Fasten your load to your trailer!

[bjcsc]

Maybe this is a good place and time to ask, "How many chains and binders do you use to secure your rig?"

I use 2 3/8" GR70 transport chains and 1 ratcheting binder. I drive forward on the trailer, hook the front chain to the trailer, through the front of the tractor at the front axle and then back to the trailer on the opposite side. The I back up in low gear until it's tight. Put the brakes on, shift into park and shut down. Then I run the second chain from the trailer, through a drawbar hook, to a ratcheting binder hooked to the trailer and tighten it up. The front chain is attached to the trailer 3-4' forward of where it's attached to the tractor, and the rear is 3-4' behind where it's attached to the drawbar.

 

[blueriver]

I quess I am from the old school and my daddy was a good teacher. We fasten everything down with chains and binders, we carry a pipe in the trailer boxes so we can crank down those load binders!

If its loaded on anything no matter what it is secured. If I load hay on the bed of the truck it is tied or strapped. I like to haul things, the only thing worse than loading is reloading a lost load.

The hardest haul I think I ever did was square bales (small) on a flatbed trailer all the way from MN, those darn things just seemed to get smaller every mile I traveled, I used ratchet straps across that load and everytime I stopped to check I had to ratchet them down some more!

I really believe we have a responsibility to others when we are loaded! By the way, I talked to that guy that was hauling that tractor that I got the posted photo from. He never said but I'm quessing its His first tractor, had never hauled before. Recently retired and had purchased some small acerage so he could be part of the country life. That scares me, suppose he knows things like what a PTO shaft can do to you? Does he know that some of those older tractors the PTO will push that tractor after you clutch it? Does he know what a brush hog is capable of cutting? Think about it ... so many have little idea.

 

[Redbug]

Since I have gotten a tractor, I also have become load secure aware. Funny, before how oblivious to it all I was. It's pretty scary now seeing a truck swerving in and out of traffic doing 75 mph with a trailer load of mowers and landscape equipment and nothing much holding them onto the trailer. Boats are safer since they have standard places to tie them down. I had to pull way back on the interstate today because a car hauler was swerving like crazy... probably because the load was too top heavy with a bunch of suv's. I should have called *HP.

I agree with Skyco...South Carolina seems lacking when it comes to enforcement. Maybe they don't teach the officers, (troopers), what to look for with unsecured loads. Looks like being a Transport Policeman is a pretty good gig, eh? Where do they all hang out and hide nowdays?

 

[BigE_]

I quess I am from the old school and my daddy was a good teacher. We fasten everything down with chains and binders, we carry a pipe in the trailer boxes so we can crank down those load binders!

From Cargo Care: Tying It On
"One of the most common mistakes drivers make when securing a load is believing that tighter is always better.

"This country seems to have a philosophy of might makes right," says Larry Strawhorn, chief engineer with the American Trucking Assns. "So if tightening a chain with a 2-foot bar is good, they think a 4-foot bar must be really good. You can make something too tight." Strawhorn is on a committee of government and private industry representatives working on new North American standard securement guidelines. "Quite often, when we’ve looked at what’s wrong, it’s the load is too tight," he says.

How can too tight be a problem? Aside from damaging the load, you’re putting too much strain on your securement devices. Say, for instance, you’re securing a 1,000-pound coil with something that has a working load limit of 1,500 pounds. If you tighten it up to 1,500 pounds, then sudden braking or other movement, even bumps in the road, puts more load onto the chain or strap. So you’ve exceeded that working load limit — not just of the chain or strap, but of the chain binder, stake pocket or winch as well.

"Overtightening is probably one of the biggest mistakes that’s made," says Rodney Reynolds with Columbus McKinnon’s chain division. "Chain actually has a memory to it, and I can tell you what the maximum load it’s seen out in the field." In addition, he says it’s not uncommon to see failed chains that have been stressed past where they should have been.

You can overtighten straps, too. Some drivers use a cheater bar on the winches on the sides of the trailer just as they do tightening chain binders."

 

[Tig]

Maybe this is a good place and time to ask, "How many chains and binders do you use to secure your rig?"

I use a chain on each corner and two load binders.

 

[garth466]

I think the role of state police is not the same as here in Washington for the most part. I was just talking about this with a buddy of mine who is a Trooper here about this. Here the big joke is that the troopers are just AAA with a gun, and though he wouldn't like that statement, it isn't far from the truth. Besides the drama and trauma you could cause, it wouldn't be a good idea to run around with an improperly secured load around here (at least on state roads). You'll eventually get caught here and be fined, even if it all works out from A to B. Our troopers ticket!

We had a gal a few years ago that was severly difigured from something that flew out of a pick up. I want to say it was your average Wally special entertainment center in the back of a Ranger/S-10/ somethingorother small pickup who's load flew out at speed. Anyway, lots of legislation about it and lots of hefty fines to be handed out.

 

[Mike058]

We had a gal a few years ago that was severly difigured from something that flew out of a pick up. I want to say it was your average Wally special entertainment center in the back of a Ranger/S-10/ somethingorother small pickup who's load flew out at speed. Anyway, lots of legislation about it and lots of hefty fines to be handed out.

If it's the same gal, she was hit in the face by an entertainment center that slid off a U-Haul trailer. Case is over, for now. Details here, Woman blinded on I-405 gets $15 million

 

[garth466]

That's the one. I guess it was one of those open trailers. I was actually watching the news the night it happened. As you can see we have new laws now and I know they are strictly enforced. Don't be surprised here to see blue lights behind you any time you are hauling a load. They routinely pull rigs with loads just to check the safety of the load.

 

[sandman2234]

S.C. isn't one of the states I would say is the most enforced as far as weight, load securement and speed. The weigh stations at the south end of I-95 have been closed for many years. However, in defense of the officers, they typically don't hang out on the Interstates, as most trucks running the Interstates have already been thru a couple weigh stations already. Florida and Georgia are manned about 90% of the time and don't miss much.North Carolina on I-85 has some pretty hard working officers, so S.C. is surrounded by them. All of them also have a LOT of patrol officers dedicated to just trucks, and typically pull the trucks over out of the normal path of heavy traffic.
David from jax

 

[hosejockey2002]

If it's the same gal, she was hit in the face by an entertainment center that slid off a U-Haul trailer. Case is over, for now. Details here, Woman blinded on I-405 gets $15 million

This demonstrates what is wrong with our legal system. While I certainly feel sympathy for the victim because of her injuries, it slays me that the jury found that she bore no responsibility for the accident. It does appear that she was following closely behind the trailer when the load flew out, and she had at least one glass of wine before the accident. It's a fact that ANY amount of alcohol will slow reaction time. Also, if she had been following a reasonable distance behind the trailer that particle board entertainment center would have been sawdust by the time she hit it instead of the whole thing coming through the windshield.

The person who bears, IMO, 90 percent of the responsibility for the accident only got 33 percent of the blame.

And the topper, the one party who should have borne NO responsibility for the accident has the deepest pockets and therefore gets stuck with most of the blame. Uhaul rented the trailer to the guy. They didn't load it.