Tankers for a Rookies?

Was told the same thing when I first started hauling fuel. Said we don't care if you only do one load a day as long as you do it right and don't screw anything up.

 

In my opinion if you want to pull tanks then pull tanks. Might as well learn it all at the same time.

 

"slchlepping boxes of crap into a dry van"

LOL!!!!

 

that guy is missing some teeth now...

 

I haul every type of Petroleum Product in various types of tankers. Absolutely nothing dangerous or difficult about it. Just like any other trailer just be alert

 

Oh my word. Lawd have mercy.

Time is something others try to tell you important, I totally forgot how essential is to do the work around tankers proper, correct and precise every time without rush. Call that lesson number 6.

Example, if you forgot from being too tired last night to open your dump valve in a Heil dry bulk cement and come in the next morning, hopping up top to undo the large latches that pressure will break your body and throw it approx 100 feet up and 200 feet down range with results that will make you wish you died. About once a year we lose someone doing that because they got tired and wanna go home quick without again going through everything on that trailer (And the tractor too.. I'll call this lesson 7)

The old Macks had a dry tank and a wet tank. There was no Bendix filter that we grew accustomed to on the OTR today. Every night after tanker work you opened the brass drain valves under the tractor to make sure that everything, oil, fluids etc drain over night. If you do not, what happens then is that fluid gets into your Brake chamber next to the axle, wheels etc and eat into the diaghpram that protects your maxi spring that engages when you lose all air pressure by design. Once the rubber disk is eaten through, you will discover that you are losing air rapidly while trying to stop or slow in a bad situation that once your springs lock you down in the middle of rush hour traffic at 70 mph and 4 lanes of people trying to get around you that tanker is going to come around and kill and mash people. Just because you might have been too tired last night to deal with the valves and small stuff.

The other thing I did not address is class 7, Radioactive, Nuclear Casks. That is a tanker of a sort as well. These things either vertical on a low boy (Usually three to a trailer) are tanks, but built so strong that there is nothing that can breach them in a Interstate wreck.

The lesson 8 applies to time. I recall watching Schnieder tanker drivers using a special heat pump to liquidfy the commodity in the trailer enough for it to flow. They have to sit in the lawn chair 9 hours or so until the cargo is out of there. I remember that because in my time, we don't have 9 hours. So tanker work is not as stressful as schlepp express. (Im having fun with it, are you?)

 

The difference between tanker and dry van are far and wide. With that being said, it might take you just a couple of days to adjust to the tanker. You never have to slide axels on a tanker. Unless your tank has compartments or baffles, a smoothbore tanker will knock you around quite a lot. They are used for food-grade hauling, and your first tanker job might possibly be in food-grade before you go on to bigger and better things.

If you do get into hauling food grade tankers, you'll learn to anticipate when the wave is going to strike you. Shifting at the wrong moment will cause you to lose a gear and get stuck in neutral.

As you accelerate, you will notice a pattern of that wave hitting the back of the tank, thus momentarily reducing your speed and dropping your RPM---and a few seconds later, the wave will hit the front of the tank, pushing you forward, raising your RPM just a little, and increasing your speed momentarily. You will want to upshift when that wave is hitting the front of the tank. On a similar note, you will want to do your downshifts just as that wave is hitting the back of the tanker. You will get a feeling for this almost immediately, and will be able to anticipate exactly when the wave will hit you.

And on THAT note, you'll learn to piss off other drivers when the speed limit is 55 MPH, and you take your turns on the freeway at about 40 MPH to make absolutely sure you're not going to roll that truck.... you'll learn to appreciate the angry look on other driver's faces, you'll learn to love looking in your mirror and seeing like 30 cars queued up behind your rig. You'll learn to ignore them, because you're not going to roll the truck, cause an accident or kill yourself/others just for their convenience.

So I guess in answer to your question, yeah . I would recommend a rookie driver who aspires to become a tanker driver, to do it as soon as possible. It will look good on a resume. You'll be able to move on to bigger and better things eventually. Go for it.