A couple of questions here. At the moment, I am hiring a skelly from collease at £78 a week. Which means of course anything I do to make said skel more presentable will be lost when the MOT is due, they swap the trailer and I never see it again.
So I’m looking at used skeletals. Found a 2008 sliding denison with underruns, 20 miles from my yard for £3k, including a years MOT.
First question. Does anyone know of a decent Commercial bodyshop in or around Sheffield and how much would you pay to get it fully repainted, including wheels?
Second question, would you think it better to spend a weekend with a tin of hammerite?
A weekend with the hammerite will do the job, but I have a feeling that you won’t be happy with the result, it will look like you spent a weekend with hammerite and from what I’ve read on here, that’s not the look you want.
The other important thing with skellies is the rollers and bushings etc on the slider, somebody who’s only planning to keep them a few years will not pay much attention to that and a cheap trailer can soon turn out to be an expensive one.
How about speaking to Collease and doing a rent to buy deal with your current trailer or similar? I’ve dealt with Collease in the past and they were decent people to deal with, you never know until you ask.
So the general consensus on the 08 one is that the £900 I’ve been quoted for a full cosmetic refurb is a good offer then?
Judging by the trailer number on it, the only operator markings, its ex-Wincanton. They would properly maintain bushes and rollers I think. Is it an easy visual inspection? I would try it now but I’ve got a box on!
I was talking about a full back to bare shotblast and finish with 2 pack , for 900 quid i would imagine it would be a rub down and blow some fresh paint on, nothing wrong with that but i keep my trailers for 10 years so like to have them done properly
Each to there own mate but when there nearly 30k new i like to keep them on the road as long as possible, as long as your happy with how it looks then thats all that matters
Dennison skel slider £16000 four years ago, brand new in my colour, with rear steer BPW axles. OP, do not get the paintbrush out. You will surely regret starting painting it, and won’t be happy with the finished result.
Aren’t you the guy with the magic calculator? Surely you can work out the tax benefits of buying new? Best advice I can give is to find the money for a deposit and buy one.
Concretejim:
30k. Surely cant be that much for such stoneage vehicles.
30k will get you a brand new d-tec trumbone skelly. Which i cant really understand why no one in the uk uses them. Maybe they all like big parachutes.
Thats what id be buying.
Perhaps people in the UK don’t use em because they are twice the money of a denison or montracon one. They can be the best trailers in the world but if they don’t last twice as long or don’t earn twice as much they are too expensive.
I got comparative prices a while back on a taut vs sliding wall box trailer from Schmidt. I love the idea of a sliding wall box but could never justify 55k for a trailer which only does the same job a 20k tiger taut.
Janos:
Dennison skel slider £16000 four years ago, brand new in my colour, with rear steer BPW axles. OP, do not get the paintbrush out. You will surely regret starting painting it, and won’t be happy with the finished result.
Aren’t you the guy with the magic calculator? Surely you can work out the tax benefits of buying new? Best advice I can give is to find the money for a deposit and buy one.
I couldn’t consider spending that much money at this time. A used one is a reasonable investment. A used reconned one is doable. 15.6k for a monty brand new is scary money inside the first year, and funding it makes half the reason to change go away, saving 5/6 of my annual trailer spend.
I think I would have a good look at the brakes especially the s-cams and their bushings, if its BPW or SAF they are good axles but the parts are bloody dear.
Top of my head genuine bpw slack adjusters 200 quid each, pulse rings 180 quid each, s-cams 150/200 quid each.
I assume that there is no default spec, so what running gear is the proposed 2nd hand Dennison on and is it disc or drum? The trailer maintenance is going to be down to the OP which can be surprisingly expensive if you get on the wrong cycle. An ex rental trailer will quite probably have been skillfully budgetted in its last year. There will be differing opinions, but a BPW drum set up appeals. The Main dealer supplying the R&M unit is also hardly going to offer the best labour rate deal either for the trailer, nor probably will they be overmuch interested in trailer parts stockholding.
Unless you have the ability yourself, money spent now on getting an informed opinion to look over this trailer thoroughly could prove well spent, even if you decide not to buy in the end. Also a few enquiries about the vendor from other purchasers will prove useful. The good ones want you to come back time and again. One of my customers has only ever bought from two sources. Over the last 20 odd years he has had 7 trailers, 5 units and 3 rigids, all at the cheap and fairly elderly end of the market, with the exception of one trailer which really was a cheapie and was outed in six months, all have been good and stood the test of time.
sorry for the confusion, i run 45 ft to 70ft flat extenders and a new one fully specced is just under 30k , hence my comment on keeping them looking good and on the road for as long as possible
nsmith1180:
So the general consensus on the 08 one is that the £900 I’ve been quoted for a full cosmetic refurb is a good offer then?
Judging by the trailer number on it, the only operator markings, its ex-Wincanton. They would properly maintain bushes and rollers I think. Is it an easy visual inspection? I would try it now but I’ve got a box on!
I`d be wary, especially if those cowboys @ BIFT have been looking after it
If their own mob have had the responsibility, I`d also be quite wary …just saying like
I`d also be wary of buying anything, as you will change your customer in the future and you will have a skelly nobody wants in your yard… been there, done that Have a word with Dennison if you have already made your mind up, they send me emails with their new + used kit deals, might be worth a shout…their kit reins supreme IMO
Good news Stanley, it’s not ex-Wincanton! Judging by the faded adhesive on the sides they are ex Roadways Container Logistics, so Maritime.
I’ve been and taken a butchers myself and it looks fairly tidy, in no worse condition that the 2012 i’m currently hiring anyway. I’ve also confirmed that the £900 quote was for strip and two pack paint so I’m quite impressed.
Punchy Dan:
For £900 I’d leave it as it is ,cheap 2 pack is £20 a litre without harder or thinners / primer ,so it won’t be a quality job at that price .
