Anyone using a Thunder Creek fuel or lube trailer? https://thundercreek.com/ Considering a fuel and lube/service type setup with diesel, engine oil, hydraulic oil and waste oil. The trailer would be used more for 250, 500, 1000 HR services and I want to carry diesel and grease as well. Currently running a 1999 4700 ex-welding supply truck that is set up with engine oil, waste oil, diesel, grease, welder and tool boxes. It's a great truck but the insurance and tags run around $4K a year and it's fitted with a Dt466 with a 5sp manual which puts it's top speed around 60 MPH on the Interstate. Not the most pleasant truck to drive around the city. These trailers configured the way I'm looking at would be around $30-40K and could be pulled with our pickups. Looking at a setup like this - 2 EA 110 gal diesel tanks 1 EA 55 gal engine oil 1 EA 55 gal hydro 1 EA 110 gal waste oil 1 EA 100 gallon DEF 1 EA Air compressor, generator, welder combo 1 EA tool chest The way I read the spec's on their website that set up could be put on a 10K GVW trailer, be under the hazmat regulations and we could put it behind a dually pickup with no CDL in Alabama. Looking for an easier way to do PM's in the field and supply fuel at more than 90 gallons at time to distant jobs.
Please whatever you do, don't label a tank as waste oil! Don't refer to it as that either, it's used oil. Waste oil might as well be labeled toxic waste if the EPA were to ever show up to "help" you.
Nice looking and appears to be well thought out. Is one guy going to pull this? The reason I ask is that... within our crews we have some very conscientious players and some who are.... "less than" let's say. That, sort of looks like a one guy tool to me. Usually assigned gear just lives longer than communal iron. Although that may not be a problem in all outfits. We seem to have a number of "no see em" boo-boos that just mysteriously occur.
Repower that was a slip of the tongue on the "used oil". So silly the designations but it is the rules, yah government... Our tank at the yard is labeled "used oil". I think Thunder Creek labels it "reclaim". Right on track with ya' MD. There is only 1 guy that runs the service truck and this would be his trailer to do services. I would take it time to time to run diesel to remote jobs. We have a 2001 F250 7.3 that would get a new transmission to pull it if his crew truck wasn't available. Almost all of our iron is assigned to a crew. You're right it does live longer and in better shape.
CM, they are becoming more popular with the farmers around here now. The days of the 100 gallon truck tank just isn't cutting it anymore. And, with the DEF, it's just a way to have everything on hand, and can be pulled with any of their pickups. One of them is on the horizon for one of the farmers I part time for. His 500 gallon fuel trailer just isn't enough. Needs engine oil, hydraulic oil, grease and DEF. And the sometimes dirty 2 gallon jugs is not the best way to do it...
Why a trailer versus a truck body if I may ask.? I see that the manufacturer offers both. My beef with lube bodies has always been the reliability of the engine driving the compressor. As a result we specced a hydraulically driven compressor from the truck PTO.
Spent a little time looking at the specs of that trailer. I think their "up to 920 gallons with no hazmat or placards or CDL" is a lawyers dream. They are using less than 120 gal tanks, and then multiple tanks, so then they are "outside of the hazmat rules." Does the trailer come with a guarantee that they will defend you in court? I'm just thinking that with the way they are getting difficult about just tanks in a pickup, that the right DOT man would throw a fit about this. The DOT man might be wrong, but it will be up to you to fight it. Wonder what the ins. company would think about it? All that said, I could see a trailer like this being really nice for different job sites, and just pull it home for security. The nice thing with the trailer- is any truck or driver could pull it to the jobsite.
I used to have a operators manual for a TD 18 I think that said to catch the crankcase oil in a clean pan during a change and then pour it into the fuel tank and top off with clean fuel. Ahh the good days of Tier negative 2!
Is it just me, or does the 30-40k seem outlandish? We're talking about 6 tanks- so $400/ each. Then a air pump and reel set up for each one. That's another $400 each for pump and reel. So $1200 for the pump reel and tank. $7,500 then for the tanks with reels and pumps. Then a air compressor, welder and grease pump. Another $5-7,000? And a tandem trailer. Another $3-5,000? I'm under 20,000 yet. I don't know what a DEF transfer set up would run, but surely its not another $10,000?
That's the same reasoning why I'm looking at this type of setup. Our DEF usage is getting more and more with 3 pickups and a trackhoe all using it. We're not quite to the bulk stage yet but the next new machine will use it. I like their setup for DEF. Nige the reason for a trailer is to get rid of a $1400 a year tag/registration for our International 4700 and the $2500 per year in insurance. A trailer tag would be less than $100 a year and insurance would be cheaper as well on a trailer. I'm not concerned with the DOT man Craneop if the trailer meets DOT regulations. The way I understand the setup is the tanks are all plumbed separately in order to meet the rules. No different than having a 95 gallon L tank and a 100 gal square tank in the same pickup. They have some set up similar starting in the low $20K's. I just know how I like to add all the "extras" so I started out on the high side. https://www.truckpaper.com/listings...hunder-creek-equipment?sortorder=45&SCF=False Now I do think the DOT man would have a longer leg to stand on if the setup was homemade.
The dot man would nail you for home made fuel tanks require engineers to design for legality reasons been down that road with a big company o worked for that came out in a court case and they got the pants sued off them In my farming days I had one that I used it was 500 gallons so not legal with out the hazmat thing was nice especially when I had 3 crews harvesting spread out over 40 miles it's really nice I did have problems with latches on doors then being on dirt roads all the time being over loaded and driving to fast probably had a lot to do with it to They are definitely one person tools tho when I quit that outfit and everyone went to using that trailer it started having lots of problems with neglect and abuse It's a lot of money tho
Nige as far as PTO compressors go the real draw back has been lack of load on the truck engine causing emissions problems that I have seen almost all the dealer trucks now have a Miller enpack on them for this reason
I use a lubemate trailer... has 2 fender tanks (30 gal each I think) I carry hydraulic oil in them, and diesel in a bigger tank. Uses an air pump for both oil and fuel. Has a compressor and hose reels. Added a toolbox and carry grease, some tools and engine oil (to top off). I don’t carry enough to do a full fluid change, but do to service full harvest fleet. The lubemate pulls good with my pu, but I usually pull it with my service truck, so I have my shop with me. (Welder, torch, water, tools, crane, etc are on the Trk).
But is that a viable option for a trailer such as CM is looking at.? I can understand that it makes sense on a larger service truck body. My experience of small usually gas-powered compressors is not good from a long-term reliability standpoint, small diesel engines a little better but still nothing to write home about.
As far as small compressors go your right there is not a great bullet proof option that I know of that doesn't depend on a small engine of sometimes finicky reliability The only thing I would think is any of there pickups probably have compressors on them that probably make enough air to get by in a pinch so there is some redundancy The only other great option would be like listed above have a service truck set up and make the trailer a support unit on the truck In a side note most of my small engine problems has come from neglect because its the last thing I think about until it wont start and I would imagine like with my previous experiences with mechanics truck is always most likely to have neglect issues in the fleet it's always the last unit worked on I would imagine in my stuff if I service my little Honda motors like I do everything else I would probably rarely have problems My experience of small usually gas-powered compressors is not good from a long-term reliability standpoint, small diesel engines a little better but still nothing to write home about.
100% agree. Therefore if it was a one-man operation as CM proposed maybe it might survive OK so long as the guy operating the unit was tasked to be the one person responsible for it's maintenance & reliability.
With lots of use, the Honda motors can do two to three years without changing engine oil. The US made stuff about half that. In my experience bad fuel and old spark plugs are the biggest issues with the small engines. After that it is just them being out in the weather all the time with the ensuing deterioration. I've actually had pretty good luck with the small to medium compressors. The worst thing about them is the noise. The PTO compressors work good if you have a big tank and can start and shut down the engine remotely. What I couldn't stand about the PTO compressors is the initial cost.
We've had great service out of our small Honda gas powered air compressors. The IR compressor with Honda engine on the current service truck is 14 years old. Replaced the muffler and the brass pressure regulator on the air tank over the years. Other then that the Honda has hit a stroke every time the switch was turned - no BS. This little Dewalt air compressor grenaded it's self on the air compressor side but the little Honda engine is still going strong. Found a website that has a great parts schematic and going to put it back together as we have the time. This compressor is in the 12-13 year old vintage as well, just went down a month ago. Replaced that compressor with a Makita wheelbarrow unit also powered with a Honda.
honda small engines are hard to beat` we have probably 30 of them scattered around on paint pumps&small compressors`power washers etc. plus two on hyd units that sit out always . biggest problem with them is starter ropes
Believe it or not, I have found the Predator (Honda clone) engines from Harbor Freight to be fantastic. If they last a week, they will go 10 yrs.
Also, the powerhorse engines from northern tool work well. Have one on air compressor and one on pressure washer (414cc) one is electric start, Other is not. Also got two of there generators that link together like the Honda 2000i’s... they work great! And are cheaper to purchase.
I agree Mitch- the Predator engines are one of the few quality items at HF.
I've never used a Thunder Creek trailer or any fuel/lube trailers, but did use a different brand fuel/def trailer when I was harvesting. Having enough fuel for 4 400 hp machines and bulk DEF was great. It was never fun for me when we spilt up and I was keeping 2 combines and maybe a grain cart going with the tank in the service truck and jugs of DEF. Apart from the trailer springing a leak 2-3 times a year, the only other problem was the way the DEF system worked. Unlike the Thunder Creek units, our trailer could not draw from IBC totes so we were pumping out of totes into the trailer tank. This could technically void the emissions system warranty as it wasn't a closed system before it went in the machines tank. Nobody from pro harvest or the local dealers gave us a hard time about it, but it could have become a problem.