A national heavy equipment rental company and customer of Felling Trailers had one of its accounts, a renewable energy contractor, working on a solar project spanning several locations in their coverage area. Bringing the power from the solar fields, they needed some heavy-duty triple reel trailers that were capable of hauling three 97-inch-diameter by 77-inch-wide, 10,000 pound reels for underground cable.
With the solar projects already in progress, the trailers were needed inside of a four-week time frame. To compare, the standard build time for a reel trailer the required size needed for the project would be 10 weeks or longer. The national rental company had previously utilized Felling Trailers' stock inventory and knew they could help for this situation as well. Mark Rapp, Felling Trailers' utility and telecom product specialist, suggested the FT-30-2 LP (low profile), a 15-ton tag trailer, as it could be converted to a heavy three-reel trailer.
The FT-30-2 LPs were mounted with a one-piece, three-reel assembly bolted to the flat deck surface, and the assembly had 3-inch by 3-inch heavy wall steel tubing. It was equipped with a 2.88-inch-diameter reel bar that spins on 660 SAE continuous cast bronze bushing saddles. The reel bars were fitted with a cross arm to tie the reel spool to the bar and a locking collar to keep the reels centered. Both the cross arm and locking collar were equipped with lifting hooks to aid in safe loading/unloading of the reels onto the rack assembly.
The renewable energy contractor ended up liking the trailers so much, they ordered eight of them, including two FT-24-2 LP triple reels with smaller reels. A removable reel rack on a trailer ensures that it will be used throughout its life and not just purchased for a specific application/project. This package allows the reel rack to be easily removed, and the trailer can then be used to haul equipment, materials, etc.
Information provided by Felling Trailers and edited by Alexis Brumm.
