Posted By Ben.A Hello I have been looking into physical barriers to prevent various types of trailers over shooting while reversing and dropping into an underground pit. The trailers tip a wide variety of bulk grains and pulses into a pit, and at the bottom of the pit is an elevator to take away the product to storage bins. The problems faced are various trailer types, wheel sizes, and different lengths of overhang on the rear of trailers which could impinge on the trailers when tipping. One additional problem is trailers tip their loads in the pit and any excess product which is not taken into the pit straight away is held at the edge of the tipping area by side walls. This is then pushed into the pit with a loading shovel with a bucket. Any physical barrier would make it difficult to push the loose product into the pit without it being an obstruction. Their are banksman used on site however, they will not be able to stop the vehicles in the event of a problem e.g drivers foot slipping of the clutch pedal etc. I have thought of barriers which could be lowered into the ground and lifted out by mechanical means when grains are needed to be pushed up. However i am also fully aware that these may not always be put back in place however good the procedure and training may be. Has anyone any suggestions to help me move forward on this one. Many thanks

Posted By Ben.A Mitch, Thanks for your thoughts, i have raised the issue of a strengthened grile, and believe this to be the best option, only i am being told for hygiene reasons and cleaning this is not possible. However i have got to investigate this further as the pit already has an existing grille be it one that is not strengthened. Many thanks Ben

Posted By Renny Thomson Another solution to the problem would be to change the discharge method slightly. Instead of allowing the vehicles to discharge freely via the full-width back door, use of the grain hatch with a discharge "sock" will reduce the overspill into the pit and reduce dust levels. The discharge flow will balance out to the capacity/flow of the elevator at the bottom of the pit. Drivers may complain that it takes longer to discharge, but inpractice the increase in time will be minimal. The capacity of the pit would only be needed when the final discharge was carried out by opening the rear door for the final couple of tonnes or so in the corners. In fact this can be avoided altogether if the driver "pulls" the product out using a scraper through the bare hatch although they will need to consider RPE and a strong enough pit cover. I used to work in bulk haulage before I moved to H&S. We used to discharge 24t of malt,wheat, pulses and other cereals into small pits and the clean-up was limited to a bit of brush work