Sliding tandems back for loading/unload

I think it is partly a safety issue. I have seen pics of forklifts busted thru trailers. Gotta figure if the tandems are forward, the teeter totter affect as they drive in the back end sinks, putting stress on the 5th wheel and suspension, if dropped, the same action can dynamically load the landing gear and cause indents in the pavement over time. I think most of the time they like the tandems back to raise the rear of the trailer to dock height. Provdes some stability for the forkifts coming and going. If you look at some straight trucks, they will have landing gear behind the drive tires for the same purpose. They back up to the dock and lower the landing gear so the bed stays the same height as the dock and prevent the suspension from sinking down as it gets loaded.

 

I always slide to the rear to load or unload or if I'm dropping an empty or loaded one at a customer. Saves wear and tear on the trailer. Next time you are at a facility watch a guy with tandems up versus to the rear and you will see a dramatic difference.

 

Some drop/hook warehouses want the tandems slid to the rear to eliminate tailswing when their jockey trucks move the trailers in tight spaces.

 

Your trailer might be a good 8" lower than the dock with the tandems slid forward. One company I was leased to gave me the nicest trailer to use. I slid my tandems everywhere weather I needed to or not, cause those guys will dig up your nice floor with those forks, and if they are using electric forklift or pallet jack it's really necessary.
If your company has poorly maintained trailers, it can be miserable if you have manual sliders. Our little fleet has manuals, but the lever, and the landing gear operate with ease ( they way they are supposed too). Sometimes I have to slide twice on deliveries depending on the store within hours, and I have to slide back forward or i'll never make it through town.

 

Being a yard jockey at a warehouse it is height issue. If tandems all way forward you will be below the dock door. This, obviously is a safety hazzard. Other part is trailer swing too. Eaiser to back trailers with tandems at the back.

 

The straight trucks with landing gear legs under the rear are to stabilize the truck as a forklift drives into the box. Without those legs stabilizing the rear of the truck, the weight of the forklift and whatever it is carrying would cause the truck to lower 6 inches or so. Been there, done it not a pretty picture.

 

Most of my years you stayed hooked with wherever the tandems were. Forklifts took time coming on and off the trailer. None of the dramatic top speed slamming into the trailer as in the last few years egged on by big corperations intent on revenue.

We slid where we must to the rear no problem generally stayed hooked and engine feeding the airride. But when you got to disconnect sometimes there was a additional operation of sticking a jack into the kingpin plate in the nose.

I learned to drive for companies that rely on drop lots, drop, grab new trailer and gone. No more docking for the most part unless it is a reload in a short time.

Remember most of the loads went onto small wood manually at the dock itself off the trailer back then.

 

Trailers probably built stronger and forklifts were not so heavy either back then.

 

There's plenty of guys that will zoom in there in there even with the big drop off, but they will destroy the floor of your trailer.