Dock bumpers can help you protect your dock area, your dock equipment and trailers. Every product that passes through your warehouse or production facility crosses through the dock, so it is important to maintain it and keep all bays in good shape.

Types of Dock Bumpers

Typically, dock bumpers are situated so that a truck or trailer strikes them first rather than your building. This protects your building, your dock equipment and the truck or trailer that uses your loading dock.

There are quite a few types of dock bumpers, and choosing a suitable bumper can be consequential, depending upon the volume of your loading dock. Adding dock bumpers that are too light can result in premature failure, while using dock bumpers that are too heavy may be ineffective and may in fact create troubles when docking trailers and trucks.

Not all facilities are the same, and the type of dock bumpers you choose will be dictated by the average vehicle or trailer height, the approach, overall volume and a variety of other factors. For loading docks where trailers are likely to sway during loading movements, bumpers may be mounted vertically or horizontally.

Molded Bumpers (Light Duty): Dock bumpers built from molded rubber can offer protection for light duty loading docks. What’s more, they can be installed on the interior of a building to protect doorways, walls and other building components from lift trucks and other warehouse and dock equipment.

Molded rubber is the least durable option of various dock bumper styles, and is more prone to chipping or gouging. They may be a viable choice for your business if your dock does not receive a lot of truck traffic.

Laminated Bumpers (Medium Duty): Laminated bumpers have more substantial pads than molded bumpers and offer increased shock absorption. They are constructed from cut-to-size strips of used truck tires that are mounted between steel brackets.

These bumpers have a medium capacity for wear resistance and are versatile in terms of thickness, length, and height. They are often applied on docks set up with pit-style dock levelers or edge-of-dock levelers, since they offer prolonged defense for high traffic loading docks.

Steel Faced Bumpers (Heavy Duty): Steel faced bumpers are equipped with a movable section of steel that overlays a standard laminate bumper, preventing heavy wear and tear on the laminated padding. The durable metal enables trailers to press against the bumpers without degrading the rubber. Steel bumpers provide superior resilience, and usually last up to four times longer than unprotected laminate bumpers.

When Should Dock Bumpers Be Replaced?

While dock bumpers are meant to tolerate repeated impact, they do wear down after steady use and must be swapped out from time to time. There are a few telltale signs that your dock bumpers should be refreshed.

When you see wear of more than 50%, it's time for replacement. The impact absorption capacity of depleted pads is insufficient safeguard your dock. Pads that are excessively worn will sooner or later expose the metal plates that hold them in place, and this can cause unnecessary damage to both brackets and trailers.

Besides general wear, you should look for additional damage like splitting laminates, fractures, bent or rusting brackets and other obvious defects. You may want to schedule bumper inspections, just as you would systematically inspect your levelers and other loading dock equipment.

Truck Dock Bumpers Near Me

If you need to have your dock bumpers inspected or replaced, contact a loading dock equipment professional at Raymond West today.

Raymond West's Stockton facility serves much of the northern Central Valley, including Stockton, Lathrop, Lodi, Tracy, Modesto, and Merced.

Raymond West | Stockton Material Handling Equipment Supplier

19107 Christopher Way
Lathrop, CA 95330
(800) 675-2500