Box Truck, Enclosed or flat trailer

[johnschaeffer]

I am still fairly new into the granite industry. I opened my granite business just under three years ago, and have always transported on a 5x14 tandem axle with drop ramp pulled with a cargo van holding tools. Our town is not a city so parking trailers is not an issue. What does most people prefer to transport on. I have thought about buying a box truck b/c the thought of granite riding on a suspension instead of bouncing on a trailer sounds good... however I would not be able to load the jobs with fork lift and boom like we are now. What is everyone else using, and I would LOVE to see pictures of your setups for install rigs.

[HurricaneWayne]

chevy 3500 flatbed. Bed is 12 feet. Will hold 2 aframes and all tools needed. Gas mileage sucks. You can put over 6000 lbs on them.

[Jesse]

Hey John, Not to try to push another $250 on a guy but someone as new as you in the industry should pay the membership and get into the members lounge. This topic has a HUGE thread on it with MANY different opinions. But that is just the surface of the knowledge that you will gain in the lounge being new to the business....I will pay off 10 fold...just my 2 cents. FWIW I use a diesel truck and enclosed trailer but wish I had a low van of some kind. sprinter etc.

[HurricaneWayne]

X2

[Curtis R. Marburger]

X3

this topic has been hammered away to the enth degree in the members only section and the topic is still fresh and going on.

spend the 250 bucks to join and if you feel not worth it lets us know

[innstone]

Just bought a enclosed trailer after using a trailer like you are using now.
We are setting it up next week & I will post pics in the members forum as soon as I get it done.
It is a 7'x16' with the extra height. We will still keep the flatbed trailer for occasional slab pickup or oversized installs.

[ash20ash]

Enclosed with swinging doors for me. Check out the members lounge stuff. You will not be disappointed.

SFA membership has saved me ten's of thousands of dollars over the last 8 years. Best 250 you will ever spend for your shop

[johnschaeffer]

I am now a paying customer, yet I really don't see any answers to my original post on here. I would still love to see pics of how ppl's enclosed trailers and box trucks are layed out... also I don't see the topic of how much of a headache is loading and unloading really large pieces into these box trucks... (right now we use our boom to lad the large pieces onto our trailer, and MOST of our kitchen jobs all have larger islands)

[Dan R.]

Look in the Member's Lounge.'

If you do not see a topic being discussed, start a thread with that topic.

[GuyboR]

Here are a few links to look at.

http://forum.stonefabricatorsalliance.c ... =8&t=17081
http://forum.stonefabricatorsalliance.c ... 6&p=180415
http://forum.stonefabricatorsalliance.c ... f=8&t=6685

[Brian Briggs]

Over the years we had used flat bed, utility bed, standard truck bed, van and box truck

Flat bed - lots of room around the a frame bed was too high in comparison to others for off loading
Utility bed - no room around a frames, nice to have storage for all tools
Truck bed - no room around a frame, no room for tools
van - hated bending over so much (hell on back)
Box truck - was our favorite. Plenty of room (we used side frames so aisle was clear), plenty of room for any tool you could possibly need, easy to unload with the ramp

Just my 2 cents

[Chris Mills]

Sprinter is the way to go in my opinion. In the thread that Guy pasted for you you will see pictures of the1 ton Sprinter with dual wheels in there. That is mine. If you have any questions that I can help you with message me your info and I'll get in touch with you.

[Mid mich]

we call it the lead slead, 16 long 7 wide 6 1/2 high barn doors. Made by stealth with extra heavyduty axles . Pulled by a 2004 f250 goes anywhere hauls anything and if it don't we have a flatbed with a nuckle boom that can handle a whole slab pcs. its our second trailer first one was 14 foot just blew it apart after 6 years of two kitchens a day being hauled throughout Michigan. we had two steel half a frames mounted to each side wall 3 2x12 lay flat on floor for pcs to rest on 2x6 bolted to a frames for screwing secureboards . Before that we had the yellow fellow, a box van to high but it had its perks to lots room and of course chevy pickup with wood a frame and every install tool just crammed in. truck and trailer is the way to go we can fit our whole three pcs job on one side along with bs . and a massive 76 x 120 island on the other . we just did a three story hotel and fit 30 60x80 shower back wall panels per trip plus 24 30x80 side panels in one trip