what is the Best flatbed deal at Menards?

All of them are good. I dont have that many 11.5 flats but I think the loads are getting better like aging fine wine. Look at what they started with and where they are now the products and loads are getting better.

The longer ones are essentially scale.  They also have better detail and wood decks.  I have several of these, and they all roll and couple well.

Alan

I just bought this one. Got the free Hummer too! It's a very nice looking car and the panel truck is well done.

I prefer the 14.5, also like the 11.5 but the 10.5 reminds me too much of the ones that came in lionel cheap, cheap sets. 

I prefer the 11.5 inch cars. They have better details and proportions than the 10.5 inch cars, and fewer clearance issues than the 14.75 inch cars. At $25 I think they are the best value too.

I personally like the 14.5" ones, they have really nice sprung trucks and very low rolling resistance.  If I buy more, they'll be the 14.5" ones.

The top photo is a traditional size car and the bottom photo is a more scale proportion flat car that looks perfectly fine with other scale cars from the usual manufacturers.  I don’t have exact measurements or pay much attention to scale or non scale. If it looks good to me I roll with it plain and simple.  The larger of the 2 cars is a little nicer with the sprung trucks but you can’t beat the price from Menards either way. 

Thanks to all, and nice pictures. You were a bad influence on me and I figured I had to try a bit of all of the above so you can see I tried the long flat car suggested by Alan, bill, and GRJ and then had to do several of the 11.5 inch due to the neat loads (recommended by rsj, john, and tim) - how can you argue with a Leopard tank with noise and LED?  Looks like Chris has both sizes in his pictures.  The wild card I had not intended to go for was the bus, again how can you lose even if the short car but I think it has metal trucks?

By ordering the potpourri, I took a hit on the quantity discount but now I have a major fleet of Starbucks trucks.  I wonder what a Starbucks distribution or processing plant looks like- maybe Morton salt?

I'd like to see Menards do a little better job of matching era-specific vehicles to proper era-specific road names.  For instance, a modern day excavator on a Pennsylvania flatcar?  A little bit of a stretch, in my opinion.  A 1950's era Pepsi truck on a Norfolk Southern flatcar?  Another bit of a stretch.  A modern day Mountain Dew truck on a New York Central flatcar?  I don't think so.  A modern day Ford F-150 on a Santa Fe flatcar?  Not prototypical at all.  Modern day Kemp's tanker trailers on Rock Island flatcars?  No way!!!

Although the last few releases of flatcars w/loads do seem to be a little more in line.  Regardless, I still have purchased some of the previous era-specific mismatches anyway.  Just had to have them for one reason or another.  

hokie71 posted:

Thanks to all, and nice pictures. You were a bad influence on me and I figured I had to try a bit of all of the above...

Good call on the bus. I have the Santa Fe version and my Dad thinks it's the coolest!

   The shorties I got needed the plastic coupler's knuckle and pocket worked for 5 min. with a round file to stop coupler binding in curves.

  But I'd still buy more. On sale they were only $8 anyhow.

   I like these better than "starter sets" simply because the colors aren't in "day glow" colors.

make your own, I buy flat cars at shows, go to tractor supply and buy toy tractors and wire them to the flat cars.

Popi,

Amen, that is what I plan to do- make my own eventually.  For the little bit extra Menards charges for their loads, it is super attractive to get them.  some of the stuff that I have coming as a  load may go to grandchildren or someplace else on the layout after I build  replacements.  I have several 1:48 plastic models I am testing my fine modeling skills (minimal at this point!).  Grandson will get a flat car and a model kit to see what he can do- got to get the younger folks rolling too.

The Menards 14.5 inch flatcars are super nice for the price. Half the price as the other importers.

   Bill T.

I have several of the 14.5" cars!  

The only comment I have regarding these longer cars is they tend to "Bow" in the middle. I think they need to use Metal Frames (instead of plastic) for these longer cars. BUT, that would bring up the price! Otherwise they aren't bad!

Bought 4 more of the 14.5 inch cars and generally satisfied with the value of my overall Menard's flat car purchases with two thoughts:

1) fredstrains makes a good point. the bowing is a fact - so far it has not caused me to have an issue I could not get around.

2) As many have commented in general the trucks are still inconsistent.  My estimate is 1 out of 5 axles need some work and watch out for the bearing caps falling off. 

3) Nit pick point:  stakes are too wobbly and don't fit the slots for a consistent look.  On the positive, with an occasional small dab of goop, they do have a scale look.

These are big flat cars and a lot of fun to make loads to go on them.

hokie71 posted:

Bought 4 more of the 14.5 inch cars and generally satisfied with the value of my overall Menard's flat car purchases with two thoughts:

1) fredstrains makes a good point. the bowing is a fact - so far it has not caused me to have an issue I could not get around.

2) As many have commented in general the trucks are still inconsistent.  My estimate is 1 out of 5 axles need some work and watch out for the bearing caps falling off. 

3) Nit pick point:  stakes are too wobbly and don't fit the slots for a consistent look.  On the positive, with an occasional small dab of goop, they do have a scale look.

These are big flat cars and a lot of fun to make loads to go on them.

In addition to what I have previously said and stated above, the Flanges on the wheels are too long and when they go thru Atlas Switches, the car wobbles! The flange hits the bottom of the “Frogs” !

Fredstrains

The 14 1/2" are ok but you need to puts some weight on them or under them.