Unsecured hay hauling

   / Unsecured hay hauling #31  
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.
This is so true. It's like people are doing just about everything but driving. I keep seeing people on phone, smoke, eating, all at once and driving is the least of their priorities.

My dad just got rear ended yesterday due to someone driving while looking down to mess with the phone and didn't see my dad stopped at the red light. Luckily the kid managed to pull to the left at the very last minute and just smashed the rear left corner, so no injuries for anyone.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #32  
Recently, I've noticed people hauling trailers loaded with two rows of bales side by side and a row down the middle weighing down the bottom two rows. I didn't see a ratchet strap even on the top row. I was hoping my eyes deceived me.
 
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   / Unsecured hay hauling #33  
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.
Just last weekend my wife and I were taking a drive in NW Indiana on some backroads. We came around a curve and there was a round bale blown apart sitting right at the edge of the road on the outside of the curve. We've seen plenty of the small traditional square bales over the years, but that was the first round one.

This time of year around here, you're most likely to see Roma tomatoes all over the highways in the south bound lanes. The trucks are heading to the Red Gold cannery in Elwood, IN. Good stuff!!! :p

 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #34  
My daughter makes several hay runs a year for 3 horse families. The first time she made the mistake of letting the supplier's workers put the straps on. Halfway back she had to find a flat enough area to straighten and secure the load.

Now she doesn't leave their lot without strapping the load herself.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #35  
Recently, I've noticed people hauling trailers loaded with two rows of bales side by side and a row down the middle of the bottom two rows. I didn't see a ratchet strap even on the top row. I was hoping my eyes received me.

That is the way all round bales are hauled around here, never a strap to be seen or found. Plenty of round bales on the side of the road and many times they don't know or care they lost one. Complaining to LEO is a waste of good air as they will not do a thing to address it, especially anything to do with the BIG farms.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #36  
How many people have been killed so far on that dangerous stretch of road by hay?
I am friends with a couple that were riding their cycles when a vehicle lost a few big square bales and they both crashed. Pretty significant injuries to one of them.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #37  
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.

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

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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 reply would go equally well in any of the other "towing" discussions in the Trailering and Transportation forums. As I mentioned down there many people on the road really have no clue abut proper safety procedures... while others don't seem to care.

I almost rear ended a contractor earlier this year because he was turning and didn't have working lights on his cargo trailer. Had I been travelling at highway speed rather than slowing to turn into the same convenience store it could have been ugly. I ended up fueling next to him so mentioned they weren't working and he made it clear that he didn't care.
A lot of people assume that if they are rear ended they are going to get rich; that might not be the case though, if their lights are out of order.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling
  • Thread Starter
#38  
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.
good point & somewhat related in that people seem to pay less attn to safety these days. in terms of trucks, i attribute hazardous driving & hauling to:
1) obvious distraction to all manner of electronics on board, texting, etc
2) today's pickups are super insulated from the environment with every creature comfort imaginable. plus they are bigger & more powerful. i am very careful on blind curves on dirt roads to swing way to the right on curves & drive slowly. the high performance ATV's are over the top, another subject

back to the point: some of us are lazy when it comes to safety & are deceived by the power & comfort of our rides
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #39  
Around here there is always hay on the side of the roads, usually in the faster curves. Both small square and large round bales.

I was going to post this pic in the towing wrong section. This guy is something else. The land he farms is across from our church. I was getting ready to leave Sun after church when he pulls out on the phone as usual.
He almost came into the church parking lot due to lack of attention.
As you can see he is approaching a blind curve over the line. No the load wasnt secured but that wasnt the main problem.

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My brotherinlaw runs a lawncare landscaping service. I had been on him for years about not securing his equipment. He said it took to much time.
A DOT officer got him one day and tore him a new one verbally and with tickets.
He almost had the truck and trailer towed.
 
   / Unsecured hay hauling #40  
Around here there is always hay on the side of the roads, usually in the faster curves. Both small square and large round bales.

I was going to post this pic in the towing wrong section. This guy is something else. The land he farms is across from our church. I was getting ready to leave Sun after church when he pulls out on the phone as usual.
He almost came into the church parking lot due to lack of attention.
As you can see he is approaching a blind curve over the line. No the load wasnt secured but that wasnt the main problem.

View attachment 713638


My brotherinlaw runs a lawncare landscaping service. I had been on him for years about not securing his equipment. He said it took to much time.
A DOT officer got him one day and tore him a new one verbally and with tickets.
He almost had the truck and trailer towed.

That jackass is ruining it for people like me.
Technically he is probably legal since the law (at least in PA) allows agriculture 12-13 feet of width over the road. But he should be favoring the shoulder, not the middle, of the road. He is also making 5’ wide round bales, which IMO are primarily made to stay “on the farm”. He would serve his fellow drivers much better with a 4’ round baler making 4’ wide bales.

I rarely exceed 11‘ with equipment and rarely go over the yellow lines, unless the road lane is really narrow. Usually on round bales on a trailer I am 9‘ wide.

Yes, there are some entitled people who need to be educated
 
 
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