Besides deisel fuel/road salt put on floor of semi trailer to keep loads from sticking?

Question

While hauling coal or paper in this cold weather it's hard to pre-load the night before. Sometimes even if you don't preload the load can freeze to the bed of the trailer before getting to desination Any suggs. besides deisel fule or road salt? Thanks

Answer 1

what about kitty litter,or even a tarp.

Answer 2

You can try having it heated before you load the semi, Although, it would be best to use salt.

Answer 3

we used to haul snow and gravel when it was well below zero, and we would get the large metal fire extinquishers that you can charge with an air chuck, fill them with a 30/70 diluted used antifreeze, and spray the truck box with it, worked well most of the time, load would slide right out. In your case unfortunately this would probably not work due to contaminating the load.

Diesel fuel works well with hot asphalt, but I would think that the coal dust in the load would make the load stick and would eventually build up quite a layer in the truck bed. With paper, large sheets of cardboard does work quite well. The cardboard will only work well if it is kept DRY. the bottom of it may stick to the truck bed, but the load should slide right off of it.

I would recommend not using road salt, it will eventually make a mess of your truck and is very corrosive over time

Answer 4

I have delivered giant rolls of paper to printing companies... and they often have a thin rubber-type mat that goes under the rolls.  Stops any 'sticking' to the floor of the trailer and helps with any shifting of the rolls.  Unfortunately I can not tell you where to get them.  Fuel is a hazardous material... and salt is a corrosive material... Try to find the 'rubber' mats, or use large sheets of cardboard.

Answer 5

We use to use old motor oil deluted with diesel fuel. we also used I believe it called calcium chloride you spread it the floor of your dump bed like salt.

Answer 6

Use sawdust and you can get this very cheap or even free a lot of times.

Answer 7

Used motor oil.

Answer 8

Not sure what it's called but I haul loads of paper out of Usk Wa. and they put a little mat under each roll. Never had a problem with load shift or freezing to the bed of trailer.

Answer 9

Well, you definitely can't use salt, it's corrosive and could damage the load.

Alternatives - coal (acidic and thus corrosive) or wood ash is a good ice melter/preventer, but possibly of more use on foot paths than a truck bed.

How about putting de-icer fluid (ethanol) in a spray bottle / back pack and spray the truck bed before loading?

Other than that, the only thing I can suggest is sand (clean, dry builder's sand), it still freezes, but has enough air in between the grains so that it would prevent your load sticking to the truck bed.  The only problem with this would be that too much sand could cause your load to slide.