History of Jac-Loc

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Necessity is the mother of invention. Tom McKinley has been a professional driver for many years hauling rock using a belly dump trailer. Like so many other belly dump drivers, he had experienced the accidental loss of loads due to equipment failure. Belly dump trailers have been around for years and are a great tool for hauling road materials such as sand, rock or asphalt because they can easily spread the load when delivering the product making it easier for contractors in the road construction business. However, they have always had a problem with the function of the doors or gates (depending on what part of the country you are from). Most of these are operated from the cab of the truck so the driver can flip a switch on the truck while it is moving making for a smooth unload process. Early in their existence, operators would accidentally hit that switch while driving down the road or before they really wanted to at the delivery site. Eventually, someone developed a cover for the switch forcing the driver to remove the cover before operating the switch. Problem solved! But, drivers were still losing their loads. The doors are typically operated with powerful hydraulic rams operated by air pressure. It takes a very powerful force to keep doors closed that are holding 22 tons of rock. If the air pressure from the truck drops below a certain level, the doors would open. The most common place for this to occur was within a mile of where the trailer was loaded. You will find a lot of rock along the roads near gravel pits! As the rams wore out, they would start losing pressure and let the doors open just a little bit and you would see a trailer scattering rock down the highway for miles. Sometimes, the driver would lose as much as half of his load before reaching his destination. If the truck broke down, it would lose air pressure and the driver would lose his load wherever he was when the truck broke down. Occasionally, the air pressure would drop below the desired level at the delivery location prior to the desired time to unload making it more difficult for the road construction company to place the material where they wanted it. The simple fact of the matter is that if you do not secure the load using a different method than just the rams, you will lose loads. To remedy this issue, a wide variety of methods have been developed to secure the doors prior to loading the trailer. As a general rule, these included the use of hooks and chains or pins. All methods would require the operator to get inside the frame of the trailer and manually secure the load with the gates under power. This is inherently a dangerous operation being close to these powerful rams, having to duck inside the trailer frame, many times laying on the ground to be able to secure the doors. This is time consuming, dirty, and regularly resulted in a bumped or scraped head or back as the operator tried to get in and out from under the trailer frame. Although this may only take 5 to 10 minutes for each set of doors on each load, this can add up in the course of a day and in some cases can cost the driver a round trip for the day thus reducing his income potential.Tom was tired of getting dirty, bumping his head, scraping his back, and losing loads. He worked with Jerry Berry, a welder, and DeWayne Hauth, a trucking contractor that leased belly dump trailers to develop the Jac-Loc. Together, they developed the Jac-Loc belly dump trailer locking system. The system can be operated with either an electronic actuator or with a manual actuator. Either way, it is Secure, Fast, Safe. There is no need to get inside the frame of the trailer to operate the lock. For companies leasing trailers out, you may choose to install the manual version so any tractor can pull the trailer regardless of electrical wiring. If you are a construction company where all your trucks can use the electronic version, you may prefer the electronic actuators. You can even install both actuators on a trailer if desired so you can switch between the two methods depending on the equipment that will be pulling your trailer on any given day.