Shifting in a tanker and dealing with the surge!

you will learn with experience. different types of liquid have a nature of their own. I pull mostly milk, cream and yeast and each will surge a little different. Plus the fact, it depends how much you have on. More you have, the less surge and better the ride. If you are new in pulling a straight bore tanker, take your time, it is like riding a motorcycle, when you think you have it, it will kill you, be careful.

 

Just drive gently.

The load will tell you if you're doing it wrong.

Someone will be along here soon to go on and on about "putting a large McDonald's coffee on the floor in front of the shifter", or a "ping-pong ball on the dashboard" to teach yourself how to drive a tanker. Forget that crap. The load will teach you how to drive, and you will learn quickly or it will punish you severely.

Good luck.

 

While one can shift amidst the slam of a surge, shifting smoothly will minimize any surge. While this certainly isn't always possible, avoiding creation of surge or at least minimizing such is achieved by shifting quickly and smoothly usually at high rpm's. This is especially true when traveling uphill while downshifting.

Of course, this isn't anything an experienced driver wouldn't pick up on right away having to pull a smooth bore tank.

At Indian River, we do haul viscous liquids such as cream, yeast, or vegetable oil, and not just single strength apple or orange juice.

I enjoy hauling the more viscous liquids due to the lack of surge involved. Last year, I hauled a load of vegetable oil that had no detectable surge. That was nice.

With our automatic transmission Peterbilt 579's, any surge is minimized quite well. I hate to admit it, but a Peterbilt automatic shifts more smoothly than I can. They aren't perfect, but they aren't bad. After my experience with a Freightliner automatic, I was dreading what a Peterbilt automatic might be like.

Hope this helps.

 

Stuff I used to drive, I would hold the revs for an extra second before shifting. That would allow the surge to hit, the truck to motor through it, and THEN shift.
When I first started with tanks, that surge stopped me dead in between first and second. Especially when there was a slight uphill involved.

 

Start off nice & easy and in a low gear if fully loaded. Every time you up shift, ease on the throttle up to about 1/2 throttle, hold that a second or two until you feel it “surge” then slowly accelerate up to around 1400-1500 rpm. Then upshift to next gear and repeat process... Ease on throttle up to about 1/2 way, wait for the (now very suttle) “surge” and then accelerate up to around 1500 and keep repeating until you get to top gear. Never ever give truck WOT until after you shift into top gear and feel the slosh & also DO NOT wind engine up to rev limiter between shifts. Doing so will surely give you whiplash and re-arrange your cabinets. Follow this procedure and you will barely even notice the “sloshing” effect of tankers. Trust me, I pull 7000 gal, smooth bore, 407 code chemical tankers without any baffles every day and this is the best way to shift.

 

Going up through the gears I really haven't had to many problems sometimes uphill while moving slow can be a challenge for me... But where I'm still getting a feel for is slowing down, downshifting and minimizing the surge. Recently spent 3 weeks in a auto and that was WAY easier to control the surge for me.... manual I'm still learning to brake right, it's not as bad if I just stop in whatever gear I was in.

 

If you're going to get on it. You have to stay on it to keep the liquid in the back. Otherwise it's better to be slow and easy.

 

Just drive normal. I hauled LPG back in the days and never had an issue. You can feel the sloshing back and forth but no biggie. Just take the turns more cautiously or else you’ll end up on the side.