Joel - I started with a pick-up. Got to be the worst way. Inconvenient, and
doesn't hold much. When bed rotted(1974 IH), replaced it with PT homemade one.
Not too bad for 100 colonies, but not really big enough for a day's work.
Graduated to a gooseneck trailer pulled by a pick-up. Real nice!. Can leave
trailer behind, and use pick-up for deliveries, kid taxi, etc. Nice and low for
loading. Still use it. Got bigger pick-up/diesel engine. Great rig. Never buy
another gas engine!. Have a 1-ton ford too, with flatbed. Easier to get around
with!. Especially in mud season and snow. Doesnt take much to get a trailer
bogged down, even on the flat!
 
Joel Govostes wrote:
 
> The local commercial outfit I sometimes work for uses large flat-bed trucks
> (1-1.5 ton?) for bringing in the crop.
>
> The beds on these trucks are about 5 feet off the ground, at least,
> requiring one person to stay up there and stack the supers onto the
> pallets.  (As the day goes by the height of the truck bed seems to
> increase, as the supers get "heavier!")
>
> This is okay, if there is always an "extra" person available, besides those
> carrying supers from the hives.  I think we get something like 250 mediums
> on one load.  The stacks are rolled off into the honey house with a hand
> truck.
>
> Another local NY guy, with a smaller operation, tows a low trailer instead,
> behind a smaller truck.  This way he can load the supers right onto the
> trailer, with a minumum of lifting upwards.  (Plus the trailer can be
> detatched and left wherever.)  I believe he wheels the stacks off with a
> hand-truck as well.
>
> Anyway, can anyone offer any other points in favor of a trailer, vs. a
> pickup or other bed-truck?  Besides the slight complications in driving, I
> wonder if anyone has found this to be a better arrangement, at least on a
> sideliner-scale.
>
> My pickup has a permanently frozen tailgate, so I have fun lifting the
> supers over the sides.  Fortunately it is a small truck (not full size
> pickup) so it isn't too bad.
>
> Best regards and thanks for any input,
>
> JG