Convertible hopper???

We ran Cornhusker Convertables and Wilson Convertables for years and years. They were a fairly high revenue trailer for us. The Cornhuskers were by far easier to convert than the Wilsons were but the Wilsons seemed to be more sturdy built. You will have to get into an entirely different mentality pulling a convertable than pulling a straight hopper. There will be times when you wonder why you just don't have a hopper because you are never using the floor, and there will be times when you wil wonder why you don't just have a dry van because you are never using the hoppers. Where they really shine is when you can put palletized product on the ends and bulk in the middle. You will make a lot of customers happy with that. Being a specialty trailer you are able to ask a higher rate because you will be one of the only games in town that can handle material like that. Be ready for some manual labor because not every load is forklift on and forklift off. I personally have tossed 50# bags off several loads. Be ready to use a hand cart and your muscles. You will find that some bulk products are fine in a convertable and some products are not fine in a convertable. Be extremely careful when unloading a product out of the hoppers that hangs up a bit. You can wind up singing soprano if you slip on the crossbeams that go across the hopper. Overall if I had to do it again, i would hook up to a convertable in a heartbeat. There is a little work involved but a little honest hard work never hurt anyone and it will keep you in shape.

Thanks for the info!

Ouch....right thru the heart!!!!!!!!!! I ran walking floors for several years also and loved them. We used to run beet pulp shreds out of California out to dairies in Pennsylvania years ago. They worked fine until one day my wet kit decided to fail. Spent a lot of time with a pitchfork tossing out beet pulp shreds out of my walker onto a bunch of little Amish horse drawn wagons. Twas a fun day at the office that day!!!

Truth is I can't afford a walking floor. Used hoppers are in my price range

My walking floor was set up to walk both ways. When I hauled a pallet load, they would set two pallets on the tail and then i would walk them forward. I know some Wilkens floors are set up to handle fork lifts, but the Anji that i had would not. We hauled potatoes and onions on it, also apples and other produce as well. I had produce vents put in mine so if the weather was shabby we could open the vents and still be ok. Also had a vent in the tarp header front and rear to be able to maintain air flow. Cool trailers but when i pulled one they seemed to be a little more high maintenance than my convertable. The teflon seals between the slats in the floor would wear out fairly quick if you moved anything that was abrasive. We also had a hopper put in the back end of the trailer so we could more readily control the flow of the product if we ever had to dump in a small pit. Opening the doors and letting 102" of material fall out works well in some applications but not in all. How bout it Art....Any thing else you can add? I need to change bandages on that massive wound you gave me about my convertables!!!! :)