Reefers

arkjarhead · Jul 8, 2008

I know when it comes to trucks alot of poeple think a truck is starting downing the "downhill side" of it's life at 500k-750k. What about reefers? What is the point where a used reefer has to many hours on it to think about buying it and getting some good use out of it?

piper1 · Jul 8, 2008

After 10,000 hrs a reefer will typically get expensive. Depends on brand and how well it was looked after (doesn't everything?).

ATeam · Jul 8, 2008

At Carrier dealerships, some service departments post a sign saying the useful life of a reefer is seven years, and that repairs made to reefers older than that may not be worth the money.

While that may be a good guideline, reefers vary in application from the ones that run most of the time on 53' trailers hauling produce coast to coast, to those on local delivery trucks, to those on trucks that actually have two (one for backup) reefers for temperature-critical freight, to expedite temperature-control, and more. Some reefers run all that time at 40F. Others may be called upon to run at -10F on hot summer days.

Given the above, my answer to your question would be, it depends on how the reefer is used and how well it is cared for.

greg334 · Jul 8, 2008

Phil,
I am wondering how many hours do you have on yours so far?

As for age, hours do matter but so does the quality of care.

Like other things, I don't trust too many people to work in it. It really is not that difficult to get a grip on and thanks to my local carrier dealer, I have most of the stuff I need to do my own repairs.

I know mine is moving to that magic 6000 hours of use on a bunch of replacement components but it is far from being a lost cause. I know I am going to replace glow plugs and injectors soon but that is normal. the control unit has been replaced just before I bought it and the fuel system was worked on last year (200 hours ago). I replaced all the hoses for the engine (especially the fuel lines) and this fall it will go into Carrier to get the compressor looked at and a through checkup.

Overall the unit has been very good, it is a '99 so after 9 years, it works rather well.

Refer Hauler · Jul 8, 2008

I personaly would not and have not bought anything with more than 15,000 hours on it with out it having a rebuilt compressor on it. Compressors seem to last 18 to 20K hours;engines go 27 to 30Kwith good maintenance . If unit has been hauling ice cream or other hard frozen loads cut this time by a third to half.
A new 53' reefer with no frills will cost around $55K, but a good 4 year old unit with 10k hours can be found in the high $20's. A much more cost efffective solution inmy opinion.

davekc · Jul 9, 2008

As far as straights, I wouldn't even consider one unless it is a roof mount. The under body ones have always been a constant problem once the weather/salt/chemicals start doing a number on them. Thermo King is suppose to have some under body set up that is suppose to be durable, but I have never owned one. The carriers we had always had some kind of issue with them.
Of course none of them offer real 24/7 road service or repair either, so we gave up on them. Reefer rates just haven't been high enough to justify the extra cost and aggravation. A individual who can work on it themselves may fare better.

arkjarhead · Jul 9, 2008

The reason I ask is because a guy I know wants me to buy his 53' Great Dane with a Thermo King. It has has 21,000 hours on it and it's a 2004 model. He doesn't want much for it. he claims I can buy it and turn around and sale it and make a profit. I figure if more could be gotten for it why isn't he getting it? All he has down with it is haul chicken from Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride out of Arkansas out to California and then hauled produce and some computers back east to different places. The computers he picked up at the ports coming in on ships from the far east in the summer time and they just want them to stay at room temp., but the rest of the stuff has to stay pretty cold. I just don't think it's a good idea. Maybe if I had a trucking business with refridgerated cleints I might buy it because of the deal and keep it as a back up, but not in my current situation.

Refer Hauler · Jul 10, 2008

Sight unseen to me that would be a $15K reefer max!! Hard to get rid of a meat/poultry trailer with that many hours as this product normally requires units to be run on "continuous" not the normal "start/stop". This unit while it may be in extreemly good condition now, It has run almost 3 years non-stop out of its 4 year life so far.

jaminjim · Jul 10, 2008

If it will sell that easy, tell him you will sell it on consignment, and split anything over the 15k

spudhead911 · Jul 12, 2008

davekc said:
As far as straights, I wouldn't even consider one unless it is a roof mount. The under body ones have always been a constant problem once the weather/salt/chemicals start doing a number on them. Thermo King is suppose to have some under body set up that is suppose to be durable, but I have never owned one. The carriers we had always had some kind of issue with them.
Of course none of them offer real 24/7 road service or repair either, so we gave up on them. Reefer rates just haven't been high enough to justify the extra cost and aggravation. A individual who can work on it themselves may fare better.

We have a thermo King UTS-50. It is made for under body mounting. It is a split unit from the factory. Everything on the unit is either sealed or marine grade. The unit will keep a 28ft. box at -20f. We have not had any problems with it on our TVAL CR unit.

Our reefer brings in an extra 30% profit per year, it was well worth the extra money spent for it.

arkjarhead · Jul 13, 2008

He's asking 16k for it. It's got the air slide tandems and all that. He said he had an offer of 14,000 and I told him to take that. He wants to take that money plus trade his truck and lay some more money down he has stashed on a newer truck. He bought a flat bed not to long ago at a state police auction and is going to run it with the newer truck.

Just some background info this guy is a friend of mine, and this isn't the first time he wanted me to go in on a deal with him. In 2003 he wanted to sale me his 2000 Pete 379 for $2,500 and for me to hold the truck until his divorce was final. I didn't want to, and told him I needed to ask my mom who is a CPA. She told me to stay away from it, and he needed to work something out with his wife if he wanted to keep the truck. She didn't want the truck. So he was in the clear. Good thing I talked to mom first though. You have to watch out for your friends sometimes they will burn you.