Unsecured hay hauling

   / Unsecured hay hauling #21  
There's more. That was just a quick search.

Anyhow, anything, hay, tires, lumber, beer kegs, can kill someone if it's not secured properly.
And an air liner *COULD* fall out of the sky & kill you too.

My point is..... maybe the farmer knew what he was doing and loaded & drove in a safe manner and DIDN'T kill anyone.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #22  
I've had both happen.
They’re farmers. Laws don’t apply to them but it’s okay because their job is hard.
5 ton sized truck with 3 round bales. Wife and I were driving from NE Ms to DC, early morning, nice day in my 2009 Jetta diesel Sportwagen. We were on US 72 north of Hollywood, TN, two lane, good road. Road speed normally about 60+. The truck was pulling grade. I'd been itching to pass and was right behind the truck with two cars close behind me. A bale came loose, rolled off. I floored the Jetta, it spurted around, I could see in my rearview the first car dodged the bale as it spun to the middle of the roll. My wife, the lawyer said "don't get involved".
Still shows up in my nightmares.
<snip>
We had someone killed nearby on a stretch of divided highway by some jackass with a unsecured spare tire on the back of his truck. It bounced off at high speed, crossed the grass median, and went through the windshield of his car.
I was driving down I95 on a very crowded Saturday summer morning in my Dodge B100 van taking 2 of my boys and one of their friends (about 12 years old) to Kings Dominion for a day of rollercoaster and waterpark fun. F150 size truck in front of me was pulling a small boat (20 to 30 feet) on a small tandem axle boat trailer. We were in the middle lane probably going 60mph. Packed traffic to the right and left of me. One of the wheels on the trailer broke off went up high in the air straight at my windshield. I managed to speed up, trying to catch it on the roof.
Caught it right above the mirror on the roof inches from the window.
Scared the c### out of us.
To this day I'm sure if I had braked we would have had the tire in our laps.

Loose loads kill people.
Tire continued bouncing off into traffic, looked like everybody dodged it.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #23  
Hauling anything unsecured on public roads is stupid and dangerous. How long does it take to put a couple of straps on??? Don't be THAT GUY!

If you are going to pull a trailer you should do it responsibly. Have the coupler and safety chains in good condition. Have all the lights working. Have tires in good condition. Make sure the trailer brakes are working. Don't exceed the vehicle and trailer capacity. And by all means know how to load with correct tongue weight.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #24  
Hauling anything unsecured on public roads is stupid and dangerous. How long does it take to put a couple of straps on??? Don't be THAT GUY!

If you are going to pull a trailer you should do it responsibly. Have the coupler and safety chains in good condition. Have all the lights working. Have tires in good condition. Make sure the trailer brakes are working. Don't exceed the vehicle and trailer capacity. And by all means know how to load with correct tongue weight.
Now you’re talking sense! 👍
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling
  • Thread Starter
#25  
So, a guy named Big Bubba who has a place in rural Ozarks in Arkansas doesn’t want to offend the rednecks?

By the way, big congrats on the win v Texas. Huge.

MoKelly
:) humor is the only way i've survived 49 yrs in the state. but it does p--s me off the haulers put rednecks like me at risk. i lease my place for hay & asked the haulers about unsecured loads. they always claim gravity & physics are on their side. but i do see the point about the enforcement challenge, law enforcement is currently under enormous stress & overall i do appreciate their service.

enforcement would prob come from State Troopers rather than the county boys...who prob haul hay after hrs themselves.
i drive very defensively
 
Last edited:
   / Unsecured hay hauling #26  
I live on a rural road, quite twisty and a speed of 80KPH, The shoulder of the road beat down from tractors and s**t spreaders driving with their floatation tires on the shoulder.
Yesterday I noticed they're hauling 6 round bales on a flat trailer with not even a lip around the perimeter with no tie downs, doesn't seem safe to me. All for the sake of another 5-10 minutes for a couple of straps.......Mike
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #27  
So speaking of hauling hay and hauling equipment, I haul about 100 loads of hay per year. It’s not easy and round bales are particularly difficult. Not to strap down, that’s easy, but to load so they stay balanced. Round bales have varying densities and when left in fields, can get soft on the bottoms making them squishy. I’m hauling hay today and when it’s round bales, particularly stacked in 2 layers, it’s always an adventure.
Im not making excuses for haulers losing bales off trucks/trailers, but trying to illustrate why bales sometimes come loose.
I would never condone unsecured bales.
One thing I taught my kids when teaching them to drive is always avoid cruising behind an open truck and next-to larger trucks. Things fall off and tires can unexpectedly blow out. Pass them or stay back.

I actually load bales with the driving route as a consideration. If the road has a great deal of “run off” to the shoulder, I will pre-load the bales slightly to the drivers side, knowing that by the time my destination is reached, they will begin leaning to the passenger side. In a few extreme problematic deliveries, I have had to pull over in a parking lot and have to go back, get a tractor and fix the load! One was when a couple dumb, careless drivers cut me off and I had to make an emergency maneuver.

1631792998621.jpeg




Large square bales on the other hand are very easy to load and stack on truck or trailer and are much more predictable.

1631792701208.jpeg


After 35 years of hauling hay and equipment, I have never lost anything other than a few pieces of paper trash from hauling debris on my tarped dump truck. I plan on keeping it that way until my driving days are over.
 
Last edited:
   / Unsecured hay hauling
  • Thread Starter
#28  
So speaking of hauling hay and hauling equipment, I haul about 100 loads of hay per year. It’s not easy and round bales are particularly difficult. Not to strap down, that’s easy, but to load so they stay balanced. Round bales have varying densities and when left in fields, can get soft on the bottoms making them squishy. I’m hauling hay today and when it’s round bales, particularly stacked in 2 layers, it’s always an adventure.
Im not making excuses for haulers losing bales off trucks/trailers, but trying to illustrate why bales sometimes come loose.
I would never condone unsecured bales.
One thing I taught my kids when teaching them to drive is always avoid cruising behind an open truck and next-to larger trucks. Things fall off and tires can unexpectedly blow out. Pass them or stay back.

I actually load bales with the driving route as a consideration. If the road has a great deal of “run off” to the shoulder, I will pre-load the bales slightly to the drivers side, knowing that by the time my destination is reached, they will begin leaning to the passenger side. In a few extreme problematic deliveries, I have had to pull over in a parking lot and have to go back, get a tractor and fix the load! One was when a couple dumb, careless drivers cut me off and I had to make an emergency maneuver.

View attachment 713549



Large square bales on the other hand are very easy to load and stack on truck or trailer and are much more predictable.

View attachment 713548

After 35 years of hauling hay and equipment, I have never lost anything other than a few pieces of paper trash from hauling debris on my tarped dump truck. I plan on keeping it that way until my driving days are over.

this method should be the model for hwy transportation safety. hear what you're saying re:shoulder, i failed to mention that my tight 2 lane hwy has no shoulder at all
i do appreciate haulers like yourself. so does your insurance co, best regards
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #29  
The ONLY unsecured loads I've ever seen around here. Pickup truck with one or two round bales. I've seen LEO stop large flatbed semi's to check their load strapping.

However - you WILL see the occasional round bale in the roadside ditch.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #30  
Not to veer off topic but drivers today pay little attention to their surroundings, especially in the country where farmers are and where I have lived my entire life. In the last year I've lost 2 friends to tractor rear end crashes from negligent drivers. In both cases the tractors were triangled and had flashers and strobes.
 
 
Top