Avg Trailer Length

Is there an industry standard tanker trailer length? Does it change based on food grade, gas, chemical?

 

No. Depends on what you haul,where you haul,ect. I've pulled double 35 ft., 24 ft. 40ft. truck/trailers, 48ft., 53ft. semi. But a OTR tanker prolly 53ft. trailer.

 

what do you classify as an OTR tanker?

 

A truck that travels out of a Regional area.

 

I believe most chemical tanks are in the 43-45ft range. I'm sure depending on your needs, you could have one built longer, or shorter.

 

It mostly depends on the weight of the product. I know with gasoline the company knows exactly how many gallons to load to keep under the legal limit or under the permit. It changes with temperature and that why sometimes you see the gallons stenciled on top of the compartment listing three different amounts. They spec the truck and trailer so they get maximum amount for their dollar. It's not like general freight where your load changes all the time. Most tanker companies haul one or two types of products on a specific truck so they know all there is to know in what they need. There's no sense to spend the extra dollar in a trailer when you do not need. With our truck and trailers the power unit was the max in length with a drawbar extended to meet the bridge law. Then we would pull a trailer that was around 35' long. So you had the power unit with a tank mounted on it in approx. 30', and drawbraw 20' and then a 35' trailer. We were permitted up to 105,000lbs and over all length of 85". We'd load 12,450 gallons and would be right up close to max.

Your OTR tanker more likely will be standard in length because of all the states they cross. We couldn't take our oversize tankers to AZ and had a regular truck and trailer for those loads. So again the company will spec the trailer so it meets weight and length requirements. Most semi trailers I've seen are 45'.

 

We have 42',43' and 45' foot trailers for hauling gas/oil into stations. 45' trailers are one of the worst things our company bought IMO...

 

I know. It's funny I can take that 85' truck and trailer and get into more stations than a semi. The trailer tracks closer to the truck and I suppose that's why the companies went to them out west.

 

Everything is semi trailers in our area... I would be curious to try out a truck/pup combo for some of the stations... I will say pulling a 45' vs a 43' can make a big difference in certain stations.

 

Thanks for the responses.

What are the loading/unloading scenarios like for tankers? For example most dry van it's basically check in with security/shipping/receiving, go to dock door, sometimes slide tandems, open doors, get backed in, chock wheels, wait.