16' box truck ground to bed height

[millerstrand]

Hi, I've been searching the Internet for any information about a somewhat specialized truck we may need and I stumbled upon this site. You all seem knowledgeable so hopefully I can get some help.

We just bought a new warehouse We have a standard dock, 48". We've been trying out trucks of various sizes to see what fits best. We have an 18' box truck right now, which has a bed height of 44", which works with our ramp but we're learning 18' is too big of a truck for what we do and for NYC. So we'll be trying out a 16'. However, most 16' box truck heights seem to top out a bit over 3', which will render the ramp we have useless (it can only handle a 7" difference.)

My question is, is there any make that produces a box truck that has a bed height around the height of the 18'? We would like to avoid having to buy additional equipment like wheel ramps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Moot]

I don't see why a 16' box would have a lower deck height than your 18 footer, unless the 16' is on a lesser chassis. Are you looking at new trucks? If so you should be able to spec any practical deck height. Talk to your truck dealer or box manufacturer.

 

[cableguymn]

Do you have more than one dock or only need one truck? I have seen lots of docks with ramps made out of 4x4's or built up with dirt and blacktop.

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[millerstrand]

I don't see why a 16' box would have a lower deck height than your 18 footer, unless the 16' is on a lesser chassis. Are you looking at new trucks? If so you should be able to spec any practical deck height. Talk to your truck dealer or box manufacturer.

We're renting until we find what we need - we're a large independent retail shop and this is the first time we've had a warehouse off site. So far every rental company I've talked to has said the 16' are lower than the 18'.

 

[millerstrand]

Do you have more than one dock or only need one truck? I have seen lots of docks with ramps made out of 4x4's or built up with dirt and blacktop.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

We have one dock. We own one truck but we get deliveries all the time so we can't adjust our dock to specifically fit just one truck.

 

[zorry]

The rental truck companies are geared towards the consumer use. They stay as low as possible to prevent overhead damage and to ease the loading process at the house. When you go to buy a truck, lease long term,or contract your work out through a local company specify that you need a dock high truck. Industry standard is 48-52 inches.
You can adj a little by running up on hardened 2x12's but getting the right height is always better. If you get an air ride truck there may be a little adjustment to the height. Most air ride suspensions have a dump valve that dumps the air out of the air springs(. bags) that will lower the truck 3 or 4 inches. Do not drive over a few feet or very fast with air dumped. A good suspension shop could look at any paticular truck and explain you options in minutes.
Need a shop ? Ask here with your city and state and we'll refer you to one. Good luck.
If you have a lot of hauling to do sometimes it's better to leave trucking to the professionals. There's a little more to it than meets the eye.