How To Choose A Truck Wheel Chock For Your Yard Surface

Start With The Surface, Not The Price

Rubber grips by friction. On a swept concrete apron a moulded rubber chock like SL-WC-05 holds well, places quietly and will not spark. Wet that same apron with diesel or hydraulic oil and the friction it depends on drops away.

Steel and cast iron work differently. SL-WC-02, the cast iron model, bites into a gravel or broken surface where a rubber chock would simply slide. On loose surfaces the chock is wedging itself into the ground as much as against the tyre.

Then Ask Who Carries It, And How Far

A chock is only effective if it is under the wheel. The single biggest reason chocks are not placed is that carrying them is unpleasant.

Two of the six S&L models solve this directly. SL-WC-03, the laminated rubber chock, has a welded steel bail handle. SL-WC-06, the diamond tread steel chock, has a side carry handle. If a driver has to walk the length of a trailer in the rain, specify one of those two.

Visibility Is Part Of The Specification

A chock that cannot be seen gets driven over, and a trailer that looks unchocked gets chocked twice while another gets missed.

The steel models, SL-WC-01 and SL-WC-04, are finished in safety yellow. SL-WC-02 goes further and carries Safety First Check Your Wheels cast into the face of the iron, so the message is part of the casting rather than a label that peels.

Matching The Six Models To Conditions

• SL-WC-01, folded steel in safety yellow, for general dock use where visibility matters.
• SL-WC-02, cast iron with a cast-in warning, for yards with loose or broken surfaces.
• SL-WC-03, laminated rubber with a bail handle, where chocks are carried some distance.
• SL-WC-04, curved steel in safety yellow, for a formed profile against the tyre.
• SL-WC-05, moulded rubber with a stepped face, for clean concrete aprons.
• SL-WC-06, diamond tread steel with a side handle, where both wear and carrying matter.

Two Chocks Or One

Use two whenever the yard is graded, whenever the trailer is being loaded from one end, and whenever the trailer will be left without a tractor. A single chock assumes the trailer can only move in one direction, which a sloped surface does not guarantee.

Where a trailer is dropped for any length of time, pair the chocks with a stabilising jack so the landing gear is not carrying the nose weight on its own.