Smooth Bore Trailers

So you a driving a manual.
Don't be scared to skip gears.
For instance,if you know the "push" is coming,then skip to the right gear for that.
If you will go thru every gear,then the shluss will be 5 times worse.
It does help if you have a engine which have high torque in low revs.
Be very smooth in your driving,you can lessen the shluss by the way you drive but only so much.(a liquid will move whatever you do)
Try to slow down as much as possible using your Jake.
If you know your exit is coming up,don't use your brakes but try to do it with only your Jake.
Driving style is everything.
Be gentle and you will feel more comfortable.(meaning you will bounce less in your seat)

Think off it as a chess game between you and your load................you have to be smarter and think 2 steps ahead off you load.


I presume it is a 48" tanker?Small diameter tank?If so................they are the worst.
Short and big diameter tanks are better but the bridgeformula screws you.(so you cannot have them)

Most petroleum products are lighter then water and not very sticky.
Glycerine is heavy and a lost more sticky.
The stickier a product is , the worst the shluss is.
Has to do with how it flows inside the tanker.

One golden piece off advise is this: After you have come to a stop at a red light,either put on the handbrake or peet your foot firmly on the brakepeddle.
I know a driver that totalled the car in front off him after he had stopped.
Took his foot off the brake just as the product hit the front,truck jumped more then a yard.
Car lost it's back end.

For anyone who needs a visual aid to "the shluss effect",take a bottle off water which is half full.
Put it on it's side and move it forward and backward.
And the watch the water hit the front and back.
Then multiply that effect by 40000 to get to the weight off a loaded truck.
Would anyone drive with a 45000lbs steel coil on a flatbed with the coil running up and down the trailer?
And now say that tanker yankers aren't good drivers???

 

I pull what my company calls the super tube, I can pull 68,000 pounds of milk legally. You do Get used to the feeling of sloshing around and you get to where you can anticipate the sloshing. Honestly the worst part is still feeling like your sloshing even after you have stopped for the day

 

I once had to do a testdrive with a mechanic.
Just before lunch.
Told him:"eat first,then we drive"
He:"No......testdrive first"
Me:"Ok........i warned you"

He skipped lunch that day.

 

Waaay back when I was a driver trainer at Matlack we still had R Models w/ the 5 speed trans.

They were ideal for training someone to shift w/ the slop. Same idea can be adopted to shkipping gears on today's trans.

When I taught someone to double clutch the 5 speed they were told to make the 2nd clutch and not jump back on the throttle.

As mentioned above you can't 'keep it back there'...the liquid surges back froward after hitting the back; by completing the shift and getting the clutch back out the drive line is moving the rig ahead and easing on the throttle prevents the liquid mass from slamming into the rear head of the trailer.

Of course it is all dependent on the product weight per gal and the size of the trailer. Thin solvents & alcohols, say 7500 gal in an 8000+ gal tank constantly jiggles like jello. You need to let that go as fighting it will get you in trouble.

Worst 'slam' load I saw was Titianium dioxide slurry, 22#/gal so 45K was around 2200 gal & we hauled it in a dedicated tank that was a former latex '5000 Tight Fill' trailer. The customer was in Long Island City and working our way up the BQE in the am traffic was an experience. Kinda felt like a boulder was rolling around back there!

 

I guess I'm pretty lucky. I pull a smooth bore, but I haul water. We load it full so the slosh is kept to a minimum. I only really feel it after I stop, and then it's just a gentle rocking motion. You guys that pull heavy liquid and cannot fill the tank completely have my utmost respect.

 

The secret to pulling a tanker - especially a smooth bore tanker - is being a good momentum manager. In other words, drive smoothy. If it feels like the motion of the load is helping you accelerate as it surges forward, and then hindering your acceleration as it surges backward, try to eliminate that feeling. I was once told to "drive as if there's a glass of champagne sitting on the dash, and an egg underneath the pedal."

Acceleration:
Let the engine's torque cause the truck to accelerate gradually. Press the pedal down just a little, and keep your RPMs low. Don't press the pedal down hard, and don't use the engine's horsepower to accelerate (there's a reason lots of tanker companies spec their engines with very low horsepower, and it's not all about fuel economy). This is especially important at lower speeds. Progressive shifting helps, but do not be in a hurry to get through the gears.

Shifting:
When it is time to shift, let off the throttle and shift smoothly, but DO NOT get back into the throttle until after the load hits the back of the trailer. Accelerating while the load is on its way backward will cause the load to hit the rear of the trailer with more force than it will if you stay out of the fuel - and you'll really feel it when it hits.

Deceleration:
Start slowing down WAY ahead of time. Use your jakes as you gear down, and don't touch the brake pedal until you absolutely have to - and when you do, apply it gently, but firmly. Don't use stab braking - if you do, the load will hit the front bulkhead hard, and your back will pay the price.

Driving around curves: Slow to a safe speed before you enter the curve, then roll into the throttle slightly, and let the truck pull the load through the curve without accelerating. Don't ever hit the brakes when pulling a tanker around a curve. If the load hits the front of the trailer hard enough, the trailer will try to continue moving straight ahead, and can push your tractor into a jacknife (except the tractor will be coming around, not the trailer).

 

Holy ****. That sounds like liquid lead. Or liquid cast iron.

 

White pigment turned into mud w/ water.

The tank car had a 2" pipe along the floor w/ holes in it, we would hook the compressed air line to that & 'sparge' the slurry cause it used to settle out sitting there.

We took it to a paint plant in Long Island City, used to park on the sidewalk. They had a diaphram air pump inside a 55 gal drum on wheels w/ a heat gun blowing onthe air pump so it would not freeze took it maybe 50 - 60 seconds to cycle two strokes. Took around 4 hours to pump it up to the top floor...

All them old paint plants use gravity so the storage tanks are on the top floor above the mixing areas...