Food grade tanks with baffles ?

There is no baffles in food grade tankers. It has to be smoothbore so that when it's sanitized there is no place for bacteria to hide and infest the next payload of food material such as milk. If not cleaned that trailer can ruin everything put into it. If not discarded people will get sick really bad on it.

Surge is not a big deal provided you added or subtracted power according to what the trailer is thinking about. You the driver has much to do to keep that trailer from getting too mean and onery kicking you. Sometimes when you leave a traffic light, you like to pile up the product in the back and hold it there until you reach cruise, then let off the power gently to let it settle.

Sometimes when its stopped rather fast at the light you would let off the air application and let the tractor drift a few feet to minimize the slam that is coming when the product reaches the front of the trailer. It's different way of driving generally than just solid freight.

My way of tanking is put a large coffee on the floor. Ahead of the shifter. No lid. Now drive. Don't you spill it. Congrats you are now qualified to run a tanker. If you spill it, get a fresh coffee, clean up the mess and do it again you are not driving it right.

Autos versus a tanker? Frankly I don't want it. If issued one anyway, it better have a manual mode to hold a gear just so. If there is no manual mode anywhere, then I will quit and find another company with a manual trans or a auto with manual mode. It's the way it has to be. If a company knows none of the autos they own have that, there is no point in continuing to orientation because I will quit anyway once I find out no manual mode in a auto.

 

I pulled smoot bore tanker with an automatic. The key was to go thru the first few gears fast and as you got higher up to take it easy.

 

What does the transmission do? Shift up and down and find a gear?

I have not used an auto with a tanker.

 

OP where does your buddy live? Might help with finding companies.

Baffles are a thing of tanker legend. Supposedly they exist but no one I've talked to has seen them lol.

Just my opinion I'd stay away from a carrier that goes mainly to chemical plants and stick to one that does food grade or ag products. Chemical plants suck. They are the grocery warehouses' slightly better looking but still pretty ugly's sister

 

I drive a day cab Volvo with an I-shift. It does a good job pulling chemical tanks around. The surge isn't any worse than driving with a standard.

 

When I was pulling tanks a few years back food grade did not have baffles. The times I was hauling chemicals I either had compartments or baffled tanks.

 

The Peterbilt auto starts out with a jerk, unless you very slowly apply throttle pressure. It takes forever to get going that way. When it shifts it re-applies throttle very hard, almost like revving up before letting out a clutch. It seems to act sort of like a centrifugal snowmobile clutch. When turning and it shifts like that, it upsets the load, I'm glad it's not smoothbore. It upshifts and downshifts at will, regularly giving me an overspeed violation. Give me a 13spd any day.

 

We got autos before winter ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM!!! Takes forever to get going CONSTANTLY shifting when it doesn’t have to