Heavy Duty Trucking, July 2015

Trailers Bodies There are other options Aluminum is sometimes specd by operators for use in regions where rain is frequent like the Pacific Northwest Steel is occasionally used for especially high strength Composite floors that combine hardwood with a synthetic material are gaining attention because they shrug off moisture and road salts and are lighter in weight than straight hardwood Laminated hardwood is made from 100 oak which is dried for 90 to 100 days just like baking a cake Carr says You cant do it too fast or too slow Its a series of sticks cut to take out defects that naturally are found in wood Its cut to 1 to 1 1 4 inch wide sticks that are glued together The glue is charged by electricity and panels come out 8 feet wide by 48 feet long Then theyre cut into individual boards and machined to the style the customer wants Shiplap joints with step like grooves fit together on the sides so they transfer loads among them then theyre cut along the edge to mate with the side rail of the trailer Boards are bolted to crossmembers positioned every 12 inches or less Havcos Fusion composite floor has an oak laminate top and an epoxy fiberglass material adhered to the bottom with polyurethane resin machine pressed and electrically cured Carr says Its considerably stronger and weighs 16 less than a straight hardwood floor of the same size partly because the wood portion can be thinner For a 53 foot van the saving would be about 300 pounds An application of tough undercoating can provide protection but without the weight savings and Havco offers one as an option Prolam uses what it calls P u R undercoating a hot melt polyurethane material that it says stood up to eight years of assault by road salts in the Northeast with very little degradation The most common hardwoodlaminate floor thickness is 1 3 8 Door and floor manufacturers HARDWOOD LAMINATE FLOORING Havco 615 585 2331 www havco com Prolam 508 316 1970 www prolamfloors com Rockland 865 982 8377 www rocklandflooring com DOORS Diamond Roll Up Door 419 294 3373 www diamonddoor com Fleet Engineers 231 767 3003 www fleetengineers com Todco 740 383 6376 www todco com Trans Global 419 396 9079 www transglobaldoor com Whiting 716 542 5917 www whitingdoor com Some trailer makers offer their own doors and floors as well Wabash for instance has subsidiaries that produce both to make sure the wall can hold the floor up We put posts on 8 inch centers Less frequent loading would require less heavy duty specs Vans built for leasing companies are general purpose more like the long haul trailer he adds But the leasing company may ask for a certain spec for a particular operation Keep in mind that the floor is a system says TMCs Recommended Practice 723A and that load requirements and recommendations should be fully examined with the help of your trailer manufacturer and flooring supplier inch and 1 5 16 and 1 1 2 inches are also used All aim to support given forklift loadings based on weight on the two wheels of its forward axle A 24000 pound rating is rather substantial but ratings of 30000 pounds and more can be had Dry and wet shear testing are what I expect a good floor manufacturer to do says Charlie Fetz of Great Dane Trailer Trailer manufacturers he says test the floor for forklift loading and frequency of loading once a day or several times a day Providing the right information to a trailer maker on a fleets specific operation will lead to the proper floor The more information the trailer company can get the better they can help the customer When specing trailer floors the application what it will carry where it will run and how often it will be loaded and unloaded in a typical day is very important Those details will determine the floor thickness and number of crossmembers that support it among other things The most important factor in extending the life of the floor is making sure you spec the floor for the application its most used for says Stoughton spokesman Scott Nachreiner If a higher floor rating is needed you will need a thicker floor and narrower crossmember spacing Stoughton offers a chart with the options and what ratings those options will give For instance explains Great Danes Fetz The long haul drop and hook guy will buy steel crossmembers on 12 inch centers and 1 3 8 inch laminated flooring with posts on 12 inch centers with sheet and post walls or composite sides For a shuttle operation hauling 7000 pound rolls of paper the axle weight of the forklift approaches 30000 pounds and hes loading the trailer eight times a day So we spec steel crossmembers on 6 inch centers and a 1 1 2 inch floor But you have 84 HDT JULY 2015 www truckinginfo com