How to get pallets off trailer

Back in the day I think a Navvie could dig and shift ten tons of earth per day with pick, shovel and wheelbarrow

It's amazing that we never think of the 'manual' method of doing stuff - we insist on a machine...

And how often just knuckling down and doing it by hand is cheaper and quicker than getting a machine on site

Twenty tons a day, according to The Railway Archive.

Also a lot more likely to result in injury.

I suggested the OP look at local labourers because I see lots of loads like his shifted by hand: pallets of bricks, tiles etc aren't commonly left on the road outside terraced houses overnight in Hackney. I'd reckon £100 cash in hand would get get them shifted through to my back garden, but that's with plenty of E Europeans usually working within 5 minutes walk.

I wont argue with that. My best was 3 tons :-)

Snowflake.

Er.. could the lorry not be moved so the floor sloped the other way?

So, the pallet runs uncontrollably off the back?

Simply rather more fragile these days than I used to be.

I wonder what an airport baggage handler does? Let's see:

A basic 737/A320 takes 150 pax, each pax has a 23kg bag (at least they did in the old days). That's 3.4 tonnes per aircraft, assuming they did it single handed.

No idea how many aircraft each handler does a day, but maybe one every half hour? In an 8 hour shift that would be 55 tonnes.

Of course there are powered conveyor belts and stuff, but I think in some airports it's manual, both loading from the cart onto the conveyor and unloading from the conveyor into the hold.

It no doubt helps the baggage has nice carry handles, so is much easier to manage than shovelling dirt.

Theo

We were told, on TV a few days ago, that the stoker on a steam train would shift about 7 tons of coal per journey.

But they didn't have to *dig it up*

Considerably less care required than Lee would want with his new tiles. :)

The last time I needed to get something heavy off a trailer I used a lift gantry and chain hoist.

Another way is to use an engine hoist but there may be issues there over weight. And use a pallet truck to get the pallets close to the back of the trailer.

Can you get a trailer with a tail lift?

Quite different because they never move the bags far at all, just move them from the trolley to the belt that loads them into or the reverse when unloading.

Never seen one except with a semi, what you lot call an HGV.

You can certainly get trailers with a hiab that would normally be used on a truck.

But found this one

I remember, in my teens, moving 3 tonnes of fresh concrete (so against the clock), with my cousin. I also remember the blisters on my hands and the aches and pains.

Possibly it also helps if if the two places for the transfer are at similar heights.

While the bed of the trailer is rated at 1400 kg but what is the rating for the tailgate?

That looks very flimsy!