Dropping a Loaded Tanker

If you have load supporting landing gear you're good. Next, is your trailer full or partial loaded (if it has compartments)?

i have seen a gasoline trailer that was only loaded on the front and not the back. It was very unstable, only the landing gear was the major support.

Also, you don't want to drop a loaded tanker on soft ground. It will sink in.

 

Dump the trailer air bags first, then drop trailer legs all the way down to the ground, dump truck suspension, pull out slowly. Make sure to drop loaded trailers on cement pads only. Or you can put some wide pieces of wood under the dolly legs if you have to drop on gravel to better spread out the weight and reduce the risk of sinking.

 

I have been hauling powder for the majority of the last 20 Years. First check make sure the landing gear is in good condition of so proceed. Set the landing gear about 1 inch adobe the ground, dump your tractor air bags to set the pads onto the ground. Pull forward just far enough for the fifth wheel plate to be under the frame and stop.get out now check the ground make sure it's supporting the weight.if so your lines pull forward and translate your bags, if your going to hook another wait till your under it to inflate your bags.

One more note cement is powder and carried in pneumatic trailers, concrete is not powder it is only carried in mixers or open beds like dump trucks.
If you have aluminum landing gear they are stamped do not drop loaded trailers, but the companies I worked for still did.

 

If we have a gasoline/diesel load it gets dropped only in shop w/extra stands under it. Others we drop at fuel island as it is concrete and level. Pull out and they put whatever is available under it right away. Had one last night. Went to Corsicana and picked up load of some oilfield fluid. Kind of like a thin snot. No hazmat. Smooth bore beat me to death as that stuff would roll so slowly. Got the hang of it about time I got to yard. Dropped. Put a sleeper under it that is waiting on some repairs and parked head in. That and loaded note on steering wheel and papers and key to dispatch. Done and back to my wonderful smooth gasoline tanker. lol

 

Thanks for all the good advice! And yes, they are loaded with cement or flyash - not mixed concrete. We have built a type of mobile jack on wheels to roll under them on each side, but they were pretty expensive. Maybe we need to invest in stronger landing gear!

 

I have never dropped a loaded gasoline trailer myself, but are trailers are old. They have peg-legs instead of your regular crank style landing gears used. When I worked for CTL they would have us drop loaded tanker trailers all the time, but talk about scary. The R-Model Macs I drove just had camelback suspension, so no air bags to deflate, and trailers were on a spring suspension also. I couldn't pull out from underneath that tanker slow enough, and those tankers would still rock back and forth like it was going tip over. Never did though...

 

Pin legs shouldn't be used to drop a loaded trailer, thankfully you do not see them too often!

OP. we used to have the shop save the good leg when we replaced a set. the welder would build a frame to hold them upside down, add a handle and small wheels to make a support for dropped trailers. actually sold some to a customer too.

 

For some reason they are popular in south just like flat bottom tankers.