Aaron, I hope you have a cordless variable speed drill with extra batteries. That will make life much easier on assembly. And makes the enclosure easy to disassemble for future use. I suppose you're looking at a u-haul or similar rental flatbed. I'm not familiar with those, but I suspect you won't get 8 feet between the wheel fenders (unless there's a rental flatbed entirely above the wheels?), so I'd plan on only one 5-package rack wide the length of the trailer. I'm not sure the length of the packages you're getting, I would guess 16 inches across the mesh side and maybe 10 inches tall. They go on the trailer with the mesh facing the sides of the trailer, wooden sides facing front and back. The packages are loaded wooden sides tight with gaps between the packages aligned so air passes. I would suggest framing two wooden walls for the sides of the enclosure, 20-24 on center, with 2x4s and thin sheeting on the outside. The dimensions depend on how you stack. I'd say, with a 16x10 inch package (a guess on my part), you could go 6 high and into a 7th row, for about 8.5 feet. You'd built your side wall enclosure 9.5 or 10 feet long. You want a couple feet above the packages (and room for your head while loading). They could be transported pyramided in the back of your pickup. Or you can adjust the length/height accordingly, once you confirm size of the flatbed waiting for you. The roof would be framed also, with the sheeting hanging 5 inches over the size of the frame on the long side. If you do built it for one unit wide, at least 6 inches clearance between the units and the walls would be good. On assembly, screw the roof sheeting into the top of the side walls. The front would be similarly framed, with sheeting overlapping the side walls. You want at least a 6 inch tall area without sheeting across the top of the front wall. That should be at least a foot and a half or two above the packages, so no wind directly hits them. You can also put smaller vents in the front wall, perhaps behind the tailgate. As long as your pickup exhaust reliably exits to the side. Inside the front, you'll want a secondary wall about a 6 inches to a foot behind the sheeted wall. This will simply be a sideways "H" shaped surface to stack your packages against, 2x4s or 6s. The "H" should be secure with the walls. In the middle of the "H" will be a hook or securement of some kind for tying down the load. This false wall allows circulation for the front of the load. As you load, strips of lathe will be stapled along the top of the stacks (I hope) to secure them side to side. Also, as each row is loaded, you will be stringing your strap/rope/tie down/cable from its connection to the "H" at the front, through the middle of each row, until the last full row of units. There, a lighter-duty "H" will hold the back of the load, and whatever method you chose to secure the packages front to back will be tightened. The remaining unit could be lathed to the back of the secured load. At the back, close it with a similar simple, screwed in place (but not as heavy) rear wall, but with at least 6 inches or much more of opening along the bottom, and perhaps smaller ones in the middle. This causes the air from the front to pass through the packages as it exits. Be sure the back wall is well secured, it could blow out. I used to "cross tie" the back with rope or straps to help support it. It wouldn't hurt the packages to have no back wall, except for the sun that might be on them, and the loss of structural support for the back of the enclosure. Jerry's right, get a two-axle trailer if you can find one. Another option is to borrow a flatbed one-ton from someone near your destination and build a similar structure on it. In that case, you might be able to go two units wide. Secure the whole thing by at least a pair of 2 inch straps from side to side, and 2 front to back. If there's a wooden deck, screw the front and side walls down. If there's a bumper on the front, put the enclosure up against it. Or if there's stake pockets in front, put a large nail in a piece of wood and drop it in the front stake pockets to use as a bumper. Slamming on the brakes is your enemy. As to the water suggestion, I've never used it, although it might be nice. I used to go from California to northern Alberta, and without water had little dead bees in the bottom of the packages. But, don't stop in the daylight if you can help it, nor at night while it's warm. Bring a friend/co-pilot and do your best to eat from a cooler and minimize daytime stops. Here's the Biology part of the post: they generate a lot of heat, and once they know they're too hot and start fanning/roaring, it takes a lot of cool to get them to relax. Heat is the killer; they will cluster if they get cold, which is fine. Even stopping at night is a mistake unless you have seriously cold temps, like 50 F with breeze or fan. I like Jerry's suggestion of a temp sensor. You could drill a hole in a wall and mount an indoor/outdoor temp gauge on the outside wall, with the sensor on a wire secured in the middle of the load. But more important than temperature is air movement. Without that, their own metabolic heat and rising CO2 will cause them to fan, creating more heat, and lead to chain reaction/meltdown. If you drive with temps below 60 F, you might partially close the front upper vents by screwing more sheeting of top of the existing sheeting, but never cover the vent. If it rains and it's not heavy, I wouldn't worry about closing the front vents. What an adventure! It sounds like fun. If this description seems good to you, I can answer more questions off-list. I'm sure there's many opinions on what temps are safe and how to do this. Tim *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html