Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION MAY 26, 2021 Page 14 Tips on Maintaining Trailers—Part I: Safety Issues…continued from page 13 The panel pointed out that this practice is highly dangerous and not recommended by either the PSAI or most manufacturers. Here are just some of the reasons: • Trailers are not built to be transported with completely full waste tanks. Doing it will ultimately damage your expensive asset. Just one example is the axles, which are typically chosen to carry the weight of the empty trailer on the roadway. The weight of waste is considerable, and will stress the axles, at best shortening their life and at worst causing an accident. • Waste in the tanks increases your vehicle weight. This may be a problem on highways rated for lighter vehicles or during a roadside inspection. • Waste in the tanks is moving liquid going down the road. This creates a tremendous risk for your company and other people who are on the road. The impact of surge and slosh is real, and it can lead to extended stopping/ starting times, problems with curves and turning, and a host of other handling issues for the driver, especially if the road is not dry. Here's how Bill Gibson illustrated this point during the session: "I'm going to give you some real-life numbers. A 24-foot restroom trailer weighs about ten thousand pounds, maybe slightly under. Some are quite a bit heavier than that. But let's just say ten thousand pounds. That restroom trailer has about a thousand-gallon waste tank. And if you just take an average of eight pounds per gallon of liquid, that's eight thousand pounds in an unbaffled tank on a restroom trailer. So if the trailer weighs ten thousand pounds, we'll round it down. We'll say that the waste is eight thousand pounds. That's eighteen thousand pounds. Most of those trailers are built with two seven-thousand-pound axles. You're overweight by four thousand pounds before you ever take off down the road. And when you hit a pothole, when you hit any kind of obstruction—those are called shock loads— that puts exponentially more stress on the trailer, the axles, the wheels, the tires, and everything else. And it just creates an extremely dangerous situation. I can't stress enough how dangerous it is to move with waste in the tank and how important it is to make sure that you're verifiably empty. We have had instances where one company sublets [equipment] from another company. They say, yes, indeed, this has been pumped…because Company A said that it has been pumped. Company B comes in to hook it up. They go to take off…[but] it had not been pumped. It actually came dislodged [during transport due to the extra weight]. And luckily, no one was hurt. But it was a big problem." Summing It Up Trailers are growing more popular in the post-COVID world. There is a great deal of potential for profit and, importantly, for raising the reputation of our industry as these options become more prevalent. To succeed, you must keep everyone safe and make sure your profits aren't eaten up by expensive mistakes. Tips in this article are just the beginning of the advice from our expert panel of Tony Watson, Anthony Heath, and Bill Gibson. In subsequent articles we'll dig deeper into what they had to say and bring you more of their tips and insights. v Can't wait for the next installment? PSAI members can watch the recorded session through June.

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