Unloading Tires

Sheesh, what a bunch of WIMPS! Yeah, that is what I said, WIMPS! Well, maybe not ALL of you. I have a lot of empathy for STEXAN. But G/MAN has it right.

I used to do this all the time, in the heat of St. George. And I was no kid. It really is not bad at all once you get used to doing it. The worst parts are 1) The heat in the trailer, and 2) Some of the idiot kids they have "catching" the tires that come off the truck. Real pain in the arse to be trying to get a load off in St. George, and have the "catcher" have to chase half of them half way to Mesquite before finally catching them. Seems the tire companies always put the newest and dumbest and slowest on this job!

Bouncing them is the ONLY logical way when you are dropping them out the back end. I used to have to become the "catcher" in the truck for the returns. And you are right, that is a dirty, grimy job!

Yeah, once you get the hang of it, it is no trick at all. I used to have to use a long chain wrapped around them, then put the chain on the fork lift so the operator could pull the tires off. Hardest part of that was getting the chain through that donut. . .You couldn't just hook it to the sidewall as you could screw up the bead.

It's even more fun when you have to pull them off another truck at the dock, then put them on your truck, then deliver and unload them.

 

Years ago, I had a load of used semi truck tires, warranty issues, coming off the railroad, and going into a Goodyear plant in Akron. When I got there, the receiver told me "it's driver assist, are you aware of that"? I said" dispatch never said a thing", he laughed, and said "that sounds about right, but it's driver assist"!
I figured I was screwed, but their version of driver assist was standing there with a bucket of soap type lubricant, and applying it to the forks of the lift truck, and steadying the stack of about 7-8 tires, as the lift driver pulled them off. Wasn't bad at all!

 

Worked in Bridgestone Distribution warehouse years ago. Handled passenger, light truck, heavy truck, and various forms of tractor. The big stuff used a squeezer fork lift. Forks would open and close to size of tire and pick up stack. Unloads by hand were expected off in 4 hours and paperwork complete and each size palletized with labels facing out for warehousing. Some of the loads were on reefer trailers which made it a lot cooler in the summer. Never failed passenger unload outa Chicago, driver would get loaded late and show up in Des Moines for a few hours of sleep only to find out he had to help unload. Of course he was never told this when given the load or he wouldnt have taken it.

 

Hauled those things for years when I was with Interstate Contract Carriers, we hauled for Uniroyal and later General. As others have said it wasn't that bad, of course back in those days the driver had to load or unload about 60% of their loads. The worst load I ever had was a load of inner tubes going to an oil distributor in LA, took two days to get them off because of size, lot #, and car,truck,motorcycle, etc.

 

Worked for Roy Miller Freight Lines out of Anaheim, CA for a year or so locally back in the mid 90's. Used to take a load of Kelly Springfield tires out every day on a 45' trailer and deliver 10-15 stops. Seems like I went to every tire store and gas station in So Cal.

I was much younger then and it kept me in good shape!

 

The walking floor is like an escalator usually used for hauling bulk materials. You engage the floor and the trailer unloads itself.

The edit option has a time limit.

 

When i was a mechanic for Tire Kingdom i used to help the Old Dominion Driver unload the tires he'd bring us a pup full of tires, wasnt so bad with 3 guys, one picks and up and rolls it to the guy on the tail of the trailer who pushes it off to the guy on the ground. Took about 45 min to an hour to unload it. Wasnt fun was a little more work with 2 guys the first guy has to roll it STRAIGHT off the back so when i goes off it stays up right and rolls to the guy in the warehouse (we didnt have a dock so it had to roll out, hit the ground and roll inside the warehouse)



American Trucker

 

I handled new tires when I ran LTL and it wasn't bad, but a drop frame full of old dirty used tires is pretty nasty.

 

The best and easiest way to unload passenger and light truck tires is with a "kicker" tire placed on the floor as mentioned earlier in the thread. Before I got my CDL I worked for a tire wholesaler as a driver/warehouseman. We would unload the tires in the morning before our scheduled deliveries.