Trailers Case Study

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The Advantage in the Waste Industry

Michigan Logger Builds New Chip Fleet with Titan Trailers

Robert Adeland
With successful operations already running in excavation and logging, Jim Carey was in no hurry to add new chip trailers to the fleet for his growing biomass business. He took his time to decide where he could expect to get the best return on his latest investments. When we got into the chipping business four years ago, we bought reconditioned multi-axle trailers to get started. We had frames put on them but there was always some sort of issue. They had poor tires, bad brakes, the structure was poorwe had to weld on quite a bit of material! Over time, Carey spoke to several operators who run wood chip businesses in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He attended the logging conferences in the region each year, and always made a point of checking out the trailers on display. A guy I know had some trailers that were just a couple of years old, but they looked like our old trailers. Then I see the Titan trailers coming up the roadI think they are 20 years old but they look like the day they were bought. I asked three or four Titan owners and they told me they just never have problems. The Titans just work! Titan Trailers has been a leader in the hauling industry long recognized for job-specific functionality and attention to manufacturing detail. Titan Trailers offer business-minded haulers a complete line of trailers using advanced design and manufacturing technologies based on the patented THINWALL extruded aluminum panel. Titan focuses its extensive R&D activities on making its trailers the best business choice for operators in the custom trailer market. With his interest zeroing in on Titan, Carey contacted Dale Handrich, the owner of Handrich Trucking and a second-generation chip hauler in Mio, MI. As Carey recalls, Dale bought out a company that had a bunch of trailers in the late 1990s, and he got a few Titans in there and had added some. Hes just Titans biggest advocate. You can talk to lots of people and theyll brag up their equipment even if what they had was junk. But Dales the kind of man that, if he told me something, Id believe it. Since he got those first units, he slowly switched over his whole fleet to Titan. Now, with a fleet of six chip vans and seven trucks, Carey is on the same track.

An experienced equipment guy finds that being lightweight and having a strong body are the right combination on and off the road.

A Bandit 2680 tracked grinder at work in the bush filling one of Jim Careys Titan Trailer.
Photo courtesy of Titan Trailers.

WasteAdvantage Magazine

August 2011

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As Seen In
Michigan logger Builds new chip fleet with titan trailers

From Logging to Trucking

J. Carey Logging and Excavation has been part of the Michigan logging business for about 30 years. Jim Carey started out working with slashers, fellerbunchers and chainsaws and eventually got into cut-to-length contracts in the 1990s. By expanding his equipment fleet, he developed the business into a full-service operation that offers everything from woodlot management to roadbuilding. Finally, the chip business presented itself as an opportunity for him to make better use of his equipment. We always had a harvester and a forwarder on the job and the forwarder was never busy enough. So we started picking up the wood waste and debris for some specific jobs, then a guy came and picked it up. He didnt pay us for it, but he removed it and we were able to buy the wood a little bit cheaper. Then there were more people that wanted that done and we provided more for this contractor and he started paying us a little bit for it. When a mill approached us for more of this material, we ended up buying a grinder; more skidders to skid it. We started buying chip trailers four years ago, open tops mostly as we expanded the operation to supply chips to the mill. That led to a contract to haul waste from an OSB plant into the mill haul fuel briquets out to the power plant.

us that Titan wont put in anything but a Keith Walking Floor system, that was good enough for me.

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The Advantage in the Waste Industry

Investing in Biomass Futures

Now, Carey sees biofuel as his greatest growth prospect. With a pair of brand new Titan trailers in his fleet, Carey sees several ways that the investment is paying him back. According to Jeff Root, the Titan trailers will pay off in the long term by outlasting traditional equipment, with less downtime and lower maintenance costs. Hudsonville Trailer also helped to accelerate the return on investment by arranging terms for financing that were more favorable than Careys bank could offer. But Carey sees a bottom-line advantage in his Titan trailers every working day. We can carry a heavier load in the Titans because the trailers lighter5,000 pounds more on average. Day after day that makes a big difference. Some of the other problems weve had with other trailersframe rust, chassis rust, things like thatwe just wont have with these Titans because of the aluminum structure. Carey notes that even small details in manufacturing and design turn into maintenance savings. The lift axles have a chart right there to tell you how much weight to put on each axle to spread your load out. All of the gauges are easy to read and the adjustments are easy to make. The quality of the trailer extends to even the wiring for the lift axles. A separate high quality cord is used in addition to the light cord to operate the lift axles. This is a much better setup than we have seen on any other trailer. It costs a little more, but then youre done with it! The distinctive Titan trailers, with their end-to-end extruded aluminum panel construction, have been attracting attention everywhere Carey Logging goes. People that know nothing about trailers say, those are the nicest looking trailers weve seen. We get comments every day. Even the people we sell to. When they see our trailer coming in, they realize that weve made a commitment to their business. As the biomass and biofuel business grows, trucking is becoming a bigger part of Careys operation. Recently, Carey Logging received a letter of intent for another mill contract calling for 50,000 tons of biomass for its power plant. Carey has just commissioned a new Bandit 2680 grinder to produce the material, and he plans to upgrade an older grinder before long. My son Ryan will be taking over; hes more of a truck and trailer guy where I was always more of an equipment guy. A year from now, I think this business is going to really expand. In the last year we have hired almost 10 people here. And well probably need a couple more Titans. | WA For more information about Titan Trailers, contact Sandy Kloepfer at (519) 688-4826, via e-mail at info@titantrailers. com or visit www.titantrailers.com. KEITH, WALKING FLOOR and V-Floor are registered worldwide trademarks of KEITH Mfg. Co.

A Completely Different Trailer

Today, Carey has built up his operation to use his capacity. His new Titan trailers are a valuable part of his growth strategy. These trailers go right into the woods, as far as the Michigan log trucks go, we go right in behind them and pick up the residue. If you follow one of the trailers out to the road, you see our FRP boxes and our other trailer tilting side to sidethe whole thing is moving and you think parts are going to fall off it! But the Titans are just like a solid chunk of aluminum rolling down the road. Thats a completely different trailer. The Carey chip trucks average about 80 miles per haul. All of the trailers are fitted with moving floors, because his customers dont have tippers on their site. When he converted three old trailers to moving floors, Carey took the advice of his Titan dealer, Jeff Root at Hudsonville Trailer. We talked to Jeff in the past about used trailers, then this deal came about and he was a very good guy to work with. So many people in business today just want to make a buck. These people at Hudsonville Trailer, theyre just good people. When they told

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WasteAdvantage Magazine

August 2011

2011 Waste Advantage Magazine, All Rights Reserved. Reprinted from Waste Advantage Magazine. Contents cannot be reprinted without permission from the publisher.