i know we have a few commercial drivers, wondering if anyone has any experience with reefers? we have an aging fleet. we haven't bought a new trailer in 10 years so i don't know much about the new stuff, but here is what i have found with our equipment.

(2) 1986 trailmobile 48' with thermo king SBIIs. man what a trailer, these have an estimated 4-5 million miles on them and the hourmeters have turned over or been replaced. they are still struturally sound and still cool. the doors are a bit stiff and the reefer motors smoke a bit but they're paid for! i am wondering if trailmobile still makes a good trailer. their siblings were either wrecked or had the reefer grenade.

(20) 1988-1992 great dane 48' with thermo king SBIIs and SBIIIs. a few with SBIII SRs. these trailers do not last as long as the trailmobiles. every great dane i've seen that is more than 10 years old has either had its 5thwheel plate replaced, or needs to. the aluminum frames crack and bend badly and the steel ICC bumpers are terrible, they rot and fall off. i've replaced most of them with 8' 1/4" wall square steel tube. the stainless ones of course hold up better but weigh a ton. the thermo king units seem to require more work than comparable carrier units, the smart reefers always have trouble codes whereas the carriers are always... running and cooling.

(16) 1996-1998 wabash 48 and 53' with thermo king SBIII SRs and carrier phoenix units. again same problems with the SRs, the carriers have much more uptime. structural intergrity of the trailer is great. i wonder how they'll be when they're as old as the great danes? not old enough yet to tell.

our experience has been that great dane is pretty much junk anymore and wabash/fruehauf are pretty much a great trailer. we had (sold) 20 1997 53' great dane thermacubes that rusted, bent and fell apart. we have a few newer rental great dane super seals and they have the same bumper problems. primarily we are looking at wabash, utility and trailmobile in that order. wondering if anyone has any data or links, i can't find any. at 50k each these are a huge investment and have to last 20 years, no joke. i know they don't make trailers like they used to but i am wondering if anyone even still makes a trailer that lasts 20 years like the old trailmobiles and fruehaufs.

 

Looks like not many have experience with this...

Can't help you much on today's trailers-
In the '70's I had a <8 yr old 40ft. Fruehauf reefer hauling swinging beef that put the 5th pin and plate right thru the floor. Traded it in on a Utility.
In the 80's, had a <4 yr old 32 ft. Trailmobile end dump that cracked both frame rails in half (seperate times). Traded it in on a Dorsey.

So, they didn't even last 20 years back then!

Check what other SMALL fleet owners are running...
The big boys just buy on price only.