The Pros and Cons of Shipping With Timber Skids
Unlike wooden pallets, timber skids have no bottom deck boards – they only have a single deck. This quality lends itself to use for storage and shipping of heavy loads. If you're looking to use skids to ship large and heavy machinery or heavy items like rolled steel and precast concrete beams, you should know about the advantages and disadvantages of these shipping products.
Here's a rundown of what you need to know about the pros and cons of using timber skids.
Pros of Timber Skids
Timber skids offer many great benefits, including but not limited to the following:
Robust construction: Heavy haulage companies need to take extra care when transporting heavy or oversize loads. In this regard, it is vital to ensure proper securement of loads before truckers can hit the road. Timber skids are made from high-quality hardwoods that can provide the structural support needed to safely transport heavy stuff. Before skids can be used, performance and load stress tests are done to ensure the wood can match the demands of normal use.
Customisability: Timber skids come in a range of standard sizes and configurations, but that doesn't mean they can't be designed and built to match your particular application criteria. If your shipping needs can't be met with standard skids, you can always order custom made skids.
Cost-effectiveness: As timber is a readily available material and the manufacture of timber skids isn't as capital-intensive as that of plastic or metal skids, the price of timber skids has remained stable for a long time. This makes it the perfect choice for cost-conscious users.
Repairability: Loose or detached boards can be secured by driving exposed nails back in with a hammer. If additional reinforcement is desired, more nails can be hammered into the timber. Broken or damaged boards can also be easily removed and replaced with new ones.
Cons of Timber Skids
In spite of delivering the above benefits, timber skids also have some limitations. These include:
Moisture and water damage: Like other real wood products, timber skids are susceptible to bacterial and fungal growth when they become wet. The wood used to make these shipping products is usually pretreated to minimise this risk.
High level of maintenance required: As timber skids may warp, break or rot over time, they require an extra level of care to remain in good working shape. This may significantly increase lifecycle costs.
Weighing the above pros and cons, timber skids still offer great value. Contact a skid construction company to get timber skids designed for your specific application.
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