Pulling smooth bore tankers

Hi chp, me too. It's amazing what a king pin can take. I think in all my years of trucking, I don't ever recall a king pin failure. Jaws of a 5th wheel, maybe, but never a pin.

 

I don't know if the issue of starting off on a hill has been addressed or not, but a word of caution. You sitting at a dead stop on a hill, be very careful about taking off. The liquid in a smooth bore trailer will take you backwards in a heart beat, so be very sure that you feel the clutch catching before you let off the brakes and be quick about getting on the fuel. All this especially when some fool pull right up against your rear.

Oh, let me mention. I am bad to use the trailer brake handle in situation like this. This will allow you to have your foot on the fuel at the very second that you feel the clutch catching. And the release of the brakes is a bit slower than using the foot brake pedal.

 

Subscribed...I'd like to run tankers eventually.

Plenty of chance to learn something new...

 

yes actually on my road test they had me start off on an overpass incline. Started in 1st and made sure the transmission caught before I let off the brake. I'll try the trailer brake thing though, it seems more reliable.

Who else wants to contribute to this topic ?? I need as many people as possible to weigh in here.

 

I'll contribute, but you won't like it.

23 years of trucking and not one time have I ever needed to have my foot on the gas pedal or use any trailer hand brake to get the truck moving up any incline. These engines have more than enough torque to get rolling by just easing off the clutch. Once rolling then I can ease into the pedal. IMHO anyone that needs to do it a different way is just tearing up drivelines, clutch what have you.

 

Yeah, this is getting way to complicated.

 

So when the liquid surge hits you back to front, does the vehicle actually lurch forward and increase your mph when it hits? The technique I'm understanding is that I should shift almost as a way to "break " the wave of liquid surge

 

Yes, I've had to make a quick stop, with my foot mashed on the brake, stopped and I still crept forward when the wave hit the front.

 

Yeah, about how far would you say you lurched forward. In feet. And then please convert it into millimeters using an international metric conversion chart for our Canadian and European readers. We have to cover our bases man! I can't underestimate this surge!!!

 

At my last job hauling bulk, I would pull heavy water out of mines to water treatment plants using pneumatic trailers, loading and unloading was accomplished thanks to gravity. The powder trains are non baffle triangular shaped trailers, each trailer would hold aprox 26,000 lbs of liquid.

The good and bad, good first is the shape keeps the side to side surge down, but the front to rear was quite noticeable. Change in speed up or down, even just letting off the throttle would have it surging for miles. As far as stopped it could move the truck and trailers several feet in the direction of the fluid motion. Rocking it fore then aft.

I pulled these from Mountain Pass CA to Santa Clarita Water Treatment Plant in Santa Paula CA everyday for about 3 months, never really got used to the feeling going down the road. Normal Liquid Smooth Bores pull tons better, but my trailers held more product due to weight.

You just have to pay attention, its all about the timing of the wave.