Anyone on here ever drive a yard truck ?

thesmoothedeere · Jan 30, 2013

Just started a few days ago , got skipped thru training because i already know how to back a semi . lol. Get my own truck monday . Amazing how quick these things can turn a trailer . Moving trailers for the Honda plants .

pete black · Jan 30, 2013

no, but worked around one once, wal mart distribution center. amazing sight to watch the amount of traffic coming and going while all the time the trailers being moved around.

ShadetreeRet · Jan 30, 2013

If you are referring to those "short dog" yard tractors, you are right they do turn quickly. Never drove one myself, but I used to watch the switcher do it when I worked at Sears Distribution Center.

fixerupper · Jan 30, 2013

It's interesting to hear the different names. Around here it's called a shag truck. Jim

john in la · Jan 30, 2013

Yes I run one every now and then. Dirty job on our yard because it is slag. Either a mud hole or dusty as all get out.
Sure makes short work of hooking and unhooking doubles because I can back the dolly while it is hooked to the front trailer.

D beatty · Jan 30, 2013

We called them yard horses and they are rough riding beacause the ones we had had no springs on rear axle they were bolted solid to rear axle.

scotc · Jan 30, 2013

The guys that run them at Walmart are kinda crazy, don't know how they keep from tipping them over at times. When I hauled groceries it was fairly common for a pallet to be laying on its side when you picked up the trailer.

JD Seller · Jan 30, 2013

You mean a "yard dog". My buddy has one. He has a fertilizer and chemical business. He loads all the tender trucks with fertilizer and chemicals at night. He spots the trailers with it. Then the guys the next day just have to grab a trailer that is already loaded for the longer deliveries. He has more trailers than trucks or drivers.

I have helped him a few times when he is swamped. It is kind of neat to run a tractor that will turn as short as they do. They do ride rough.

OLWHDA · Jan 30, 2013

Want to see some Crazy Drivers , Go to a Rail Yard where they unload the containers, THEY have the right of way, and they know it.Called them HOSTLERS here in KCMO.

uncle henry · Jan 30, 2013

i growed up hearing them called donkey's the fifth wheel having the ability to come up is a real time saver

samn40 · Jan 31, 2013

We have Ferry Boats betwen Ireland and the British mainland with many sailings every day.When a boat docks they start emptying it with these....We just call them shunters. Around 20 or so of these are lined up ready for action. Doesn't take long to empty the boat!
Sam

John M · Jan 31, 2013

Not all day, but I do drive one where I work. Im in one maybe an hour a day now, but when I first started I was in one about 3 hours a day.

Pair-a-dice farm · Jan 31, 2013

When I worked for Kraft, I used to fill in spotting trailers at the loading dock and moving them to the trailer lot. You can really maneuver those things.

johndeere720diesel · Jan 31, 2013

Drove one for 9 months 12hr shifts 6 days a week

DoubleR · Jan 31, 2013

I see all the different names for them. At the freight company I worked for for 35 years we always called them switchers most of the time. Sometimes a Yard Horse, over the Road tractor a Road Horse, local tractor a City Horse.

Briar Hill Brittanys · Jan 31, 2013

Back in '78 - '79, worked the graveyard shift as a material handler at a dynamite plant near here. Drove a Ford 7000 gasser, 5 speed with a split rear. You could latch on to a trailer, pick it up with the 5th wheel lift, spot it and release the kingpin without ever getting out of the cab. Shagger hooked up the brake line. If (when) that truck broke down used an old Mack F700 C/O, retired from road duty. No 5th wheel elevator, no kingpin release, climbing up into that cab, cranking up the landing gear on EVERY trailer you hooked. By the end of the night, that little Ford looked pretty good.

John M · Jan 31, 2013

Thats what we call them, switchers! Sometimes a truck driver will call it something else, and I have to stop and think for a second!

Chris in SK · Jan 31, 2013

Drove one quite a bit in the UK. Can’t remember the make….Tugmaster maybe??... it had a Volvo engine and Alison auto that went the same speed in forward and reverse. It had a big pair of rams under the 5th wheel so you could lift and shift trailers without winding the legs, and very short wheel base. A single cab, with "stop and go" pedels front and back and seat and steering column on a turn table so you could spin around and drive it backwards facing out the back…..that took some practice at speed lol>
We also had a couple of old road tractors in the yard, but the Tugmaster shunter thing was way quicker spotting trailers.
Chris

cuttman · Jan 31, 2013

We call them yard dogs or spotters. What Honda plant do you work at. We have a Honda plant close to me in Greensburg IN.

Pops1532 · Jan 31, 2013

I had a renter that drove a spotter 80 hours a week for about 35 years.

guido · Jan 31, 2013

Hello thesmoothedeere,
We made one at work out of a snub nose white.
The fifth wheel would raise so the driver did not have wind up the legs.Just go behind the cab and hook up the air.
The problem was that he got it too high and took out the out gate top. Never did it againg though.
I had to put a bell system on the frame for the extended legs, so you would not turn too sharp and bent more legs!
Guido

495man · Feb 3, 2013

Seen a few 5.9 cummins, allision auto, hyd lift and air lock 5th wheel, SHORT wheel base with single cab over, door in rear of cab to hook air lines, no other reason to leave seat to hitch an unhitch.

Anyone on here ever drive a yard truck ?

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads