Picked up my stepdeck at the Conestoga dealer. Looks very unusual
There's holes in the rub-rails as if the trailer was in a mafia shootout, but other than that it looks great. I can see the rear of my trailer in the mirrors again! The Conestoga was 107" wide and it was really limiting visibility. Pulling a bare stepdeck is a walk in the park compared to pulling it with that huge structure on it. I probably gained 2,500 lbs in payload weight (will know for sure on Monday when I weigh) and the trailer is much easier to work with now. Before there was a really annoying RUBBER seal under the rub-rail and working with chains and straps was a pain. Another plus is I can check on load security right from the ground. If a chain or strap is loose, I'll see it right away. With the Conestoga, sometimes it wasn't possible to check on all parts of the load - especially in the front - because I didn't have a front trap-door. Still another thing I don't have to worry about is trees and low entrance doors at plants and factories. Most places that do load curtainside flatbeds have only 14 ft high doors, and I was at 13'6" plus the tarp goes UP when you move it... Anyway, my truck is now at a Pete shop here in Waterloo, ON where they're doing PM and I also asked them to remove the roof deflector. Will have to change my picture now
but I hope to gain some serious fuel mileage, especially when running empty. I'll be exercising a strict no-tarp policy for now but might get a 4' drop lightweight tarp later on. Thankfully, Landstar has a bunch of loads that do not require tarping.