Product Report: Fontaine's Revolution Hybrid Dropdeck Trailer
P RODUCT REPORT
by Amy Materson
Fontaine’s Revolution H dropdeck
Aerospace technology combined with thoughtful R&D delivers a strong, lightweight trailer.
W
ith its Revolution Hybrid dropdeck model, Fontaine Trailer wanted to introduce a lightweight trailer that also tackled a laundry list of problems associated with hauling. The resulting trailer has a composite construction that includes steel mainbeams and an aluminum floor. The 48-foot-long by 102-inchwide unit weighs just 9,300 pounds and handles 52,000 pounds of concentrated load in 5 feet. Adding strength Strength and durability were high on the list for Fontaine when developing the Revolution Series. The company used a solid-state joining process used in the aerospace industry – friction-stir welding – instead of
welding the floor together. Friction-stir welding joins the metal without applying heat. The process provides numerous benefits, says Hank Prochazka, vice president of sales and marketing. “It eliminates weak welds created by applying heat, and there are no bad welds due to operator errors,” he says. “Also, weld wire can add between 200 and 350 pounds to a trailer, and we wanted this trailer to be lighter in weight.” The result is a unitized floor that corrects problems created in the past by exposed crossmembers and holes in the mainbeams. At first glance, it appears the crossmembers have been eliminated, but they have been incorporated into the floor as a continuous span of connected crossmembers. Jim Adams, Fontaine’s