Dock bumpers can help you safeguard your building, your dock equipment and trailers. Every product that enters and exits your warehouse or manufacturing plant crosses through the dock, so it is critical to protect it and keep all bays in good condition.

Types of Dock Bumpers

Dock bumpers are generally installed so that a trailer or truck runs into the bumper before hitting your building. This safeguards your facility, your dock equipment and the truck or trailer that uses your loading dock.

There are many categories of bumpers, and selecting an appropriate dock bumper can be critical, depending upon the volume of your dock operation. Using overly-lightweight dock bumpers can sometimes lead to an early demise, while using dock bumpers that are thicker than necessary may be ineffective and could in fact cause problems when docking trailers and trucks.

The style of dock bumpers you choose will be dependent upon the approach, average trailer or vehicle height, daily volume and many other factors. For facilities where trucks or trailers have the potential to tilt slightly or swing during loading activities, bumpers can be attached in either a vertical or horizontal orientation.

Molded Bumpers (Light Duty): Dock bumpers built from molded rubber can supply defense for light traffic loading docks. In addition, molded bumpers are sometimes used inside a facility to safeguard doorways, walls and other structural elements from pallet trucks, forklifts and other material handling equipment.

Molded rubber is the least durable option of various dock bumper styles, and is more prone to chipping or gouging. If your dock doesn’t receive high volumes of truck traffic, they may be a viable option for your operation.

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

They have a reasonably good level of wear resistance and are flexible in terms of thickness, length, and height. They are commonly applied in operations set up with pit-style dock levelers or edge-of-dock equipment, as they offer long-lasting defense for high volume loading docks.

Steel Faced Bumpers (Heavy Duty): Steel faced dock bumpers are designed with a movable piece of steel that overlays a standard laminate bumper, inhibiting undue erosion of the layered rubber pads. The steel enables trailers to rub against the bumpers without breaking down the rubber. Steel faced bumpers offer outstanding durability, and usually are in service more than four times as long as exposed laminate bumpers.

When Should Dock Bumpers Be Replaced?

Although dock bumpers are meant to tolerate impact, they do wear down after sustained use and need to be replaced from time to time. There are some things to watch for that indicate that your dock bumpers should be refreshed.

If you see pad erosion of more than 50%, it's time for replacement. Worn pads do not offer adequate impact absorption capacity to protect your warehouse. Pads that are heavily worn will sooner or later wear down to the metal plates that hold them in place, and this will likely elicit avoidable damage to both brackets and trailers.

Apart from normal wear, you should look for other damage like splitting laminates, fractures, warped or corroding brackets and other clear deficiencies. Scheduled bumper inspections are a practice, just as you would regularly inspect your levelers and other dock equipment.

Truck Dock Bumpers Near Me

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

Raymond West's Spokane branch services Spokane, Airway Heights, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum, Coeur d'Alene, Medical Lake, Cheney, Pullman, Moscow, Moses Lake, Yakima, Wenatchee, Lewiston, Clarkston, Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Walla Walla and all surrounding areas.

Raymond West | Spokane Material Handling Equipment Supplier

11002 E Montgomery Dr #100
Spokane, WA 99206
(509) 728-6000