Put The Pedal To The Metal

Smokey the Bear, Breaker, eighteen wheeler, four wheeler, lay an eye on, are all colorful expressions used by truckers to talk to each other on their CBs. This helps to pass the time for the drivers who spend long hours by themselves, behind the wheel. Long hauls, irregular hours, and overtime are the normal working situations for truckers. They must be well trained, healthy, and have safe driving records.

A good driver is also very careful with his truck as it is his livelihood. An inspection around the truck and in the truck is a must every time they start-up.

Walk around checklist:
1. Check water and oil.
2. Check headlights, step lights, signal lights, and clearance lights.
3. Mirrors and windshields must be clean.
4. Check tires for correct air pressure and condition.
5. Check hook-up, fifth wheel safety pin and vacuum hoses.
6. Doors should close securely.

Behind the wheel checklist:
1. Check all instruments.
2. Check air brake guage. It should have 100 lbs. PSI
3. Check windshield wipers and steering wheel.
4. Check clutch movement 1 to 1 1/2" without any effort on the front pedal
5. Check brakes.

Liquid Tanker Trucks
Liquids that are hauled in tanker trucks require special handling skills. The load's weight is high off the ground causing a high centre of gravity. This makes the truck top heavy and easy to roll. The liquid inside tankers surges from front to back when the truck stops or starts. This surge is very strong and can cause a roll over if the driver is not careful. This surge can actually push the truck forward on ice.

A way to stop some of this surge is the use of bulkheads. A bulkhead separates one section of the tank from the other parts. Each section has to have the same amount of weight. The load has to be balanced.

Sometimes tankers will have baffles. A baffle lets the liquid flow through and helps control some of the frontward and backward movement. However, side to side surge is still a problem.

Health rules do not allow the use of baffles to haul milk because it is difficult to keep clean. Milk trucks are smooth bores - no bulkheads or baffles.

As liquids expand when they warm up, room has to be left inside the tanker for outages. An outage is the space left for liquids to expand. The amount of liquid to load into a tanker depends upon how much it expands and how much it weighs. A trucker has to be careful about these two things in order to watch legal weight limits.