Heavy duty trucking manufacturers were on hand with booths to amaze roro and ltl freight shipping professionals that showed up for the recently held Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Walking among the shows you would come upon things to delight the heavy haul trucking enthusiast and we want to talk about a few that caught our eye as we were walking through the shows.
A new trucking manufacturer, Wink Trailer, showed up for the Louisville show two lightweight end-dump semi-trailers composed of plastic and aluminum. The ‘Innovator’ is a half-round model and ‘Revolutionizer’ a flat-side model that both use aluminum frames with polyethylene plastic sheeting to reduce the overall weight and cost when compared to all-aluminum units. Wink Trailer indicated that the plastic used in the construction of their new lightweight end-dump semi-trailers has a very high-molecular-weight (UHMW) similar to the materials used in dump liners to reduce freezing and sticking of loads. That the typical 39-foot half-round trailer, like the companies square-profile Revolutionizer trailer, weights almost 1,000 pounds less than an all aluminum trailer and uses UHMW plastic on its sides and bottom surface.
East Manufacturing also showed up for the Louisville show with a newly designed aluminum dump trailer with flat sides and a half-round bottom that they were showing off. The funny thing is, they haven’t given their new trailer a name, just yet, but it does sit about seven inches lower than a standard half-round transport vehicle. East Manufacturing says this gives the unit a lower center of gravity and increased stability during the dumping phase of the transport and while the truck is running down the road to destination. The flat sides of their new dump trailer are formed of welded aluminum box sections from East Genesis design that are suppose to add strength and rigidity to the trailer. East Manufacturing still has a bit of testing to do on the new design to make sure it’s as strong as advertised and they plan to start production this summer, if everything goes as planned.