This cropped up on a CPC course recently but I forgot to ask the trainer: is there a difference between a headboard and a bulkhead? My current thoughts are that a headboard is fixed but a bulkhead might be a movable structure, as on a walking-floor trailer.
I don’t know if there is a distinct prescribed definition on road vehicles but on ships and boats a bulkhead divides separate compartments.
In road transport terms I would say a headboard is the stop at the front end of the vehicle body whereas a bulkhead divides the trailer so can be anywhere other than at the ends.
Certainly a bulkhead is a dividing wall but I don’t know and can’t find a definition for headboard other than a bed headboard.
HEADBOARD ON A FLAT,BULKHEAD ON ANYTHING ELSE.HOWS THAT FOR STARTING A DEBATE… 
dieseldog999:
HEADBOARD ON A FLAT,BULKHEAD ON ANYTHING ELSE.HOWS THAT FOR STARTING A DEBATE…
On Youtube trucking videos I’m sure I’ve seen Americans refer to chocks put across the vehicle flatbed to stop goods moving forward as bulkheads 
dieseldog999:
HEADBOARD ON A FLAT,BULKHEAD ON ANYTHING ELSE.
That’s my take on it also.
Bulkhead in a van to separate the load carrying section from the driver/passenger section and trailer to separate compartments, headboard on the front of everything else where the load carrying section is physically separate to the bit the driver and passengers sit in and is the front section of any divided load carrying space.
Many fridge trailers have a moveable bulkhead to separate different temperatures and support the load.
dieseldog999:
HEADBOARD ON A FLAT,BULKHEAD ON ANYTHING ELSE.HOWS THAT FOR STARTING A DEBATE…
Santa:
Many fridge trailers have a moveable bulkhead to separate different temperatures and support the load.
I don’t think it’s anything other than what you got used to hearing them called, in other words I don’t think there’s a right or wrong or a standard as such.
Personally I’ve always called the front wall of a trailer a “headboard”, and called the internal sections in fridges usually “partitions” but more often than not just “awkward [zb]ing barstewards”
Santa:
Many fridge trailers have a moveable bulkhead to separate different temperatures and support the load.
That’s just called an internal door
When I worked for Preston’s they had some trailers that had a bulkhead that would drop down from the headboard for certain types of loads, ie Kiln Bricks that weighed 21t in 11 pallets
Santa:
Many fridge trailers have a moveable bulkhead to separate different temperatures and support the load.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
splitter… 
Not getting mixed up with bolster is he. A steel frame for supporting long steel etc over the headboard.
Santa:
Many fridge trailers have a moveable bulkhead to separate different temperatures and support the load.
That’s what they’re called wherever I’ve worked. Chilled or frozen in front of trailer then bulkhead down and ambient or chilled at rear.
It’s a heavy drop down divider which keeps the temperature down in one section of the trailer and allowing a separate temperature in the rest. Movable of course.
streaky:
Santa:
Many fridge trailers have a moveable bulkhead to separate different temperatures and support the load.That’s what they’re called wherever I’ve worked. Chilled or frozen in front of trailer then bulkhead down and ambient or chilled at rear.
It’s a heavy drop down divider which keeps the temperature down in one section of the trailer and allowing a separate temperature in the rest. Movable of course.
Moveable but also strong enough to support the pallets behind it.
I think that the Welsh word, “bwlch”, pronounced “bulk” refers to the head of a valley.
Headboard is fitted to the front of a flat trailer…Bulkhead is whats fitted to a box trailer, tautliner, for example, in a fridge for example is an inner compartment door, to separate different temperatures…thats my take on it.