Suggestions on how to pad this

[RSTrans]

Here is a picture of the bed and floor of my Transfer. The trailer floor looks identical. What I need to do is come up with an effective way to protect it from damage caused by hauling anything larger than 6" minus. Even 6" can ding the sides and floor or potentially go through because this is a material box that is 16 ga steel. The floor has two rails on it that the transfer runs up on and as you can see not flat. The bends are to give it strength with out having cross members to keep the truck light. I need this to be something removable yet will protect the rails and floor.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/ts2046/IMG_8754.jpg

[Big_Dave]

Old conveyor belting?

Rock quarries that have crushing operations usually sell their old belting that they can't use. Around here IIRC, it goes for a $1.00 a foot for 36" wide belting.

[RSTrans]

The thing about belting is that it tends to twist and move. I need something that will not allow dents so I can haul up to 2' minus rock, busted concrete and asphalt from time to time. I do not want to haul demo every day, just occasionally when there is nothing else going on.

[Rockjockey]

Around here, we buy a heavier steel box, knowing that the versatility makes up for the tonnage loss when hauling materials. People have also been known to buy two trailers, one for material hauling, and one for heavy duty work. Any easily removable 'pad' would easily remove itself with the load, which is why there is no such item available.

[PartTimeDweller]

What RJ said. What you loose in weight you gain in versatility. If it were me, I would put a liner in it an not haul big stuff. That way your tin foil box would last forever.

[Voyager]

Around here, we buy a heavier steel box, knowing that the versatility makes up for the tonnage loss when hauling materials.

When I was running dumps the company I drove for had two tub body trucks with the Hard-Ox lining and three square boxes without. The two with the Hard-Ox lining had few "golf ball mark" sized dings in them while the standard boxes were beat to hell. Thing is, with our trucks anyway, there was no real weight difference between them and we all hauled pretty much the same tonnage.

[RSTrans]

The issue is if you cannot haul 25.5 + then you do not work. There is no point in having a two piece truck that can haul the same amount as a SST (Superior Super Tag) or a Booster. If money wasn't an option I would purchase a truck with a demolition bed made out of 1/4" AR400 and built by Western Construction Components.

A liner seems like an option. Can you cut them? They way my floor is, it would require having strips because of the bends in the floor. Is it available in various thicknesses or just one? My transfer rails are about 3/4" tall which is what the trailer box sits on. The sides also are not flat and have bends for strength.

The way Jay designed the beds has some smart attributes and some really bad ones. With the way they put structural bends in the floor and sides it gave the box rigid strength with thin material. If it were a flat floor and sides it would have required cross members to keep the bed from bowing out and to give it the same rigid characteristics. The downside of this style bed is it is prone to dings and dents from material larger than 6". There is a 3mm bed available that holds up but you add too much weight to use the truck as a transfer if both boxes are that way. If I were to convert my road tractor in to a dump I would install a 3mm box on the truck and the transfer would be a light weight box. Anything I buy and build new will have a 10 ga. Rogue Convex box on it. They hold up better than the Superiors.

[Rockjockey]

Friday I was working on a job with my 10-wheeler with my light weight being 19,560 and my tires as they are I can legal a 15 ton load which is just shy of 50,000 gross. There were 3 Super-10's (tri-axles) working with me. Their weights only allowed them to haul between 13.5 and 15 tons each with their drop axles down. Call me crazy for seeing the issue here, but why on earth would you spend more money an hour to pay a truck that can't haul as much or the same as a truck with one less axle?

The contractor was complaining because the light weight of the lightest super-10 was the same as mine with my transfer trailer, 27,760. So let me get this straight we flood the local industry with trucks that are heavier, haul less and cost more an hour and push out the trucks that do the same or more? Yep that makes total sense to me. If you apply that same principal to everything else no wonder why our economy is so jacked up.

Same goes for the strong arms and transfers. The newer strong arms can haul 21 to 23 tons and the old transfers haul that too. I can see why you would go to boosters in that case. However why take a booster that hauls 21 over a transfer that can haul 26-28? Especially when it's the same rate?


Seems like the trucks you complained about here worked without being able to haul 25.5+. Maybe you just bought the wrong type of truck for the market you are in.