I’ve noticed a lot of petrol tankers have metal mudguards. Also, I noticed that not much post 1978 has metal mudguards, so, why do petrol tankers? Please help as I’m losing sleep over this!!
Maybe it’s to prevent stones/metal objects etc from being kicked up and sparking against the tank ? Plastic can be easily damaged.
anything to do with blow outs and the fact plastic ones have a habit of disintergrating 
jon
maybe because tanker bodies don’t normally offer any protection to the mudguard as a van or curtainsider does
Yes its to do with blowouts,
A metal mudguard will catch the bits a lot better than a plastic one,
Some tankers have a fibreglass type wing, which is also quite strong
Also offers protection in tyre fires which will enable the driver to put the flames out without the mudguard melting into it and warming the tank 
having driven them with both (alloy and plastic ) i would presume that its down to the individual tanker builder or to customer specification.
dave:
having driven them with both (alloy and plastic ) i would presume that its down to the individual tanker builder or to customer specification.
I’d say you’re presumption is right on that dave, the reason you gave is as good as any of the others on this topic.
TBH the subject of petrol tanker mudguards hadn’t caught my attention before, so I had a trawl through ADR and the UK regs and the UK ACOP for petrol tankers and found no mention of mudguards, although just about everything else on them is highly specified as I’m sure you’ve noticed.
I think the law changed around 1985 / 86, especially for ADR.
ADR trucks used to be heavily specced with Steel Firescreens, steel Mudwings and gearbox sheilds as well as other mods to wiring, intrinsically safe tachographs and pto controls. Even night heaters were included and could not be programmed with timers. Then I noticed all our new trucks were getting simpler.
Wheel Nut:
I think the law changed around 1985 / 86, especially for ADR.
You’re right there Wheel Nut. Without research, cos this is only academic, the UK Regs also changed big-time in '92, '96 and '04. We await the latest UK regs next month. That’s just UK 
ADR changes are predictable, it is completely revised and re-published in odd numbered years: '01, '03, '05 etc. On average, ADR is 1,300 ish pages in two volumes and is about £110 to buy. I routinely chuck £110 in the bin every two years
Wheel Nut:
ADR trucks used to be heavily specced with Steel Firescreens, steel Mudwings and gearbox sheilds as well as other mods to wiring, intrinsically safe tachographs and pto controls. Even night heaters were included and could not be programmed with timers. Then I noticed all our new trucks were getting simpler.
Again IIRC, there wasn’t a spec for mudguards, but you’re right on all the other points you made as far as they relate to tankers for the carriage of flammable liquids and gases. (Pet Regs to us old uns 
) The one you forgot was the battery isolator switch, again heavily specced. I did glance through current specs as I wrote above, but couldn’t find anything relating to mudguards in either UK Regs or ADR.
I submit to your superior knowledge Dave. I did DGSA in 1997 but since all the books are now obsolete and my company stopped paying for me. I threw it all in the bin although the Orange book makes good cab reading if you are sad like me 
As for ADR. I think the spec of the trucks was higher than pet regs and the ADR certificate had item no’s + class of every chemical listed that could be carried. Even the skellys had to be ADR approved in Europe
Wheel Nut:
I submit to your superior knowledge Dave. I did DGSA in 1997 but since all the books are now obsolete and my company stopped paying for me. I threw it all in the bin although the Orange book makes good cab reading if you are sad like me
OOPS- DGSA came out in the UK on 31/12/99, so that’s maybe a typing error (Please check, if you can)
The orange book now comes as a matching pair, like ADR.
Sad like you?? I don’t think so I can out sad most of 'em. I read the orange book in German:shock:
Wheel Nut:
As for ADR. I think the spec of the trucks was higher than pet regs and the ADR certificate had item no’s + class of every chemical listed that could be carried. Even the skellys had to be ADR approved in Europe
Spot on again. That would be a B3 tank certificate, remember the one with the pink diagonal stripe? The very latest version of that still has the pink stripe, but it’s not now called a B3. Most of the B3 as you remember it has been carried over. Another transition period on that score I’m afraid. It gets far too technical for this topic after that.
Back when I was driving a gas truck every loading terminal had a ban on plastic buckets. A steel bucket with integral ground strap had to be used if a sample needed to be drawn from the trailer (avgas/jet fuel normally).Apparently plastic has a habit of storing static electricity and can’t be reliably earthed,hence no plastic buckets at the terminal.
Maybe the same holds true for plastic fenders on fuel tankers. Presumably the operator could cause a spark by touching the mudguard when loading or unloading.
All the fuel trucks I drove had ally fenders.
Longwayround:
Back when I was driving a gas truck every loading terminal had a ban on plastic buckets. A steel bucket with integral ground strap had to be used if a sample needed to be drawn from the trailer (avgas/jet fuel normally).Apparently plastic has a habit of storing static electricity and can’t be reliably earthed,hence no plastic buckets at the terminal.Maybe the same holds true for plastic fenders on fuel tankers. Presumably the operator could cause a spark by touching the mudguard when loading or unloading.
All the fuel trucks I drove had ally fenders.
Seeing your location (NY,) I’ve no idea what DOT 49 CFR says about the subject. I’ve driven gas tankers (Propane and CO2) ours had plastic mudguards IIRC. You’re spot-on about the plastic buckets and static. “Gas” confuses us cos we call it “petrol” Others on this topic were quite right, we do have plastic and/or metal mudguards (ok “fenders” 
) on our petrol tankers.
Longwayround:
All the fuel trucks I drove had ally fenders.
Does he mean Alloominum
smoker:
Maybe it’s to prevent stones/metal objects etc from being kicked up and sparking against the tank ? Plastic can be easily damaged.
worked by a Company in the Garage and fitted mostly Metal,as they hold longer.
Plastic makes sence too,but too expensive to paint,and,on Tanks will You not have so many lost Mudguards then on Flat,who break them mostly by pulling back till Kerbs pushes them under the Tyres,and break them.
you also have no real weight problem,as you delivery by Liter