Is high roof truck too much of a problem in tanker world?

In my opinion, you need 12'6 clearance for chemical hauling. Sure, you can go some places without any issue, but there are a lot of places where you really do need 12'6 clearance. The whole industry assumes you'll have 12'6 clearance. Most of the places you'll load and unload were built assuming you have 12'6 clearance. Most of the racks assume you have 12'6 clearance. Occasionally, I've seen guys drive 13'6 trucks doing this but I wouldn't want the stress.

 

Remember, most companies had company fleets for years, lot's of one-stack Macks and the plants [especially in the east] were built around those trucks; possibly in many cases B models with short single axle trailers were the norm in the 50's...

If you are supposed to pull through a cleaning rack; you might not have the option to back in you never know what you may find. I remember one guy delivering to an old mill in Mass was able to get in but needed the plant's forklift to jockey the trailer tandems to get out.

 

I've seen it done before. If you're signing on with a company that will guarantee you dedicated regular routes to customers that'll accommodate a fullsize truck, then you'd make out alright. But otherwise I feel you'd be cutting out too much potential revenue.

For what it's worth, when I was with Superior Carriers I saw an Owner/Op that was running a Volvo VT880 with a fullsize sleeper, which IMO is about the worst truck you could pick for this line of work.