Enclosed 53-ft Dry Vans for Protected Midwest Freight
Enclosed 53-foot trailers for protected freight across Wisconsin and the Midwest.
What Is a Dry Van?
The most common trailer on the highway.
A dry van is a fully enclosed trailer used to haul freight that needs to stay protected from weather and road conditions. It's the most common trailer type on the highway — the standard choice for palletized, packaged, and boxed goods moving between manufacturers, distribution centers, and end customers.
Laufer runs a modern dry van fleet out of Hartford, Wisconsin, handling the everyday work of Midwest dry van shipping — manufactured goods, packaged products, components, and palletized loads that belong inside a closed trailer rather than under a tarp.
| Dry van spec | Laufer fleet |
|---|---|
| Usable length | 53 feet |
| Usable width | 101 inches |
| Usable interior height | 110 inches |
| Loading | Rear-load only, swing doors at back |
| Typical payload | Up to ~45,000 lb (varies by load)* |
*Payload depends on the weight of the load and the tractor-trailer itself. Federal rules cap the full rig at 80,000 lb gross. Call us with your load and we will confirm.
Dry Van Dimensions and Capacity
Interior usable dimensions — what actually matters for your load.
A Laufer dry van offers 53 feet of usable length, 101 inches of usable width, and 110 inches of usable interior height. That 101-inch width runs wider than a standard logistics-post trailer, which means more usable floor space for pallets and cased goods.
For planning, a 53-foot dry van holds 26 standard 48-by-40-inch pallets loaded in a single floor layer. The 110-inch interior height clears standard palletized and dock-loaded freight; loads taller than the interior height, or ones that must load from the side or top, belong on a step deck or flatbed instead.
When a Dry Van Is the Right Choice
A dry freight van is the right call when your load is palletized or packaged, fits through standard dock doors, and needs to stay enclosed from origin to destination. That covers the vast majority of finished-goods freight: cases on pallets, boxed consumer products, packaged food and beverage, components and parts in returnable containers, and small-to-mid-sized manufactured goods.
Where a dry van isn't the right tool: loads that have to be lifted on or off from above (use an open flatbed), loads that are too tall or too wide for an enclosed trailer (use a step deck or open flatbed), and loads that need side-load access plus weather protection (use a Conestoga). For a side-by-side view of all four trailer types we run, see our Wisconsin trucking services overview. For everything else, the enclosed dry van is the default, and it's almost always the cheapest, simplest equipment that gets the job done.
How Loading Works at Laufer
On Laufer dry van freight, the customer loads the trailer and Laufer drives it. Our drivers handle the truck, the paperwork, and the move — your dock crew handles the load. That keeps responsibility clear: you know exactly how the freight was loaded and braced, and we know exactly what we picked up.
Our dry vans are rear-loading only, through standard swing doors at the back of the trailer. There is no side-door access on our dry van fleet. If your freight requires side or overhead loading — say, a long piece of equipment, a coil that has to come off a crane, or a load that won't fit through a dock door — that's a flatbed or Conestoga conversation, not a dry van conversation, and we're happy to point you to the right trailer.
Setting that expectation up front saves everyone a trip. Most Midwest dry van shippers are loading pallets out of a standard dock with a forklift or jack — that's exactly what our equipment is built for.
Laufer's Dry Van Service
Laufer is an asset-based, family-owned trucking company. We own the dry vans that move your freight, we employ the drivers behind the wheel, and we dispatch every load from our Hartford, Wisconsin headquarters. The carrier on your rate confirmation is the carrier on the dock — not a broker reselling someone else's capacity for the day.
On the operations side, three things tend to matter most to dry van customers: pickup reliability, communication, and dock flexibility. When we book a 3pm pickup, we mean 3pm. Quote and freight inquiries get a response within 15 minutes during business hours. And for shippers who'd rather load on their own schedule than wait for a live appointment, we run a drop-trailer / preload program — we'll spot a dry van at your dock, you load it over the next 24 hours, and we pull it when it's ready. A pool of Laufer trailers solving your floor-space and dock-door problem instead of adding to it.
Our lanes cover Wisconsin and the regional Midwest as the primary footprint, from in-state moves to the Chicagoland runs south of the border and the surrounding states our customers ship into and out of every week.
Trailer Rentals
Beyond hauling freight, Laufer occasionally rents trailers for storage and other uses when units are available. It is a modest, when-available service rather than a full rental fleet: if you need a trailer to park and load on your own site, to add temporary storage space, or for a short-term need, it is worth a call to check what is on the yard.
Because availability changes with the season and how the fleet is committed, rentals are handled case by case. Tell us what you need the trailer for and how long, and we will let you know what is available and the terms.