After a lot of thought about my life and direction, I have decided to go down the owner driver route, I have a few financial difficulties to sort out but have made good progress this week with potential customers.
I have to make a couple of decisions that will decide on the contracts I can fulfill. I need a 100m3 straight frame which is no more than 4.0 metres. I didnt really want to go for a low height tractor, so I need to route out the best deals and specifications on a trailer.
The work I have found requires mega trailers but to get a normal mega I will have to be careful with destinations.
A 4.3 metre trailer in France or the UK is no problem, but that effectively bans me from the rest of Europe.
I have also thought about fridge work but my experience in fridges is limited to markets and a few froxen loads, where you dont even have to think about the loads.
I fancy a 13.6… 4.0 Euroliner with Michelin X one tyres and a Daf 530 XF but we all have dreams, I dont want any nightmares!
I think there is still a profit to be made from Europe, but I realise I need to be careful. Unless anyone knows different
Can I ask why you don’t want to go with a low height tractor, as for the kind of work you’re looking at it would seem almost obligatory? If you had a dual height fifth wheel you could still pull regular trailers if need be, plus a mega outfit gives you more flexibility for backloads - would be a shame to have to say no to a load just over the border if you’ve just tipped a 4.3m height outfit in Strasbourg. Why not optimise your work opportunites?
Forgive the question. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of experience and reasons for preferring a ‘normal’ height unit. Hope it goes well, whatever you choose to do
I use to have a step frame tilt on the turkey and greek work, but found when work was scarce it was me who sat still. That is until I got a straightframe tilt and found everyone wanted a step frame.
theres plenty of decent 2nd hand low ride units about, i think that would be your best option, i pull mega trailers, but only in the uk at the moment, so im running standard tractors.
It just seems as though everyone wants 100 cubes but to be fair I have only needed to make full use of all the trailer in the last 3 months.
An idea for someone with more money than me would be like a trailer pool, specially for owner drivers. That way if I need a stepframe curtain sider in Aberdeen, I can drop my trailer in the pool and use the step for a trip
When I had trucks before it was such a pain to swap trailers for a one off trip even though I had accounts with TIP and Central Trailer Rentco.
I will probably have a look at a low ride tractor as that seems to be the concensus from here.
Not sure I can add anything useful to this conversation but its an interesting thread. I am just starting out as an owner driver and am looking for a unit, and have been considering a low ride unit and high volume box. As being flexible is the key - and if you look at other EU trucks 80% are low, or lowish ride, so that tells me something about how the general market is going on mainland Europe.
I would be interested the reaction you get from dealers, as I contacted Renault last week about low ride units only to be told that they were like hens teeth, but I see there are some knocking around in the mags.
Just as a matter of interest do you know what is the optimum 5th wheel height for a volume 100m3 box, (to keep it at 4m)? Of course it depends on the trailer, but there seems to be two options 1050 (ish) , which can be acheived using a standard tractor with low profile tyres and low 5th wheel. And 950 (ish), which is true low ride?
funny that this post should come up now, only this week (saturday) i was talking to a driver with a daf superspace 530 pulling a mega trailer.
the tractor unit was standard except for the low profile tyres and low height fifth wheel. it had been altered after the purchase and had the axle ratio changed to keep the revs in the green, the trailer was a little bit different.
although it looked like any other mega it had a lifting roof so it could be loaded to the max and then the roof lowered down, the suspension set up accomodated for the trailer if pulled by a standard unit, you plugged the air lines into a different connector and it adjusted the suspension to make the rear of the trailer higher.
spot on package.
we had those mega cube low ride trailors with the double suzie at stagetruck, i shunted one in the yard with a standard tractor and it rolled all over the place and that was only at 5mph, i wouldnt fancy taking one loaded and at road speed out on the open road i would be chewing holes in the seat covers and none of the other lads fancied it either
chris
