Looking for feedback/opinions of those of you running aluminum skids set ups. How long have you had them? How are they holding up? Any major fails/repairs? There’s a lot of videos/info out there, but it seems to be mostly from newer companies or people promoting the products they sell. Hoping to get feedback from someone who’s had it for multiple years and is not also a vendor.
thanks in a advance.
This is my second season using it, and for the price I paid, I can’t complain. It’s been great having something solid to mount equipment to, and it’s freed up a lot of bed space with reels and toolboxes hanging over the side ledges.
I bought it used, so I’m not sure of the brand or age. I’ve had a few spots welded where it started cracking, but overall it’s held up well. I load and unload it with a gantry crane, and it’s handled the shifting, weight, and occasional warping from that process without any major issues.
That said, it’s definitely showing its age. Some of the mounting holes are starting to wallow out, and there’s pitting, surface rust around mixed metals, and corrosion in areas from chemical spills. The other day I accidentally ran straight SH through my 12V system, and when the hose popped off, it smoothed away a good portion of the curved shelf as it ran over the side.
I’m in the process of picking up a dedicated work truck, mainly to go with an 8-foot bed, so I’ve been going back and forth on whether to stick with another skid or switch to a service body or flatbed and whether that would be aluminum or steel.
My qualm with skids is if the truck goes down then you’re not able to work. With a trailer you can borrow a truck, rent a truck etc and be back up and working in no time.
One of my biggest hesitations about switching from a skid to a flatbed or service body is exactly that. Right now, if the truck needs to be in the shop for a few days, I can just lift the skid and drop it into another truck… it’s a quick, five-minute swap. It also gives me full access to the bed when I need to haul larger materials, without having to play Tetris around tanks and hoses, and the skid can be easily removed and stored during the winter months. I lose a lot of that flexibility with a flatbed or service body… which I think just answered my dilemma about what to do for my next truck.
Thank you for sharing. We currently mount two 8gpm machines, 5 reels, 24v, dual wfp, 2 surface cleaners, 200 gallon buffer, 100 gallon chem, and 4-5 ladders on each truck. Trucks are f250s service bodies. My main concern is all that weight on an aluminum frame. But also, the idea of being able to swap them out easily, and going forward, only buying regular pick up beds instead of service bodies seems appealing.
I see what you mean. We don’t plan doing any trailers anytime soon, but I definitely see the convenience factor of having one available. We try to do a lot of preemptive maintenance on the trucks to avoid any down town; however we all know sometimes thats inevitable.
