10 ways to enhance your trailers

Many high-profile efforts to enhance trailers tend to focus on improving aerodynamics or reducing weight. That’s understandable – particularly in an era of high diesel costs and demands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But they are not the only ways to improve your freight-carrying assets. Consider the following options as just a few examples:

1. A second floor

Regulators limit overall vehicle heights to 4.15 metres, but it’s still possible to create a second floor inside a trailer by including options such as Ancra’s Lift-a-Deck II or the Kinedyne K2 Kaptive Beam. The chance to carry an extra layer of freight will be valuable for fleets which cube out before reaching maximum allowable weights, or when dealing with damage-prone cargo that can’t otherwise be stacked.

2. Tire monitoring and inflation systems

Proper tire pressure plays a role in everything from tread life to fuel economy. According to the SmartWay program, fuel economy can drop as much as 1% for every 10 psi below recommended air pressures.

Automatic tire inflation systems including models from Meritor, Dana, Hendrickson and Vigia will draw on a vehicle’s air system to top up trailer tires as needed.

Another option is to track the pressures and ask drivers or maintenance teams to add the air. Shaw Tracking, for example, recently announced a partnership with Advantage PressurePro. The result is a system that monitors tire pressures remotely or from the cab.

3. Enhanced landing gear

SAF-Holland’s landing gear with the sealed NoLube option will not need any extra grease for five to 10 years. The elevating screw is surrounded by a sealed grease tube, while shaft seals on the driveshaft and crankshaft bushings hold back water, dirt and other contaminants. Landing gear with the option enjoys a lifetime warranty on defects and workmanship as a result.

Prime Transport Solutions, meanwhile, has recently been demonstrating the PTS50 pneumatic landing gear that can be raised in just five seconds at the push of a button. Forty pounds are saved by eliminating the hand crank, while maintenance-needy screw and nut mechanisms also disappear.

4. Added stability

Antilock Braking Systems (ABS) introduced a way to keep equipment on a straight and narrow path by preventing locked wheels. Roll Stability Controls build on these by monitoring lateral motion and selectively applying the brakes to help prevent rollovers. Bendix is taking this a step further by making the case for full Electronic Stability Controls which add a yaw sensor to show how a vehicle is twisting around a central point. Meritor-WABCO systems, meanwhile, include self-learning functions that compensate for wearing tires and alignments.

5. The power of information

Electronic Control Units now ensure that trailers can deliver a wealth of data as well as cargo.

Meritor WABCO’s PLC Display will tap into the Meritor Tire Inflation System by PSI and inform drivers about everything from tire pressures to wheel-end temperatures. The Bendix Trailer Information Module (TIM) watches over ABS and tracks the use of roll stability systems. And Carrier Transicold’s TRU-Tech and TRU-View help fleets to update reefer settings on an entire unit or across an enter fleet; its IntelliSet profiles with Transicold APC and Advance controls let drivers choose settings based on a type of commodity or customer name.

Those are just a few examples. Wherever there is data, it can be transformed into information.

6. Cleared air

Contaminants in an air line have been known to clog the tiny orifices inside brake valves. In-line and gladhand-mounted filters will keep air supplies clean and clear without affecting brake timing.

7. Automated lift axles

When properly used, a lifted axle can extend tire life and improve fuel economy. The Bendix Tabs-6 Advanced system will even decide on the axle position automatically. This option monitors the loads on an air bag and automatically raises or lowers an axle based on the suspension capacity and legal load limits. The system can also be programmed to lower the axle when a trailer is parked, so the vehicle is ready for loading at any time.

8. Greater guards

When it comes to trailer underride guards, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says that Quebec-based Manac has set the highest bar in the industry. The models mounted on Manac and Trailmobile trailers were the only ones to pass all three tests by the Virginia-based group – involving a direct crash and cars that overlap the edge of the guard by 30% and 50%.

Researchers credited the results to vertical supports attached near the outside of the trailer, and a reinforced mounting position on the trailer deck.

9. Trailer tracking

If your fleet values its trailers (and we know it does), the assets will need to be tracked. And the related systems are becoming more affordable every day.

PeopleNet’s Tethered Trailer Tracking system, for example, uses an existing Power Line Communication (PLC) cable to exchange data with the trailer’s anti-lock brakes. The result offers an affordable way to track drop and hook events, along with date and time, location, and odometer readings. That can be used to locate trailers, eliminate yard checks, and manage trailer detentions alike.

10. An enhanced appearance

Trailers are transformed into rolling billboards through an array of graphic designs, but the look can be further enhanced through hardware. Great Dane’s optional XP appearance package for the Freedom XP Aluminum Flatbed trailer, for example, includes polished fill plates, added mud flaps, and additional LED lighting.