"Well...nobody died."

[Guns N Rotors]

On Wednesday morning when I got work, I had nine semi-trucks filled with road salt waiting
for me to get them unloaded. I got the first truck backed into the salt barn and told the
other drivers to dump outside the barn.

At the same time, eight salt spreader trucks show up to get loaded so they can go treat the roads.
Things are really getting busy now! I'm jumping in and out of the wheel loader like a kangaroo trying
to get trucks loaded and unloaded all at once.

I filled the last spreader truck and pointed for the last semi driver to dump at the end of the pile.
Whew! I poured myself a cup of coffee and climbed down off the loader when I hear and feel an
Earth shattering Ka-BOOOM!

The last semi flipped his load!!! I sprinted to check on the driver. He jumps out of the tractor with his
glasses and hat a skewed, shaking like Joe Cocker. He's unhurt, thank God.

What a morning!

 

[T Red]

It looks like he was on fairly level ground. What caused the trailer to fall over. Heavy on one side?

 

[Guns N Rotors]

We think he was loaded heavy on one side. Don't know. He had the
tractor at a 30 degree angle for whatever reason. He also shot the
trailer up at a rapid pace. Way too fast. :beatsme

 

[Lashlander]

Those frameless trailers are known for going over for not much of a reason. I think having the truck at an angle may have been a good thing in this instance. It didn't take the tractor over. Sounds like a busy morning, is this a DOT facility or private?

 

[DigDug]

wow! thats one way to unload it. Sounds like a busy morning to me. Glad no one got hurt. Sounds like the driver needs to slow the heck down and let the load slide out a little more natural.

 

[2109 Stang]

Did that's not a frameless if you look at the picture again

 

[2109 Stang]

I have been driving dump trucks and trailers for 21 years ,and you could say that 99% of those cases are drivers fault unless you get a big gust of wind ,so far I havent flip one and I dont plan on doing it any time soon .

 

[Lashlander]

I believe your right. When I looked at the first pic I was thinking the frame hinges were in front of the rear axles. I should look closer. I agree that its usually driver error that usually tips them over but the frameless ones really enjoy it.

 

[Ford LT-9000]

I bet you that load was frozen so when he started dumping it the salt was clumping up and over it went. The guy was lucky it was lucky the trailer didn't take out the salt shed. He probaby had to scrape some brown stuff out of his pants thou :bouncegri

What are you guys paying per ton for salt I think the highways dept here is still paying 350 dollars a ton. Now that they use brine they don't go through much salt but that brine is horrible talk about stickey car rusting stuff.

 

[Steve Frazier]

I paid $99/ton at a second level supplier the other day. I'm sure the municipality gets it for less direct from the supplier.

 

[Guns N Rotors]

Lashlander, it is a township facility in NE Ohio.

LT-9000, the load could have been frozen. The nine
trucks all pulled into our shop at the same time.
I'm thinking that they got loaded in the afternoon
the day before and parked at their shop overnight.

I think we are paying about $80 per ton. I'm not
sure though. That information is above my pay grade.:wink2

On a normal day, I would have dumped the truck inside the
salt barn. Got lucky on that one!

 

[Ford LT-9000]

Thats cheap for rock salt

I know when I worked for the highways dept that was back when brine wasn't used the guys used to get heck for spilling salt loading the trucks because it was 150 dollars ton then.

Some of the salt the highways was delivered used to have big hard clumps and chunks so you had to bust up the chunks with the backhoe. The spinners and chain is all controlled by the compuspread system keeps track on the material used.

The boys like the brine better its easier to work with put the hose in the tank go have some coffee fill the tank and off you go. The back of the truck has a spreader bar like a water truck the liquid comes out of.

 

[544D10]

Having the rig pointed that direction probably saved it from tipping too. :Cowboy

 

[Truckie]

The whole problem is the way he is sitting. As he raises the bed the frame rail's in the front are going to flex and roll to the left because the tractor is to the left, if it were to the right it would be to the right. Dumping this way you are dumping on the short side of the 5th wheel, which gives you less support. I can tell just from the picture it is a small down hill slop. I would never think of dumping my truck and trailer that way.:nono
With the shorter trailers you can get away dumping like this, I'm talking like the 22 to 26 foot trailers, but with the bigger and longer trailers you got to be straight . :yup Being straight is going to give you the best support.
And yes I will agree most roll overs are due to driver err. Like I said before I rolled one when I first started driving back in 95 and that was my fault. I was WAY over loaded and had a bad scope. The welds broke and the scope company came to the shop to look and confirm it.
The bottom line is no one got hurt.

 

[Grader4me]

Lashlander, it is a township facility in NE Ohio.

LT-9000, the load could have been frozen. The nine
trucks all pulled into our shop at the same time.
I'm thinking that they got loaded in the afternoon
the day before and parked at their shop overnight.

I think we are paying about $80 per ton. I'm not
sure though. That information is above my pay grade.:wink2

On a normal day, I would have dumped the truck inside the
salt barn. Got lucky on that one!

Looks like driver error to me. I don't think the load of salt would have been frozen. I have seen some loads come in that somehow got moisture in the load that caused clumping, but never to that extreme. In the picture the salt looks pretty good.
I think we are paying around $60 to $70 per ton but I'm not completely sure. Is your only job running the loader? Or do you run the rest of the equipment as well...if you don't mind me asking..

 

[leadarrows]

I have only ever seen one trailer flip like that and we were on top of a sand pile. Funny thing was the tri-axl driver sitting next to the guy looked over and seeing a trailer going up next to him made him nervous so he pulled up out of the way and that trailer fell over right behind him less than 3 seconds later. Tractor was a Hendricks and it did tweak the frame quite a bit.

 

[Guns N Rotors]

Looks like driver error to me. I don't think the load of salt would have been frozen. I have seen some loads come in that somehow got moisture in the load that caused clumping, but never to that extreme. In the picture the salt looks pretty good.
I think we are paying around $60 to $70 per ton but I'm not completely sure. Is your only job running the loader? Or do you run the rest of the equipment as well...if you don't mind me asking..

Grader4me- No, I don't mind you asking. I'm the senior operator for
Boardman Township Road Dept in Boardman, Ohio. I run every piece of
equipment in the fleet. In the winter, when we have a snow and ice control
call-out, I run the loader. Rank has it's privileges.

The fleet consists of;
Case 721D Wheel loader
two Case 580 Super L backhoes
Case 85XT skid loader
Case 450B dozer
Beast horizontal wood grinder
two Pelican street sweepers
Vactor sewer vac
Case Mo-Trim
GMC bucket truck.

I also own and operate a small excavating company. I will be
retiring from Boardman in 5 years. So, I'll need something to do with
my spare time.

My little fleet;
Cat 303.5C CR
Cat 257B
Ford F-650 dump
Kuaffman 14,000# trailer.

 

[Countryboy]

Just a question cause I don't know since we only see snow once every 4 years. If the salt is put down to melt ice and snow then how does the salt become frozen?

 

[Guns N Rotors]

Salt will not work below 10 degrees. If the salt gets moist, and the temp
drops below 10 degrees, I have to bust it up with the loader before I put
it in the spreader trucks. If I don't, the chunks can jamb-up the augers.

 

[Countryboy]

Learned something new. I thought salt worked at any temp. Its 64F here so as you can see we don't have to use it much. :bouncegri