Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[Industrial Toys]

Our society is alway just so stupid. Like the POLICE have these Blitzes that inconvenience thousands of people and catch a very few. Just like they should park outside a bar on a Friday night, they should park outside a big box lumber store on a Saturday and hand out fines.

 

[Diggin It]

How rigid are the roofing panels? May want to pick up a few 12 foot 2x's to support that 5-6 foot over hang.

80 lb sacks ?

Yep, the idea of putting something like bags of concrete or softener salt on the front of the trailer as ballast is a good one. And so is the suggestion to put a couple 2x4 (or 2x6, etc) under the steel.

The five rib panels will be stiff enough since there will be 8 strapped together from the mill. There will also be a few mill bent trim pieces in the bundle.

Yes, 80s. And I may grab a couple of pallets from the roofing place to add forward and center load. I need those for firewood anyways and they give them away free.

 

[4570Man]

80 lb sacks ? These little 50 lb sacks are getting common and might need a few more of that weight size.

When the unit cost is the same who would want 80s? It’s hard enough getting a 60 in the cement mixer.

 

[Diggin It]

I usually buy the broken ones, so I get them at half price. Most of them are only slightly damaged, not badly enough to make them hard(er) to handle.

 

[Travelover]

I need to figure out how best to do the next load of roofing though. Length of panels will be 13'6" and there will be 8 of them. At about 2 pounds per foot, the total load should be less than 300 pounds which is well within the 1,000 pound trailer capacity. But there will be about 5-6 feet hanging off the back of the 8 foot trailer. That will also put the weight behind center and lift the tongue. If I pull the stake sides and front, I can shift the load forward a foot or so at the most which might help some, but not a lot.

My plan is to get 3 or 4 bags of concrete (which I need anyways) to stack on top of the metal sheets forward of center to to bring the load back down on the tongue and hitch.

Flagging will handle the marking the extra length off the trailer.


Thoughts?

I had a similar problem. I put a plastic 55 gallon barrel in front, secured it and filled it with water. Trailer was stable.

 

[goeduck]

Any time I've loaded lumber at a big box store has been pretty much the same. They help me get the stuff off the cart on to the trailer, then skeedaddle right quick. They do not stick around to help with any portion of the tie down.

They help load? Must be a regional thing :confused3:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Many mattresses transported on the roof of a car, and many children conceived in the back seat. You just never know when the accident will happen.

 

[lilranch2001]

No doubt

 

[GLyford]

the 1,000 pound trailer capacity.

Thoughts?

With everything still attached to the tow vehicle, try to pick up the trailer tongue.

Assuming your trailer itself weighs 300 lbs or so, 10% of 1300 would be 130 lbs., or just barely movable on the slack of the hitch and of the hitch bar in the receiver. If the trailer and your estimated 300 lb. load comes to 600, then there should still be about 60 lbs. on the hitch/receiver. So if the tongue feels like it weighs a lot less than that, or worse, if you need to press/step down on the tongue to move it around on the slack, you would need more tongue weight.

This trick doesn't work as well as trailer weights get heavier, so the next step for a heavier trailer I guess would be if you can budge it at all, you need more tongue weight.

I also like the idea several others have mentioned of calibrating the spring rate of your truck to know when the body drops X inches, you have applied Y more pounds at the hitch.

While a tongue scale is probably the best answer, there are ways to make estimates that don't require unhitching.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Interesting everyone initially blamed the trucker, then it came out 19 year old guy lost his mattress on the road and kept going. 2 people die because it came off, he gets charged with criminal negligence causing death.

Amen! I've ran upon mattresses, shovels falling out the back of trucks, and extension ladders while riding my m/c. Believe me - there is nothing funny about getting those kinds of surprises. Each have their own near-death mental flashbacks.