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A van towing a cargo trailer CAN work-- but not so well in expedite. It's a specific purpose type of vehicle. If I was a carpenter and needed something to handle my supplies and tools, something I could secure on the job site, or if I was into lawn and garden work and needed to transport the...

The straight truck has been mentioned, and-- you're right. The whole van-pulling-a-trailer bit is a lot more work than it's worth. You beat the living daylights out of the van (towing a trailer is hard on the van) and the reward isn't much more than you'd get just with the van alone. On the...

I saw one other set-up worthy of mention. The generator was mounted to the left rear door. It would allow you to open the door fully without having to remove the generator first. The only question is whether the door hinges will deal with that added weight over a long period of time.

A couple of shock cords might help stabilize it. Any kind of link on one side or the other would do it, too.

It isn't that hard to add a temp gauge. I've done it, in fact I had to build up an entire instrument panel. Not fun but it had to be done. Unless you completely block the grill I doubt that you'll have a cooling issue anyway. It's hard to see how you could block the grill. The receiver will...

OK. I got curious and looked it up. First I looked up Shipping Wars, then I looked up Jarrett on Shipping wars. Please God, say I didn't see that. It turns out Jarrett is using the kind of trailer we're recommending here, but with one notable difference. His trailer has a ramp. Great big fat no...

I really hope Pkoelle does it that way. If there is any chance of success, it has to be the camper van and cargo trailer. Special note: get the heaviest van. You're asking it to do an enormous amount of work, and a 3500 series van will handle it better than a lighter unit will. You're going to...

I'm glad they persisted too. Problem is, Alexander G. Bell isn't going to be there to keep the shipper from complaining when it takes you too much time to drop the trailer, load the van and then re-connect the trailer. It's no problem if you only do small, hand-loaded freight. You can do that...

I think A-Team is right, given an earlier post in this thread. You might be able to drive in and out of NYC many times without a problem. Get hit one time in the rear, even though the other person is at fault, and the whole issue could break down to what you were doing in the city in an oversize...

For you guys that are out for three months, I guess where you end up matters a good deal. It matters somewhat less to us hotshot types because the likelihood is that we're coming back empty anyhow. Never been to Texas, one of these days I'll have to get down that way. There was a time in the...

Lack of planning on your part is why I have a job. Thank you.

Better signage. Better education. There is little excuse for not knowing how high your truck is, if you don't know then measure it. When I had the Sprinter, it had the super-high top. I was 8.5 at the high-mount brake light, 9' at the tip of the antennae. I might chance a McDonald's...

I suspected there could be problems. One of the big ones is that while a van can certainly tow a trailer, and some can tow up to 5,000 lbs, they aren't designed for it. They're designed to be a load-carrying vehicle in their own right. I had the idea that if you are hell-bent on doing this...

The only way I can see this working at all is to set the van up as a camper, then connect a cargo trailer to it. That way you don't have the endless nonsense of disconnecting/re-connecting the trailer at each and every pickup/delivery. Even then, I can imagine trouble getting many carriers to go...

Special add-on. I've had occasion to look into the matter of adding a generator to my set-up. The question of where to put it immediately comes up. A trip to the RV dealer was somewhat less than successful in that regard, they suggested a platform mount connected to a standard rear-mounted...

All those inventors weren't trying to run a time-sensitive load and having to mess with a trailer. I've towed a trailer before-- never in business-- so I know it's no small matter to hook and unhook the trailer at each end of a run. Turtle brought up the problem of where to drop the trailer--...

If I could get $1.40 a mile, I would think someone turned me loose in the Treasury. These days I'm getting $1.08 per loaded mile.

If you've got a friend in the business, I suppose it's possible. You'd have to work out the details with the friend, of course. At that point you're probably not doing expedited as we understand it, but of course expedited is only one of the business models out there and by no means the only one.

I've never had a crazy-tight scheduled run. But, I've never been on a run where messing with a camping trailer was going to be high on the list of things I want to have to do, either. Disconnecting and securing the trailer-- it is possible, you can buy tongue locks and these days you can buy a...

This is one thing the Sprinters have over those of us who drive Chevys and Fords. If you get the big one, you've got room. Fourteen feet between the seats and the back doors, room to stand up in and so on. It's possible to make a cozy cave right behind the seats and still have room to get two...