Flat bed trucks

1

I’m really considering a FLAT BED truck with a 12-15 foot bed. Do you have one? What are the Pros and Cons of one?

2

I am considering one also and would love some feedback too. I think it would be alot easier for me or employees to maneuver.

3

I have a F550 ford diesel 14’ flatbed truck. This truck is excellent. Everything on it is bolted down and low profile. There’s really nothing this truck can’t do when it comes to your everyday Powerwashing jobs. From commercial to residential. Also the ability to carry alot of water for us is critical.

Best truck I ever owned for contracting.

4

We switched to a box truck this year. I really was looking for a flat bed when we came across the box so I punched the curb side full of doors and went to work. This turned out to be the best of both worlds for us.

Most of our residential is run with one man and it is set up so that he never has to go inside the box during the day.

My favorite part of a box truck? When I go along, I never have to look for a bush to hide behind. I’m too stinking fat to hide behind a bush anyways. :slight_smile:

A pic from last year showing our trailer beside a box truck.

tn_Fuso Doors.jpg800×600 63.1 KB

box v trailer.jpg800×703 95 KB

5

I posted this before on this board but I copied it to this thread too.

I had five flatbed trucks. I recently switched to 3/4 ton trucks pulling trailers. It all depends on your business model. I am not saying anything against flatbed trucks I used them for 3 years. But with my business model, which is primarily flatwork both residential and commercial, these were the problems with flatbed trucks:

  1. Getting into parking garages. (both my Isuzu NPRs and basically 3 out of 5 of my trucks would not fit into parking garages)

  2. When your truck breaks down so does your equipment.

  3. Climbing up on my flatbed to grab things. (my employees gripe more than mine but slows down things which is money)

  4. Employees driving like a bat out of hell. (happens w trailers too, but generally people go slower w trailer attached)

  5. Registration fees. (most flatbeds are expensive registration fees because of weight limits)

  6. AAA will not tow flatbeds, and towing companies in general are hard to find for flatbeds and VERY expensive

  7. Its hard to find a good priced flatbed verses a good 3/4 ton work truck. Flatbeds in Arizona are hard to come by, and when you do find them they are much more expensive. I could buy 2 regular trucks for the same price in better condition and fewer miles.

Those are my negatives to a flat bed. There are a bunch of positives, but when I weighed the negatives to positives, trucks with trailers made more sense for my business model. I basically save money with trailers and 3/4 tons.

Hopefully I provided some type of help.

Good Luck!

6

We tow our trailers with our flatbed truck if where not using the F-250 pickup truck. There’s nothing our guys have to climb on our flatbed for since everything is based on a low profile setup to fit into garages.

There really is no perfect setup. We had vans,box trucks, bucket truck and a few pickup trucks and nothing works perfectly.
The main reason we have the flatbed truck is because we need to carry a fairly large amount of water to some jobs in NY city and since parking is tight there, trailers arent an option.

For each his own.

7

We have used 12ft flat beds for years doing residential. A whole lot easier that pulling a trailer thru construction sites. Especially when you hire guys who can’t back trailers. We love the flat beds! Happy Day!

8

We run two Ford flatbeds and 4 Isuzu box trucks. The flatbeds are needed for parking garages but you have to make sure they’re low enough to get in. We’ve had good luck with the Fords, they’re almost as maneuverable as a car. Anyone can drive them where backing trailers can be a problem for some drivers.