structural integrity a real concern though? We pulled some older stuff at US Xpress and those were heavy loads up to 48k on the BOL (baby wipes and the extra light 579 day cabs can pull it off).

 

[Electric Chicken]

This conversation can be about all kinds of trailers though, I'm not just thinking strictly dry van.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Not a whole lot mechanically to do. Brakes, suspension, electrical either works or it doesn't and the structural side of it. Buy something used in the south, or west/mid-west, not from the Rust Belt. Maybe a grocery wagon used by a southern chain.

Speaking of grocery chains. A former bread trailer would be about perfect. They never see much weight. My brother in law hauls for a famous pastry shoppe and the only tandem axle trucks are the ones dedicated to the northeast. As in Connecticut and @GAnthony's pantry.

 

[Mike]

At 10 years old, you begin to deal with shippers rejecting them due to age. I would be looking newer than that

 

[mndriver]

Wouldn’t buy anything but brand new. I don’t want other peoples crap and I want the warranty for the electrical harness.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Wouldn’t buy anything but brand new. I don’t want other peoples crap and I want the warranty for the electrical harness.

Serious question do you think the price difference is worth it? In today's market and difficult acquisition.

 

[mndriver]

Serious question do you think the price difference is worth it? In today's market and difficult acquisition.

I’ve been buying brand new trailers since 2015. Even some of them were special ordered to my specifications. You’re going to get a biased answer. And I’ve done that for a reason.

 

[mndriver]

That list is towo reefer trailers, two step necks with ramps, two flatbeds, and one RGN

 

[389 Hood]

If you buy brand new, you better have the means to pay the payment. It's a tough nut to crack if you are lazy and don't want to work in the rain and cold.

 

[389 Hood]

I managed 5, 379 Petes all ordered and 2 step decks and 3 flats. All ordered, all brand new and it was a painful experience.

 

[mndriver]

The case for a box trailer.

Every time a forklift goes into that trailer to load it or unload it it’s the number of pallets times 4000 pounds hitting that subframe at the back of the trailer. It’s just natural. Some operators are better than others to not cause undue bouncing. So if you have 24 pallets on your trailer that’s 48 times that subframe has been hit


Now do that every time you load, and every time you unload. There’s only so much that that subframe can take. Somewhere around 5 to 7 years it is just wore out

 

[389 Hood]

Even more when you are parking a 100k piece of equipment on it and it goes on and off the tail.

 

[mndriver]

The case for open deck.

Same as it goes for a coil of steel. This thing weighs 41,000 pounds in a 14 foot space. That’s 20 tons my trailer is rated for 40 ton. If I was gonna run 60 to 80,000 pounds on the deck I would think twice about doing it because of the belly load.

I just watch somebody go north with a continuous pipe load probably 80,000 pounds in that coil. If not more because it was a 10 axle rig.


How has that frame been treated

 

[mndriver]

I started with eight-year-old driy vans, Eight-year-old reefer trailers. Fighting with busted up floors, God knows what they did to the wiring harnesses. The downtime to fix all of that crap cost me more than what the new trailers did

 

[Electric Chicken]

Thanks for the replies. Amazon's new stuff is mostly spring ride but they have a lot of rentals and some air ride older trailers.

With their loads being super light it's not really a thought on structural integrity, but I do know for ride quality I'd rather have the old one with the bags than the new one with leafs, usually making it a point to seek out the former if I'm just snagging an empty and it's my choice.

Putting my own money into it and possibly (likely) pulling heavier, it's a different thought process.

I'm still going to XPO once I'm fully signed up for the consistency so I can throw down for a sleeper, but once I have the sleeper the doors will be further opened and ultimately I do see having my own trailer.