trailer doors double swing out / roll up

Hello KaneCounty and welcome to the forum. I'm glad to finally have some company on here from SE Utah. (I'm from Dixie.)

There are very good reasons for having each type of door. Generally swing doors are found on OTR trucks that put in lots of miles between stops and usually use a dock for loading and unloading. It is not a given of course, but that is the norm. Swing doors fit right to the opening of the trailer, so you can load wider and taller loads through them.

But they do stick out a few inches when open. Not much, but it can make the difference in getting in to some docks, or having to do a "yard unload" or "street unload."

If the wind catches them, they become a big sail. I saw a driver hurt pretty bad when he wasn't watching what he was doing, and a wind whipped door hit him in the face.

Rollup doors are generally used for local pickup and delivery loads. They do have some issues as to taking up space that could be used for loads. As was mentioned, they get hit by fork lifts. A LOT. The roller channels get damaged, and the rollers eventually go to hell and have to be replaced. I've seen roll up doors that were stuck so bad they had to be opened with a fork lift. If the rollers lock up, or if the counter weights come off, they are near impossible for a person to open them.

Another true joy of roll up doors is snow and ice. If you have a trailer that has been roaded during bad weather, snow and ice tend to build up on the door. Not a big problem when it is closed and being opened. But after it has set open for a bit, and you go to close it, you can get a load of cold and wet right down on your head. It usually only takes once or twice to learn to watch for this.

It also provides entertainment to the old hands when you have a rookie driver or dock worker.

This was covered very well in other posts.

When you are talking about those "Utah Scenes," you are talking about trailers from DATS Trucking, the last company I worked for. Have you seen the wraps that say "You wouldn't cut off a train, why cut off a truck," and have pix of locomotives on the sides and back? How about those saying "Don't hang out in the NO ZONE?"

We have a small outfit over in St. George that actually does advertising on all their local trailers. The name of the trucking company does not appear on the trailers at all, just advertising.

This is also well covered in other posts in this thread, so I won't address it here.

That is the joy of small town living. We have had a few problems, but not usually here in Dixie. We have had lots of problems with vandalized trailers in Vegas, and of course in So Cal. It was real easy to tell if a trailer had spent time in LA, when we would get in a line haul trailer with gang-banger graffiti all over it.

Again, welcome to the forum!

 

Also the roll- up doors do not present as tight a fit as swing doors, and are not insulated. Therefore not suitable for refrigerated loads.Can also reduce loading height available in trailer.Swing doors probably make for a more rigid trailer considering they latch together and form a solid unit. Seems like roll up doors leak more, also.
A problem with advertising on the trailers can be with negative publicity. Say I have trailer with "XYZ" advertising on the side. I cut you off in traffic, or drive through a mud puddle and splash water on you, or cause a wreck, and you see "XYZ" on the trailer. You associate a bad experience with " XYZ", and have negative thoughts about "XYZ". That was explained to me by a president of a large manufacturing company, as they were considering putting a large logo on a truck I had working for them. Their legal department also was against the idea.
Many drivers do not want any special markings on their equipment, prefering to look like any other truck [ hard to identify ] in case someone files a complaint.

 

We use roll-ups for our food-service operation, but however, we have insulated bulkheads and a split level reefer unit. Front is -10, the fresh section is 34 and then the rear of the trailer is ambient. Swing doors on a reefer are usually 4" thick as the air from the unit goes to the back of the trailer above the freight, travels downward on the inside of the door frame and returns via the grooves in a trailer floor, cooling the load from all sides..

Swing doors are cheaper to maintain and replace, and like mentioned before, less prone to loading damage. Also, not mentioned, if freight shifts and lays against the door, it is next to impossible to get a roll-up open.

A trailer with a roll-up door has a box frame built for structural integrity on the rear, and are actually more stout than a swing door setup. Ever park not level and fight to get the latches shut on swings?

 

"A trailer with a roll-up door has a box frame built for structural integrity on the rear, and are actually more stout than a swing door setup. Ever park not level and fight to get the latches shut on swings"

You may be right, just always seems to me that the roll up trailers flex more. Possible the insulation made the swing doors sturdier. I just never cared to pull a trailer with a roll up door, even though they required less work. Seems like something was always going wrong with them ,they leaked a little, jammed up,shipper would not load them, or something.

 

Everything is about covered. The only thing I can add is if a rollup door has a short grab rope to close it, it can be a pain from the ground. The driver can be injured while he climbs up in there and grabs the rope and does a suicide jump.

 

Milk cannot be taken from a farms bulk tank if it is above 50 degrees. Actually most dairies around here will reject anything over 45 degrees.

 

That can be a problem too. I had a fork truck going into my trailer and he was raising the mast as he entered. The rope (short about a foot long) got caught in the mast and tore the door off....