Custom steel trailer features no bunks
If you were simply driving by Kevin Fairhurst’s K&D Transport yard in Stoney Creek, Ontario, you probably wouldn’t give his flatbed trailers a second look. But whenever his fellow truckers see a steel coil getting hoisted onto one of these trailers at any of the steel mills in southern Ontario, Fairhurst suddenly has a lot of questions to answer.
Seeing a K&D trailer on the job, it’s obvious this is no ordinary platform trailer –it’s a custom-built Titan flatbed specially designed for hauling steel coil.
The object of the attention is the trailer’s coil bunk. With the bunk’s timbers solidly fastened to the deck with removable pins, the loading process is taking less time. “Instead of using cleats to secure the timbers, I have a set of steel box-channel Ts that fit into square pockets that I had fabricated into the deck on 24-inch centres. These Ts slide right down into the frame to brace the 4x4 timbers that support the coil.
Now the timbers don’t slip as the coil comes down, so you always get it on right the first time. The system is especially good for loads of slit coil. Because of the slit coils’ tendency to ‘slinky,’ it’s hard to manage as it’s loaded.” Even customers have asked Fairhurst about his trailers, as they see how K&D gets in and out of their yard more quickly than other rigs.
Fairhurst knew Henry Vandenbussche at Titan Trailer Sales, a trailer dealer near Brantford, Ontario, from his gravel hauling days. In conversation with Vandenbussche, he described how he thought the coil bunk could become an integral part of the trailer deck. Vandenbussche took the concept to Titan Trailers and they came back with a plan.
Kloepfer’s approach to designing and building trailers has earned Titan a prominent place in specialized trucking applications throughout North America.
Seeing a K&D trailer on the job, it’s obvious this is no ordinary platform trailer –it’s a custom-built Titan flatbed specially designed for hauling steel coil.
The object of the attention is the trailer’s coil bunk. With the bunk’s timbers solidly fastened to the deck with removable pins, the loading process is taking less time. “Instead of using cleats to secure the timbers, I have a set of steel box-channel Ts that fit into square pockets that I had fabricated into the deck on 24-inch centres. These Ts slide right down into the frame to brace the 4x4 timbers that support the coil.
Now the timbers don’t slip as the coil comes down, so you always get it on right the first time. The system is especially good for loads of slit coil. Because of the slit coils’ tendency to ‘slinky,’ it’s hard to manage as it’s loaded.” Even customers have asked Fairhurst about his trailers, as they see how K&D gets in and out of their yard more quickly than other rigs.
Fairhurst knew Henry Vandenbussche at Titan Trailer Sales, a trailer dealer near Brantford, Ontario, from his gravel hauling days. In conversation with Vandenbussche, he described how he thought the coil bunk could become an integral part of the trailer deck. Vandenbussche took the concept to Titan Trailers and they came back with a plan.
Kloepfer’s approach to designing and building trailers has earned Titan a prominent place in specialized trucking applications throughout North America.