Pulling tanks is serious work and only a true professional driver can/should do it. You must be on top of your game at all times when pulling tanks, especially "shotgun" tankers. As soon as you feel the power of 45,000 lbs of liquid knock you out of your seat you will understand.

I love it and will never pull anything else as long as I am a driver.

I'm still trying to figure out if a downhill surge is rougher than an uphill......

Thanks for all the replies. I have been truckin for 25+ years, but have no experience at all with tanks, so what do you mean when you " open your belly valves" and " take dust covers off of tank pipes". The company that i am working for now i have been with for 16+ years. I won't bad mouth them but what i want out of a job has changed over the years. Pulling tanks seems to be one of the cleaner jobs as long as you don't screw up. My plan that i have working in my head is to learn as much as i can about hauling gas and then become an o/o. Their seems to be alot of local work in my area. Again thanks for all the help any comments, good or bad will be welcome.

Chewing tobacco as a replacement for smoking is what he was saying, Orange. In essence, if you need a tobacco fix and wanna haul hazmats, that's a way to do it... not that I endorse either (yet I still love the smell of unburnt tobacco).

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


At least the downhill surge, helps increase the speed of the truck...cuz damn sure....having it cut back for Canadian running....that up hill surge knocks the speed into the dirt!!!


:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:


Don't you love it when you look at your axle gauge and it shows 45,000 as your rolling down the grade, then when you look at it as your half way up the next grade...you barely have 23,000??

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:


Bow to the SURGE!!! The mighty and all powerful surge!!!


:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

The dust covers are the covers that go over the outside values that you hook the hoses to, they are supposed to keep extra product from spilling out while driving. They come in two pieces, the outer cap which is what you remove to make your drop at the station, and the whole cover which is what you remove to load the trailer at the rack.
The Belly values are situated at the bottom of each tank compartment, it is just a value that controls the flow of product, some are opened with air and others use a cable system. The values must be manually opened to put product in the truck. You can force product in the truck, however if you forget this step the noise it makes is very loud and kind of scarey. On the rack when you unhook the product hose from the trailer the front value automatically closes, you need to maually close the belly values every time. Our trailers will not roll unless the belly value is closed. Think of it as a safety measure. The belly value is the main protection from losing product, if a 4 wheeler goes under the trailer and knocks off the outside product lines (tank pipes) the only fuel you will lose is what was left in the lines, they are designed to shear off and keep all product in the tank if your belly values were open and this happened it would spill 1000's of gallons of product. Product comes out of my trailer at a rate close to 7 to 9 gallons a second it does not take long to make a mess if a spill occurs.

If you get a chance and see a driver at a station making a delivery go talk with him, most guys are pretty friendly and will give you basic information about the job, if you get lucky you may find a driver who will explain the way things work on the truck, I try to stay away from that type of conversation with a stranger while working as you just never know what they have in mind.
For the record in the video the guy made one mistake that could lead to a huge spill, he hooked up the product line to the tanker first then hooked it up to his coupler.

You should always attach from the ground to the trailer and detach from the trailer to the ground.

All in all this is a great job it does have it BS as well but what job does not..
We are staying fairly busy typical stuff one good week one bad week.
Auggie this job can be a dirty one too, it takes new guys a while to learn how to properly handle the hoses without hugging them. diesel fuel can quickly mess up your trailer as it is heavy and sticky. My trainer told me "it is not a question of IF you will ever take a gasoline bath but rather when you will take a bath". I have never been fully bathed as of yet but damn if those lines don't get pissed off every now and then and decide to spit a pint or so on you
Any more questions just let me know..
Good luck guys.

Timberwolf

That one right there is HUGE!!! I can not list the times I have sat in safety meetings, because someone failed to follow this simplest of procedures. Once the hose starts off the tray or out of the tube, it should be taken to the UST and connected...before anything else happens.

Sometimes, interuptions occur...and drivers fail to stop and look.....then....GUSH....down the gutter goes gasoline.

Now...with environmental regulations being what they have become...a driver is gonna :tears: :tears: :tears:, with the damage done to his paycheck and bank account. :crossbones: :crossbones: :crossbones: :crossbones:

I'm skimming here so sorry if for any 2x here.
Pulling a fuel trailer is nothing like a regular tanker for surge, but you still want to take it easy on the turns.
Gas is nice because you're your own motivator. You have to pay attention to what you are doing, and most people at the racks know that, so nobody really bothers you. The first time loading under observation is a bitch 'cuz you're always distracted by the observer. I twice forgot to open my belly valves that way. Fortunately, that's probably about the least damaging thing you can do.
Basically, you find your groove, routine and rhythm, and you stick with it.
Write it all down, figure out your loading numbers before you pull into the rack, and double check anything and everything before you hit "start."

If you think you want to try fuel, I say go for it. Use your legs to do the lifting, order a case of the Predator 9761 safety-cuff nitrile gloves ($30), get some sort of thin prybar for the pesky flat covers, and be prepared for 14 hour days and 65-70 hour weeks.

I've already had my bath, fortunately it was ethanol, and that stuff smells a lot better and is a lot less dangerous than gas. Just make sure you don't get pulled over after you've been soaked, cuz it smells like tequila.

10-4..Good stuff! Thanks..