New to this Can i haul dry freight in a refridgerated trailer?

I picked up a load in San Antonio TX of furniture in a 48' Reefer. Load required a 53' Dry Van. Took me 5 hrs to get loaded, they had to unload and reload several times, and if they had to unload one more time they were going to unload it all and send me away. When I questioned my boss about it, they said yes the load required a 53 but we decided to take it anyway and we knew you had the 48' trailer.

Next person I worked for sent me to pick up a load also needed a 53 Dry Van and I had a 48 Reefer, I turned the load down when I seen it. They had it loaded on a 53 to the Door. I told the shipper It will not fit.

But if I were to buy another Truck and buy a trailer I would buy a Reefer so I could haul both dry and Ref.

 

Some engineers recommend Even a well built trailers life span, is 15 years.

 

I would honestly pay money to see the idiot Russian that unloaded up at Kohler industries do that. He had one of them dry van in a reefer moments. Showed up trying to load something didn't ask what they needed a dry van so they could nail into the floor guy (who at that time couldn't speak much English) said "you can nail it." NO ITS ALUMINUM! Finally the driver got p.o.d and left after yelling at one of the loaders in Russian. I caught up with him at the truck stop. Have to say he spoke pretty good fricken English when he ordered his breakfast sub from subway. Lady behind the counter thought so too.

 

Yes you can. You will be turn away at some paper places because a reefer has tendency to hold mositure. And the ridges in the floor.

 

One thing to consider is some loads are weight sensitive.

Most dry loads tend to load around 44-45K.

Most reefer loads are about 42-43.5K. Just reduced enough to allow for a reefer unit to be on the trailer.

Spec'd correctly, you can still run a reefer and haul a dry load without too much concern of weight.

 

With the new Utility reefer and Carrier unit, I can scale up to 46k with my '06 Freightliner Century. And I mean, right to the 80k mark with full tanks if my reefer isn't all the way full. I did it once. Always surprises me now when I see 45k loads and I still have about 1k of play in the weight. My old Great Dane wouldn't let me scale more than 44k, mostly from water weight from age.

Big thing with dry freight in a reefer, is watch the pallet count. Do not accept a load if they require 30 pallet positions unless they are extra gentle putting the pallets on. The inside trailer is usually 96", and two pallets sideways is 96". My old Great Dane met it's maker thanks to one careless punk smashing my sidewall with a load I wasn't aware was 30 skids. Because of the age of the trailer and the already scrapes, cuts, dents, etc in it, wasn't able to collect on the damages as it was claimed to be 'like that already'. In the end, I had to get a new trailer and will never haul 30 skids again. 28 pinwheeled is the most I'll do. And I tell each and every one... STAY OFF MY WALLS. A few haven't listened. But, I'm not about to let them damage my $57k investment.

 

And how do you do that? They load you, you can't see the damage until it's too late and you are at the consignee.

At the consignee, do ALL of them let you on the dock?

I rarely am allowed anywhere NEAR the dock when they unload or load me.

And it pisses me off too. Last week, some fool stuck a barrel clamp through my wall. One of two stops, but not sure which of them did it....Wasn't there when I loaded and all the way to the front of the trailer. Both places claim it was already there.

 

What? I always watch being loaded or unloaded, how do you know what happens if you're not allowed on the dock? If being loaded, do you pull the truck out and then climb around and verify the count?

 

Some of the places we go to, you back in with the doors closed, you pull out with the doors closed AND SEALED.
Others, they come out, unlock your glad hand, walk to the back of the trailer, close the doors amd seal it before you get out of the truck.

Hauling some foods, they have rather tight security measures. Not all places are so free.

 

If your trailer is loaded properly, it's hard for the receiver to damage things when pulling pallets off.

And yes, I am on the dock 95% of the time when loading. The few times I'm not are secured clean facilities and I mandate exactly how the trailer is to be loaded, and if they put things against the wall, I will ##### a fit and refuse to sign anything nor leave. Usually, I'm on the dock, and watch them, and they put the pallets right where I want. One costumer was irate that I wanted to watch him load my trailer. Yelling at me and telling me to do it myself.

I just won't be back there again. Or, I'll request my 'go screw yourself rate' and see if they bite.

In the 8 months I've had my new trailer I have ONE mark on the wall, and it's a small scratch where a double-stacked pallet touched the wall. Just cosmetic. And several scrapes along the 16" skid plates on the sides from pallets, but again basically cosmetic because the blue chep paint rubs off.

I'm not about to let my new trailer wind up like my old trailer. And, more than once, I've told them to pull the stuff off my trailer if they didn't follow my requests. And each time, the loader relented and agreed my way was fine (once pinwheeling 28 skids instead of loading them sideways). Will I ever go back there? Probably not. But, it was an one-time weird load that wasn't worth damaging my trailer for.