Four bodies, four jobs. Side by side on deck length, payload, loading method and what each one stops you doing — so you can rule three of them out fast.
Before payload, before price, before anything on a specification sheet: how does the load get onto the trailer, and how does it come off?
Crane or grab from above — rules out the dry van completely. Rules in flatbed, dropside and fence.
Forklift from the side — wants a dropside or a fence body with panels that come away, or a flat deck.
Forklift or pallet truck from the rear — the dry van's natural loading method, through the doors.
Poured or shovelled in, tipped out — a tipping body, and nothing else is close.
Get this one wrong and no amount of specification fixes it afterwards.
Every trailer has two limits and you only ever hit one of them.
Weight-limited cargo — ore, coil, aggregate, dense scrap — reaches the axle limit with the body part empty. Body volume beyond that is tare weight you carry for nothing. Tippers, flat decks and coil trailers live here.
Volume-limited cargo — packaged goods, light scrap, anything with air in it — fills the body and never troubles the axles. Fence bodies and dry vans live here.
Work out which one you are before comparing anything else. A fence trailer bought for a weight-limited load is a bad purchase no matter how good the trailer is.
On the figures: all weights below are stated as tare weight (manufacturer's stated). That figure is taken with the spare wheel and its carrier, the toolbox and the landing legs on the trailer, and with no tarpaulin or bows fitted. Saying what is on the scale is what makes one row comparable with the next.
Only one of these four bodies protects the load.
A dry van is sealed. Weather out, cargo not reachable at a border queue or an overnight stop. That protection is the entire reason to accept its loading limitations.
Flatbed, dropside and fence are open. Sheeting and strapping give you weather protection at the cost of time on every load, and they give you very little security at all.
If your cargo would be damaged by rain or would be worth stealing, the decision is already made regardless of everything else on this page.
Turnaround is the number that decides how many trips a vehicle makes in a shift, and it varies far more between these four than any spec sheet suggests.
A tipper discharges in minutes without touching the load. Nothing else comes close for bulk material.
A flatbed or dropside discharges as fast as your handling equipment works, which on a good bay is quick and on a bad one is not.
A fence body is similar with panels off, slower with them on.
A dry van is the slowest, because everything comes out through the door end in sequence.
If two of these columns still look plausible for your work, the deciding question is almost always turnaround: how many loads a shift you need, and how much of that is spent at the bay rather than on the road.
| Flatbed | Dropside | Dry van | Side tipper | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading access | All sides and above | Side, rear, above | Rear doors only | Above |
| Weather protection | None | None | Full | None (sheeted optional) |
| Security | None | None | Full | None |
| Fills first | Weight | Either | Volume | Weight |
| Discharge | Handling equipment | Handling equipment | Handling equipment | Self, in minutes |
| Deck / body length | 12–13 m | 12–13 m | 12.9 m internal | 12–13 m |
| Tare weight (manufacturer's stated) | 6100 / 5800 / 5650 kg | 6100 / 5600 kg | 6600 / 6300 / 6100 kg | 7300 / 7100 / 6700 kg |
| Best for | Machinery, project cargo, coil | Mixed loads, crane and hand loading | Packaged and weather-sensitive freight | Bulk material on haul roads |
