Whenever Kevin Fairhurst's fellow truckers see a steel coil getting hoisted onto one of his flatbed trailers at steel mills in southern Ontario, this owner of K&D Transport suddenly has a lot of questions to answer.
These custom-built Titan flatbeds are designed for hauling steel coil, according to Fairhurst's personal requirements.
The object of the attention is the trailer's coil bunk. With the bunk's timbers solidly fastened to the deck with removable pins, the loading process is taking less time than coil usually takes, and there's an extra sense of security once the coil is tied down.
“I wanted a trailer that was all custom for steel,” Fairhurst said. “Instead of using cleats to secure the timbers, I have a set of steel box-channel “Ts” that fit into square pockets that I had fabricated into the deck on 24-inch centers. These Ts slide right down into the frame to brace the 4 × 4 timbers that support the coil. Now the timbers don't slip as the coil comes down, so you always get it on right the first time. The system is especially good for loads of slit coil. Because of the slit coils' tendency to “slinky,” it's hard to manage as it's loaded.
“The system secures loads extremely well against heavy braking and side-to-side shifting, too,” he said. “When the timbers come off, you still have a perfectly flat deck for loads of drywall or lumber or anything else you can put on a flatbed.”
Fairhurst got his start in trucking in 1987 with a small fleet of dump trucks hauling gravel. He bought his first flatbed in 1990 to take overflow work from other steel haulers. In 1991, he sold his own fleet to take over management of Willis Transport, the “house carrier” for Dofasco Steel, one of Canada's largest mills. During this time, Fairhurst grew the business from six to 24 rigs and began developing his ideas about how to build a better steel trailer.
He talked to a few other flatbed builders before going to Titan. “Everyone else just wanted to add options to something they already built,” he said. “Titan was the only one that would listen to what I was saying.”
Fairhurst knew Henry Vandenbussche at Titan Trailer Sales, a trailer dealer near Brantford, Ontario, from his gravel hauling days. In conversation with Vandenbussche, he described how he thought the coil bunk could become an integral part of the trailer deck.
Vandenbussche took the concept to Titan Trailers, which came back with a plan. The president of Titan, Mike Kloepfer, invited Fairhurst into the factory to look at the Titan design and confirm that it did what he wanted.
Fairhurst was ready to move on from Willis a few years ago to start his own business, specializing in steel hauling. By then, he was committed to building an all-Titan fleet.
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