Asphalt and Paving Professionals have particularly important roles in the construction industry. Asphalt and paving work leads to improvements in infrastructure; the groundwork of a community that impacts all people. From roads and highways, to driveways and sidewalks, asphalt and paving is essential to the lives and wellbeing of business owners, families and every day citizens across the country.
Due to the nature of the job, asphalt and paving contractors must have the trailer equipment they need to safely and efficiently move from town to town for their work. An easy-to-use and resilient trailer is a must have for asphalt and paving contractors.
But what else do you need to consider when investing in a trailer? The experts at Towmaster Trailers have spent years synthesizing information about asphalt and paving customers’ growing businesses. Below we’ve put together a checklist of what to consider when investing in a trailer, and how to ensure you have the right equipment you need to get the job done.
What Matters Most To You
Trailers need to help asphalt and paving professionals load and move easier, and not be a cumbersome or difficult part of their job. The difference between an okay trailer and a performance-driven trailer, designed to meet your needs can be staggering. When talking to the representatives at your dealership, here are some basic considerations to talk through when choosing a trailer.
Ease of Use
Arguably the most important part of a trailer for asphalt and paving professionals is how easy it is to load your paving equipment in the trailer, and access your equipment when you get to the job site. A critical feature for safely and quickly loading pavers is a low loading angle, ideally 10 degrees or fewer.
There are trailers out there that aren’t designed for the industry, but can be retrofitted to work. These trailers sometimes feature the general purpose 18-22 degree loading angle, or more difficult to operate ramps that over time will lead to longer and more frustrating loading processes.
Ideally, you want to invest in a trailer that was designed for ease of use specifically for the paving industry. Towmaster offers the T-40 Deck Over with Paving Package trailer that is perfect for easy and safe loading and unloading. Features include:
- Hydraulic Bi-folding ramp system
- Double break beaver tail
- 8 degree loading angle
- Air-Ramps
Quality of Build
Paving trailers are put through rigorous, daily use. The caliber of the welding and the constitution of the materials go a long way in ensuring your trailer is here to stay. Towmaster trailers are proudly manufactured with American-made materials. Our team of expert engineers and welders have decades of experience creating our best-in-class trailers, ensuring that any asphalt and paving professional will invest in a durable trailer that will be with them through years of consistent use.
Weight Distribution & Capacity
Another key consideration to make is about weight distribution and capacity of your trailer. To best understand what model and brand of trailer you want to invest in, you need to know details about the paving and asphalt and paving equipment you use every day. When comparing trailer capacities, make sure you are comparing payload to payload or gross vehicle weight rating to gross vehicle weight rating.
On top of understanding the weight of your equipment and the payload capacity, you need to have an understanding of weight distribution and loading configurations, including how to balance weight between the tow vehicle, trailer tongue and axle group. Your dealership or OEM partner should be open to helping customers determine how to best load their trailer.
Are You Set To Grow?
Asphalt and paving professionals who are small business owners have even more to consider and discuss with your trailer representative. Historically, customers have called on Towmaster team members to identify capacity, length and load angle to accommodate their paving equipment. But another important consideration to make is how to prepare for growth in your business and your team.
Customization
Not all manufacturers are willing to customize their trailers to fit the needs of your business and team. For business owners who are looking to grow their business and their team, customization is an important part of being able to scale your business and make more sound investments. If you are unable to purchase a trailer that can be modified to accommodate the services and needs of your team, that trailer will lose value over time.
Towmaster proudly customizes for customers purchasing their first investment trailer, to businesses expanding their fleet. Our dealership partners rely on our team to help determine the right trailer customization to meet the needs of end user customers.
Some questions to consider when customizing your trailer include:
- What niches do you offer?
- What service areas do you want to grow into?
- What equipment are you looking to invest in in the next year or two?
- How many team members do you have and what are their specialities?
- Do you anticipate onboarding new team members?
- How can you ensure employee safety?
- Are there features like air or hydraulic ramps available that can make their jobs easier and safer?
Discuss your business goals with your dealer or OEM representative and make sure they have a good understanding of how you want to grow your business before choosing a trailer or trailer fleet.
Training
Even seasoned asphalt and paving professionals need to best understand how to use and maintain trailers and other truck equipment. Not all manufacturers, or even dealerships, offer extended product training. At Towmaster, we understand that training is an important part of safely operating our trailers, and ensuring you keep your team and equipment safe.
For growing businesses, this offering is particularly important. With new team members joining with varied levels of experience, as a business owner, it’s vital that every member of your team has the same understanding and training to ensure safety and long term efficiency. We offer onsite training through our dealerships that includes how to safely operate and maintain the trailer for longevity.
Stay Protected
Towmaster is an industry-leading truck and trailer equipment manufacturer, upfitter and distributor. We offer an unparalleled trailer warranty because we are proud to stand by the build of our equipment. We invest in the success of our customers and want to ensure their investment will be protected through years of use. 