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Watching the trailers
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Easy loading and unloading is one of the most essential factors when it comes to buying trailers. We look at some of the options available.
Words: Steve Banner
Box-bodied trailers can give their contents excellent protection against the elements, as well as offer comparatively good security, but they have one obvious limitation. In the majority of cases, they can only be loaded and unloaded through the rear doors. As a result, it takes longer to handle cargo, which also invariably means they have to be reversed up to a loading dock.
However, some box trailers are available with virtually untrammelled side access, allowing palletised loads to be forklifted on and off from ground level, but you will have to look long and hard up and down the UK's highways before you spot one.
Finnish manufacturer Ekeri is the key supplier of such trailers — the side doors on its products fold all the way back, leaving an aperture almost totally unobstructed. But sales in the UK are modest, and the factory only builds 600 trailers per year, sold in just seven countries.
Why so few?
So why aren't they more popular? Their drawbacks include cost and weight.
The vast majority of Ekeris sold on this side of the Channel are refrigerated, reveals Bob Wise, who has represented the company here for the past six years. "I've only sold two built to dry-freight specifications," he reveals.
"The fridges cost around 15% more than a conventional high-specification reefer trailer." he admits. "That makes selling them a bit tricky in the current economic climate. But the people who've already got them love them — it makes it easier for them to accept return loads no matter whether they are temperature-controlled or ambient — and they're spreading the word to other hauliers."
Capable of handling frozen as well as chilled consignments, a temperature-controlled Ekeri with doors down one side, grosses at 10.2 tonnes. One with doors down both sides tips the scales at a hefty 11 tonnes.
If you specify doors on each side, the final metre of length towards the back of the trailer is solid in order to maintain torsional rigidity. Specify them for just one side and the whole length opens up.
"Weight doesn't seem to be an issue for the vast majority of operators we've spoken to," explains Wise. "We've only had one tell us that our trailers are too heavy for his requirements. Curtainsider trailers are, of course, a lot lighter, but they don't offer the same level of security.
"The number of Ekeris in service in Britain runs well into double figures, and it's really only the price that's holding us back," he says. "Our cheapest model costs £44,000, compared with a curtainsider typically priced at around £16,000.
In defence of the product he markets, Wise points to its versatility.
"We've got one customer who carries
garments, and, as a consequence, sees four peaks a year in the volume of traffic he handles," he says. "So when he's not busy hauling clothing, he switches to palletised loads. He reckons that running Ekeris makes this much easier and he's got nine of them. He calculates that they're saving him 05,000 a year."
Then there is the speed of loading and unloading to consider. "The doors can be opened more quickly than a curtainsider's curtains," Wise explains.
They also offer more security against theft, he adds. A central-locking system is available that employs an air-operated cam-lock fitted to the side doors and an air-operated pin on the back doors in order to secure them.
Built to withstand Finland's tough winter climate, Ekeris are durable, says Wise. "We've never had to change the hinges between the doors," he states.
They also boast strong residuals, he claims, which help offset the steep initial cost. "I've known a five-year-old refrigerated example fetch as much as £40,000," he says.
An Ekeri can swallow 26 pallets. If you need more capacity then you can specify a double-decker. Sliding roofs are available too, and Ekeri also offers bodies on rigid chassis constructed to the same design as its trailers.
Pillar talk
If you need completely unobstructed side access and can't justify the cost of an Ekeri, then you can always opt for a curtainsider instead. "They're less than 1% more expensive than a conventional curtainsider and account for around 20% of our curtainsider output," says Don-Bur marketing manager Richard Owens.
They too have their drawbacks.
Since their roofs are only supported at each end, they have to be fairly heavy to prevent them from flexing. That can add as much as 500kg to the weight of the trailer, although a lot depends on the make and design used.
Tension on the curtains can cause the roof to flex undesirably too. To counteract this phenomenon. Don-Bur uses a two-section pre-bowed 13.39m-long cant rail.
"The curtains pull it down and the result is a straight roof," Owens explains. If a haulier is going pillar-less. then Don-Bur suggests that buckle-less curtains are specified.
"You can get a fair amount of bounce with a pillar-less trailer," he explains. "As a result, the straps in the centre of the span in particular may come undone, or a hook may come off the rave if the driver is on a bumpy road.
Buckle-less curtains pose fewer problems. "The tension is managed by a single cable and is constant and distributed evenly," says Owens.
Don-Bur has constructed a pillar-less version of its aerodynamic Teardrop trailer, and that is now on trial with an unnamed operator. "The company concerned has A A Scmitz Cargobull a globally recognised brand and is one of our existing freepost traiter customers," he says.
Keeping the curvature of the roof constant was a challenge, Owens admits.
The risk of flexing means that many hauliers prefer pillar-less curtainsiders to be of bolted, rather than welded, construction.They worry that welds may start to crack under the strain.
One operator who has opted to go down the pillar-less route is Willenhall.West Midlands-based Mainline Haulage. It specialises in providing contract distribution to the paper industry. It runs six pillar-less, bolted, Montracon trailers and has four more on order. "It's the speed of loading and unloading that appeals to us," says managing director Ron Aiken.
"OK, you do pay a slight weight penalty, but the maintenance costs are lower," he continues. "You don't end up with pillars getting bashed and twisted and having to be replaced."
"A lot of operators don't like pillars because of the risk that they'll get walloped by forklifts,agrees Paul Bratton. sales director at SDC Trailers.
Pillar-less trailers also offer a safety advantage, says Aiken. particularly over those with movable pillars.
"I've seen drivers injured in the past because they've been thumped in the face by a pillar," he says."There's the risk of people trapping their fingers. Even the best-designed roof support systems can he potentially dangerous."
However, that is less the case with modern curtainsider trailers contends Steven Cartwright, managing director of Cartwright Group "We pre-stress the roof to ensure the pillar doesn't shoot out and take somebody's nose off," he says.
"These days I think the danger of pillars continually causing injuries and trapping lingers is a bit of an urban myth," reckons Bratton.
Around 60% of the curtainsiders Cartwright Group build are pillar-less, says Cartwright, and are sold under the Clearspan banner:They are bolted together.
"We've been producing pillar-less trailers for more than 10 years," he says.
-With Clearspan, the roof is heavier than you'll find on standard curtainsiders -it's steel and operators pay a 250kg to 300kg payload penalty as a result," he continues. "However, there's no cost penalty."
Not to be outdone, Schmitz Cargobull has redesigned its UK-built Freepost pillar-less curtainsider.
It features a roof constructed from thin-gauge galvanised steel sheets in place of the aluminium sheeting used in the past. As a consequence, it is stronger, lighter, easier to manufacture, and easier to repair too if there is a mishap says the company. •