Fuel Trailer Cuts Costs, Keeps Equipment Running
Michael Miller is VP operations for Miller’s Construction, a site-prep contractor in Anderson, South Carolina. In this video, supplied by Thunder Creek, Miller explains how the company uses its 460-gallon multi-tank trailer (MTT) to haul bulk diesel to its job sites.
Miller says the company is challenged to manage the fuel required by its fleet of heavy equipment on sites throughout the Carolinas.
On one job site, Miller’s has 12 pieces of rolling stock on a site, all of which require fuel and lubes to be delivered to the site.
“If we run out of fuel, we don’t move any dirt,” says Miller.
The company initially looked to buy a new fuel and lube truck, Miller says. He said the acquisition prices the company found ranged from $80,000 to $200,000.
“We didn’t want to spend that money that way,” he says. “We looked at custom-building us a trailer.”
Miller says he found Thunder Creek and purchased an MTT 460. The trailer hauls 460 gallons of fuel and does require a commercial drivers license (CDL) to pull it. Nor does it require what Miller calls “expensive insurance” that is on his other fuel and lube trailer. He says he can use a standard pickup truck to move the MTT to whatever job requires extra fuel.
Matt Miller, the company’s project manager, explains that the trailer has a “full kit.” In addition to tanks for diesel fuel, the trailer includes equipment allowing the crew to grease equipment while it is being fueled, blow out air filters, and add diesel exhaust fluid (DEF).
“Instead of carrying around [DEF] in 2.5-gallon buckets, 5-gallon buckets, or a 1-gallon bucket, you’ve got 100 gallons on board,” he says. The hose from the tank to the equipment keeps the DEF onboard the trailer from becoming contaminated.
Michael Millers says another benefit of the trailer is that “nobody realizes what you’re actually hauling.”
“I’ve had friends say, ‘I like your new trailer; what is it?’ Nobody realizes it’s a fuel trailer.
Says Matt: “It looks like a Harley Davidson trailer when it’s going down the road.”
Source: Thunder Creek
