Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[rangerfredbob]

I found the picture of my method, if it wasn't live edge I would have just used one strap going over the whole thing and skipped the 2x4 or whatever board I used, I think it's a 1x2 thing that is used for strapping metal siding together... but yes the other methods listed above work good too...

 

[deezler]

Please draw a free body diagram of forces demonstrating how little a strap over the top of the boards would accomplish. What is needed is something over the ends to keep the board from sliding back, not something around the boards.

One doesn’t need a free body diagram if you understand the basic concept of static friction. The coefficient of friction is based upon the surface texture interaction. The force needed to overcome static friction and induce relative motion is proportional to the normal force applied.

A strap holding the boards in a bundle together, and a strap clamping the boards/bundle downwards to the truck bed, greatly increases the normal force present between boards, and most importantly, between the bottom boards and the truck bed.

A strap that holds things down also helps keep them from sliding around. I can’t believe you made me type this out lol.

 

[deezler]

Of course part of the issue is that wet green lumber is very slippery (surface texture yields low coefficient of static friction plus they are basically self-lubricated). But this guy had used, dry lumber. If definitely would have stuck together if strapped in a bundle.
What i often do, is taper the top of the pile, not quite a full pyramid/triangular pile shape - but if you have one row less wood on the outer stacks, then your ratchet straps can get a bite on each stack, and thus pull downwards on all of them.
I have also used dstig’s method of a sacrificial cross board (4x4 or 2x6 on edge) to prop the whole pile up at an angle. And if course, for loads under a few hundred pounds, just use the tailgate itself.

 

[bmaverick]

Got off the highway to find this jackass in front of me on the off-ramp today.

25 boards without a single strap. Well, he had a few bits of strap dangling from his ladder rack made out of random pieces of pipe.

We turned the same way up a very bumpy piece of road, the boards were sliding around but I can't say I saw any fall. How f^&*ng hard is it to put one $2 ratchet strap on your load of lumber?

Long as the boards do not exceed 2FT from the tailgate, no red 8x8 flag or material is needed in most states.

If the wood is heavy, he wouldn't need straps. No quick take-offs. And yes, it would of been way better to have a ratchet strap around the whole bundle to contain single boards from moving.

 

[i7win7]

No red flags needed

 

[bmaverick]

No red flags needed
View attachment 772999

The first porcupine Lexus !

 

[npalen]

Long as the boards do not exceed 2FT from the tailgate, no red 8x8 flag or material is needed in most states.

If the wood is heavy, he wouldn't need straps. No quick take-offs. And yes, it would of been way better to have a ratchet strap around the whole bundle to contain single boards from moving.

I was told many years ago that a load while traveling will always tend to migrate toward the front of the vehicle. There I said it so flame away!

 

[ning]

I was told many years ago that a load while traveling will always tend to migrate toward the front of the vehicle. There I said it so flame away!

My truck has a substantial rake forward unless heavily loaded, so any bumps in the road encourage a load to migrate forward. In addition, acceleration tends to be more gradual than deceleration, so you're more likely to overcome static friction when slowing (thus the headache rack).

My go-to is a tight strap bundling the load together and strapped down - it's worked for me ever since I was that complete idiot that dropped a load in the intersection when I hit the gas in the 460-powered truck I had at the time (plastic slick-as-snot bedliner.

We had recently moved to this town and it was heart-warming how instead of all the other cars at the intersection trying to run me over as I off up the load, three guys jumped out and helped load it up cheerfully. Not sure it would be like that today, so I make sure to secure the load properly now

 

[dstig1]

No red flags needed
View attachment 772999

Oh that is priceless

 

[duramaxsky]

No red flags needed
View attachment 772999

I want to follow that at a safe distance to see what happens.