Are you in the market to purchase a trailer, dry freight van body, reefer trailer, or some other type of trailer? Today we’re going to look at a dry freight van body checklist that may help you in deciding what type of body options would be most applicable for your purposes.
Questions and Answers For Consideration
To determine what kind of options you may need, and to help you with the decision-making process, we’re going to propose some focused questions. Your answers will help you determine what you need. The questions are very basic and not intended to be too terribly specific at this stage of the game.
Cargo
- To help secure cargo, should the walls or floor have attachment points?
- How can you best accommodate the car? What is the cargo height, width, and length going to be?
- What does the cargo weigh?
- Exactly what will “the cargo” entail?
Loading and Unloading
- Are vehicles loaded at ground height, dock height, or both?
- What are the heights of the docks that you will interface with?
- Will a two wheeled dolly, carts, or a pallet jack be used?
- For unloading and loading, will a forklift be used?
Lighting
- For daytime visibility, would a translucent roof make sense?
- Rather than a translucent roof, or in addition to it, should dome lights be added?
- For night time unloading and loading, would exterior work lights be useful?
- Side door – would you benefit from one? What size should it be? Where should the slide door be located (curbside or street side)?
Construction
- Which will be better for loading dock interface? A roll up rear door or a swing door?
- Is your application best served by a specific type of side wall construction: i.e.,Morgan Plate, fiberglass reinforced plywood (FRP), aluminum?
- Should a trailer hitch or a step be incorporated onto the rear bumper?
- To prevent paint abrasion from loading docks and to discourage rust, at the back, should you use a stainless-steel rear door frame?
- Would your truck benefit from curb appeal provided by stainless steel front radiuses?
Miscellaneous
- Does it make sense to include a power lift gate?
- To help facilitate unloading and loading, could you use a walk ramp?
- What about height restrictions? Are there any? (This applies to things like garage door heights.)
- Advertising – would you like to utilize your truck as a type of billboard? Can graphics be of assistance? Is there a special color requirement?
- A fuel saving nosecone – to justify the purchase of this, will your truck be driven enough miles annually?
At Mickey Genuine Parts, we carry just about every part imaginable when it comes to the transportation industry, trailers, reefers, dry van bodies, etc. If we receive your order by 2 PM Eastern Standard Time, we can expedite it the same day. Parts not in stock might take up to three days to ship. We routinely carry an inventory of used trailers for the frugal minded individual. Contact us to speak to one of our friendly, knowledgeable service representatives today.