if i only had a camera

[workinallthetime]

today as im driving home i see a NH tractor on a trailer just ahead of me, so i speed up to see what the man has. Ok so we all have been schooled, told, warned ect.... about how to chain down our stuff and the proper trailer to use so you can imagine what i was thingking when i got next to this guy.
He has the loader raised up above the tailgate of his truck because the trailer is to short for the tractor with the loader and brush hog strike 1 and 2
Next his chains ohh his chains, the back 1 is laying over the hog, lose and had no kind of binder on it at all. The front chain was also lose and bouncing off the deck and had some kind of crazy looking pully thing used to "secure" the load.
The guy was some kind of commercial operator as he had a landscape company name on his door but man this guy was asking for it. I wanted so much to catch him at a light but then i thought i would put as much distance between him and me as possible, i didnt want a NH coming at me doing 65mph.
ugg glad im a tbn member and have some what of a clue on chaining stuff down !!!

 

[jeffinsgf]

Okay, I'll rise to the bait on this one.

I am pretty careful when I tie down my tractor. And, I have read with some interest some of the threads here on the subject. But, honestly, when was the last time you read in the paper or saw on the news an accident caused by equipment not properly secured?

I have also been surprised at how loads I see on the highway are secured, but they always seem to get where they're going. Have the threads here been taken over by OCD trailer loaders? One of the biggest threads on TBN (from about 18 months ago) was one where a strap broke and nothing happened. If the tractor brakes are locked, it would take an enormous deceleration to get the tractor moving (0f course, once it started it could get ugly). The idea of a tractor simply rolling off a trailer because it is not chained down rigidly defies the laws of nature. Things don't stop, start and/or change direction on their own.

I am not advocating sloppy trailer loading. Far from it. But I have much more interesting stuff to obsess over.

 

[Bird]

Yep, Jeff, it's not something that happens every day; pretty seldom, in fact. However, when it does happen, someone gets hurt bad or killed, and if you happen to be that someone, you'll change your mind about there being more interesting stuff to obsess over. I'm sure you have not seen some of the things I've seen and some of the misery caused by others' carelessness or ignorance.

 

[ragkar]

Just two weeks ago I was on a four lane divided following a guy pulling a flatbed with a car on it when it started fishtailing when he applied the brakes. He was all over the road trying to brake it to a stop. When he did get it stopped, the right rear of the car on the flatbed was two feet off the trailer.
As I recall, the car was chained, but perhaps not too tightly.
I don't have much experience towing but what was the cause? Maybe the car was too far back on the trailer putting too little load on the tongue?
I understand that the proper action when the trailer starts to fishtail is to accelerate, but perhaps traffic in front of him wouldn't allow that. Anyhow, who has time to think it out in the few seconds of this sort of situation?
Boy, I'll bet he had to change his pants after that.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Yep, Jeff, it's not something that happens every day; pretty seldom, in fact. However, when it does happen, someone gets hurt bad or killed, and if you happen to be that someone, you'll change your mind about there being more interesting stuff to obsess over. I'm sure you have not seen some of the things I've seen and some of the misery caused by others' carelessness or ignorance.

I don't know why I'm feeling controversial this morning, but I am, and your former law enforcement status unfortunately puts you in my sights, since you have tried to paint me as callous.

If law enforcement types really cared about road safety, when a rolling wreck of a trailer with a load of junk that isn't tied down goes by, they would stop it. They don't. I've seen it. They also wouldn't allow 18 wheelers to travel 85 miles an hour. They would rather nail 3 or 4 cars for going a few miles over the speed limit than one commercial driver. I assume this is because the new federal laws make the penalties so severe that no cop wants to be responsible for putting someone out of work.

In the Kansas City suburb that I used to live in, we had a new intersection go in that made it very convenient for a local quarry and ready-mix plant to get to the other side of the freeway. It is a big wide beautiful boulevard that leads into several growing subdivisions. The gravel and concrete trucks blow by the stop light, several mph over the speed limit with alarming frequency. So alarming, it made the local paper. But travelling that intersection several times a day, I only ever saw cars pulled over. Never a commercial driver.

I guarantee you that when my trailer is loaded, it could pass any Highway Patrol inspection in any state. I have good chains and good binders. I don't know what grade they are or where they were made. But, when I tie my tractor down, it is one with the trailer. I am not the problem. And scaring newbie tractor owners to death with quotations of chapter and verse from the penal code isn't the solution.

Of course, if we really wanted to make our roads safe and conserve energy, we would put America back to work rebuilding the railways and get 80% of the freight off the highways completely. But, that's another rant for another day.

 

[AlanB]

Couple months ago here, had a guy towing I think two skidders on a truck, someone pulled in front of him, he locked the brakes,

Skidder came through the cab of the truck and killed him.

It is a constant argument betwixt my wife and I, and just because I (we) have done something wrong for years and gotten by with it (towing mowers on the trailer unsecured) does not make it right.

Kind of like, honestly, do we need seatbelts? Look how many miles folks drive and never have an accident. They had cars for years without seatbelts..... but I still put mine on every time.

 

[dmccarty]

I saw a VERY nice new 350/3500 PU rolled on its side, off the road and buried into the side of a hill. He had a goose neck with a skid steer. The skid steer was sitting upright next to the road. This was just past a light, straight smooth road. The only thing I could figure out is that the skid steer shifted and somehow caused the truck to loose control. Unless a deer or a car cut the guy off it seemed like the load shifted on him.

I saw an OLD Chevy PU with a skid steer a few months back. The skid steer had one old frayed dirty tow strap kinda loop around the bucket. Everytime the truck stopped and started the skid steer would move on back and forth. It looked like the only thing holding that skid steer on the trailer was the bucket.

I see pulled commercial vehicles all of the time.

Later,
Dan

 

[CharlieTR]

I find it quite amazing that people think because something is big and weights a lot that it will stay put. That is just not true.

I do not agree that these accidents are rare at all. Just so comman that their don't get reported or when something large falls off, it does not always kill someone.

Load it up, don't tie it down, kill someone, then obsess over that the rest of your life.

 

[czechsonofagun]

If law enforcement types really cared about road safety, when a rolling wreck of a trailer with a load of junk that isn't tied down goes by, they would stop it. They don't. I've seen it. They also wouldn't allow 18 wheelers to travel 85 miles an hour. They would rather nail 3 or 4 cars for going a few miles over the speed limit than one commercial driver. I assume this is because the new federal laws make the penalties so severe that no cop wants to be responsible for putting someone out of work.

I have the same experience. Cop will let go a trailer with loading ramp skidding and sparking all over the road - and chase somebody who made a turn on red light. I have seen it myself.

Our area is booming with development and some of the trailers on the road are anything but safe.

 

[workinallthetime]

guess i started another one,lol
the truck i saw on the road would have been in deep cow droppings if he would of had to do any kind of sudden action caused by a number of events that happen on that streach of road everyday. I agree he probably made it to where he was going and is probably hauling it agin today that way. I just dont like to see that kind of thing on the road because if he did happen to kill someone or hit a school bus then the law would be all over guys like me who are doing everything they can to be safe.
Years ago when i built fence the crew chief would say "dont worry about the cops we are working and they wont bother us" I know i hauled some pretty crazy loads and never got a second look no matter how red my eyes were.
I just dont take the chance now days and secure it all and have a back up everything.
happy towing