Types of van body: what exists and how to choose for your cargo
A “van body” is not one thing but a dozen different structures. One holds −20 °C, another merely keeps the rain off, a third opens along its whole side in five seconds. Here is what the types are, how they differ and how to pick yours.
The first split: does it need a temperature range
The whole classification of truck bodies starts with one question: must the body hold a temperature? The answer splits vehicles into two large groups, each with its own variants.
- Without a temperature range — dry-freight van, flatbed platform, tarpaulin-over-flatbed, eurotent and sliding tarpaulin. Their job is to keep the load safe from rain, dust and prying eyes.
- With a temperature range — insulated van, refrigerated body, eutectic body (ice-cream van), plus the narrowly specialised bread van and bottle carrier.
A mistake at this step costs most: a thin dry body will not hold cold with any unit fitted, while a thick insulated panel on a dry-freight round eats useful volume and payload for nothing.
Dry-freight van
Dry-freight body — a closed body with no temperature control. The panel is thin, about 25 mm, because there is nothing to insulate: inside are furniture, packaging, appliances and goods for retail chains and marketplaces.
What matters here is not insulation but strength and volume: a floor of laminated plywood or treadplate aluminium, lashing tracks at two levels, kick protection along the bottom of the walls. The same body is called a furniture van when it is fitted with straps and soft lining for moving furniture.
An insulated van
An insulated van — a thermos on wheels: walls of 50–100 mm sandwich panel with polyurethane foam, but no refrigeration unit. The body does not cool anything; it only slows heat transfer, holding the temperature for a few hours if loaded cold.
That is enough for short legs and for goods that do not need a strict range: baked goods, groceries, drinks, chilled products within the city. On a long haul or in the heat an insulated body loses — the load warms up gradually.
Refrigerated body
Refrigerated body — the same insulated body plus a refrigeration unit. The compressor takes heat out of the body and dumps it outside, so the vehicle does not merely hold cold but creates and maintains a set range: from 0…+6 °C for dairy down to −20 °C for frozen goods.
The lower the temperature required, the thicker the panel — for −20 °C you take 100 mm.
We match the unit to body volume and temperature range:Refrigeration equipment installation · Carrier · Elinge · Kaida
Insulated, refrigerated and eutectic — what is the difference
These three words are confused more often than any others, though the difference is simple: who actually produces the cold, and where it comes from.
| Insulated | Refrigerated body | Eutectic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source of cold | none, insulation only | engine-driven or self-powered refrigeration unit | plates charged overnight from the mains |
| Duty | holds whatever was loaded | sets and maintains anything within its range | down to −24 °C, with no unit running en route |
| Doors open | warms up fast | recovers, but not instantly | cold is released continuously, pauses do not matter |
| Panel thickness | 50–80 mm | 80–100 mm | 100 mm and thicker |
| Where it wins | short legs, mild range | long hauls, any cargo | ice-cream delivery rounds |
Hence a practical rule: if the doors open more than ten times a shift and the load is deep-frozen, look at a eutectic body rather than at a more powerful unit.
How such a body is built:Ice-cream van
Specialised bodies
Some bodies are built for one particular product and are recognisable from outside.
- Bakery van — a sectioned body with runners for bread trays and four to six hatches along the sides. Trays slide in from outside; the body is never opened as a whole.
- Bottle carrier — a honeycomb body for water bottles and crates: the load sits in cells and does not knock about on the move.
- Ice-cream van — a eutectic body with 3+3 to 6+6 door sections: only the section the goods come from is opened.
- Mobile shop van — a shop on wheels: a serving window, display cases, lighting and a place for the seller.
- Crew bus — a passenger module instead of a cargo body, on an all-wheel-drive chassis.
Open and tarpaulin bodies
When the load does not mind the weather, or will not fit in a closed space, a platform is fitted.
- Dropside platform — a flat deck with drop sides. Loaded by crane from above and by forklift from any side.
- Dropside with tarpaulin — the same platform with a frame and a removable sheet. Cheap protection from the weather, but the side opens only by untying the tarpaulin.
- Curtain-side — a tarpaulin superstructure with rear swing doors: loading from the side, from above and from the rear.
- Sliding (curtain) tarpaulin — the sheet runs on rollers along a rail and opens the whole side in seconds. Fitted where there are many side loadings.
How to choose: four questions
1. What temperature does the cargo need? That determines the body type and the panel thickness. If there are two ranges — say freezing and chilling on the same trip — you need a multi-temperature body with a bulkhead.
2. How much of what do you carry? Work from the internal dimensions and the pallet layout, not the external size: an extra five centimetres of width is sometimes a whole extra row.
Check your own dimensions:Van configurator
3. How is it loaded and unloaded? Rear frame, side door, tail lift, sliding tarpaulin — both the construction and the payload that is left depend on this.
4. Which chassis? The body length sets the wheelbase required, and the gross weight sets the licence category: up to 3 500 kg a category B licence is enough, above that you need C.
Choosing a chassis for the job:Chassis comparison for vans
COND builds every body listed here at its own works in Almaty, to the customer's chassis — each project shows the body dimensions and the equipment fitted: Projects delivered by COND.