Tanker Dome Gasket

I've been driving a tank for three days on very limited training. The only thing they have shown us about the dome are these 3 pictures. We don't pump all we do is drive and check seals. The shipper/cons seal the trailer and pump.





They flew me off to rescue a truck which was still filthy from the last driver. The trailer needed a new tire (nail) and after getting loaded and being 14.5k on the steer axle I discovered that the 5th wheel slide doesn't work. The prev driver calls me and stated he never used it. According to the tank washout sheet only things he hauled was milk.

When dealing with the 5th wheel I noticed a half dollar sized puddle and few drops rolling off the tank. Visually inspected the dome and ran my hand around the gasket. The gasket was intact but two of the screws could stand to be tightened. I got 200 miles down the road before I ran out of hours. Parked it.

Woke up the next morning and did my pre trip. I noticed oil all in the tandem area on the trailer and a puddle of yellow liquid. I didn't run over any road kill big enough to leave a stain like that or go thru any construction zones. So I checked my brake linings and they were clean. I looked back at the puddle and wondered if I had knelt in any of it whe checking my brakes when i realized that the surface of the puddle wasn't consitant with any water based liquid. It was oil.




I called breakdown. Sent pictures. We agreed to send the truck to the wash because it was probably just oil that had finally pooled down from when I was loaded. I wasn't having any of the two hour wait at the beacon.

I started to my final and stopped for a break 100mi down the road and noticed fresh oil on the side of the tank. I checked the gasket and it was wet and the screws seemed to have more space to be tightened. Realized that the gasket was leaking I called the company.

" Continue to final and hope they don't refuse."

At this point it's not that bad. I can take to a wash and act like nothing has gone wrong.

Come today and it's like I'm pulling a whale. I have oil in my brake linings and I'm leaving puddles everywhere I go.



Thier response.
" Continue to final and hope they don't refuse"

I can't pass this off now, the final is in Cali and there's no way I can't bypass the scale by going thru the mountain pass without setting the brakes on fire.

The only way I can resolve this is to open the dome, reseat the gasket and get this mess all washed out. It will be a service failure for be but there's nothing else I can do.

I've already told the company I'm OOS. It's a misdemeanor if I try to get into Cali, this trailer will leak all over the scale.


As far as I can tell the gasket got sucked into the tank.

You can see the line where it used to be. That screw thing was preventing my hand from telling me that the gasket wasn't seated properly there. On the other side of the screw thing the gasket is seated right.

When I open the dome what do I need to worry about?

I have no tools other than two vise grips and a screwdriver. The truck stop doesn't sell any giant wrenches. Are there any substitutes for the giant wrench this other tanker showed me?

Thanks for reading

 

I can't even stop or shift without it coming out of the dome whale style.


All of that came out just from parking.

 

Its out of my hands, load was already late thanks to the inop 5th wheel. Company wants me to call home terminal in the morning. They left one guy on duty tonight who has 3 days of training.

I didn't find any tank washes listed on I-80 from SLC to the Cali border. Which is what's making me think that they are going to have me fix this myself.

 

Thanks. So treat it like the coolant system when you need to add coolant but the engine is warm. So each fastener gets a full turn or a quarter turn? Do I have to do a star pattern as I undo them like tires?