ATLANTA. As part of a longer-term strategic growth initiative, Stoughton Trailers is rolling out a new refrigerated trailer model dubbed “PureBlue” to broaden its product line so it can make inroads with larger customers.
“Large customers have mixed fleets of dry van and refrigerated trailers; you can’t bid for that business unless you have both. The two are tied together,” said Ted Leroy, product manager for Stoughton, speaking at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show here.
Todd Eicher, Stoughton’s director of engineering, noted that PureBlue is designed to be a lightweight reefer trailer that doesn’t sacrifice strength while delivering more thermal efficiency and safety than competitive models currently on the road today.
“Better thermal efficiency means less run time is required for the reefer unit; that saves fuel and thus cost,” he said. “But the biggest issue is to build a lightweight trailer with that efficiency within a design customers are used to; one that they will know how to repair with their current skills sets.”
Eicher added that key features of the company’s new PureBlue refrigerated trailer include:
- An aluminum scuff and integral composite scuff liner to help prevent damage during loading and unloading;
- A sidewall and scuff designed with no rivets to prevent snags and tear outs.
- A heavy-duty duct floor designed with a knurled edge top surface for skid resistance. “There is no wood in this trailer,” Eicher stressed. “That helps extend its longevity.”
- The floor’s 5.25-inch extruded aluminum cross members in the bay area provide a strong yet lightweight floor substructure, with steel cross members an available option.
- The composite rear door is built with a triple wiper seal gasket to prevent water intrusion and minimize air loss to protect the interior of the trailer and cargo from the elements.
- The platen foamed sides and roof ensure that the trailer is fully insulated in 360 degrees with no voids or uneven areas to further increase its thermal efficiency.
- The bonded side posts in the new refrigerated trailer reduce the number of holes in the sidewalls to further aid in preventing moisture intrusion in addition to improving presentation for graphic applications.
- Like all Stoughton dry van models, PureBlue comes standard with a rear underride guard resists compartmental intrusion of an automobile when the location of impact is at 30% to 100% overlap of the width of the car to the guard – at no additional cost or weight.
Stoughton reports plans to roll out a multi-temperature trailer model sometime in 2019.