Air Gate Installation

An air gate is a dump body tailgate opened and closed by air, worked from a control in the cab. Ours pairs the air operation with a double lock. On end dump trailers the rear closure is a barn door gate instead, which we build and fit as part of the trailer.

Where the gate is released from is a safety question. OSHA's construction standard, 29 CFR 1926.601(b)(12), requires trip handles for the tailgates of dump trucks to be arranged so that, in dumping, the operator will be in the clear. A gate worked from the cab keeps the driver away from the back of the body at the moment the load lets go.

The gate also has to hold the load in. California Vehicle Code 23114(b)(2)(A) requires every vehicle used to transport aggregate to have properly functioning seals on any opening used to empty the load, and it names bottom dump release gates and tailgates specifically. Section 23114(b)(2)(E) calls for complete enclosures on all vertical sides of the cargo area, tailgates included. A gate that trickles sand onto the highway is a violation, whatever the tarp is doing on top. Section 23114(a) reaches further than aggregate: it bars any load from dropping, sifting, leaking, blowing or spilling from the vehicle, so a gate that does not seal is a problem on any load.

The double lock answers the same problem from the inside. A tailgate takes the push of the whole load, and two locking points share that push, so the gate is not relying on a single latch to stay shut in transit.

Seals wear out. The rubber along the bottom and sides of a tailgate takes abrasion on every load, and a gate that has been knocked out of square will not close evenly against even new rubber. Fitting or servicing a gate includes checking that it closes flat along its whole edge before any seal is replaced.

An air gate draws on the truck's air system. Peterbilt's 2024 Heavy Duty Body Builder Manual states that air system modification must meet the applicable FMVSS regulations, and that the compressed air tank may not be modified, apart from adding or removing fittings or relocating the tank. Lines run back to the gate cylinders and a control goes into the cab, all within those rules for the chassis in question.

We fit air gates to new bodies during the build and to bodies already in service. Bring the truck to the Penrose Street shop in Sun Valley, and tell us whether the body is a new build or already on the road.