Open or flatbed trailers are specially designed for carrying goods like cars, motor vehicles, heavy machinery, utility crane building sections, excavators & more. Open trailers come with a number of advantages. They do not have any height limitation & they are easy to control. These trailers are available in different sizes and capacities.
Let’s take a closer look at common types of open trailers.
Standard flatbed trailer:
A standard flatbed trailer like 4 car hauler is widely used in the transportation industries. This type of trailer is generally loaded from the top & rare side as well. Standard flatbed is the common type of open trailer. The avg length of this trailer is 50 ft. The maximum carrying capacity of this trailer is 48000 lbs. Several sizes are available for this trailer such as 24 ft, 40 ft, 50 ft, etc. Small cars, excavators, and hay are generally carried in this trailer.
Step-deck flatbed trailer:
Step deck trailer is another widely used flatbed trailer. It is also known as a drop deck trailer. As the name suggests, this flatbed trailer mainly comes with 2 decks. They are the top deck & bottom deck. Step-deck trailers are a great alternative to the standard flatbed trailers. The maximum carrying capacity of this trailer is 48000 lbs. Like standard flatbed, this trailer is also available in several sizes.
Extendable flatbeds trailer:
The extendable flatbed trailer is also an advanced version of a traditional or standard flatbed trailer. This is also known as stretched flatbed used for carrying large equipment like long building sections, large vehicles, etc. The avg carrying capacity of this trailer is 43000 lbs & the avg length is 48 ft.
Stretch single drop deck trailer:
Stretch single drop deck trailers are another common type of flatbed or open trailer designed for such goods that can not be transported by the extendable trailers. This type of trailer is unique and mainly comes with 45000 lbs carrying capacity. The max length of this trailer is 63 ft.
Stretch double drop trailer:
Last but not the least, stretched double drop flatbed is specially designed for transporting oversized goods. These trailers are generally used in large freight industries. Cargo vehicles, long building sections, pipes are carried by these trailers. The maximum legal weight & length of a stretch double drop trailer is 45000 lbs & 65 ft respectively.
A flatbed trailer is always advantageous than an enclosed trailer. Driving a large flatbed trailer is not an easy task. Special permission & experience are extremely required to drive it.
