How Would You Have Loaded..

[GOV'T_Trucker]

Ok first of all I want to say I am sorry I couldn't get pictures so I will try to be very descriptive.... I want to know how you would have strapped this type of load down.. Too me it looks like it was a crappy load to take on a flatbed... I use to be flatbed but I am a waste hauler now...

So anyhow here is the story... I was coming home from work today and I seen apples all over the highway (on the far left).. So I am thinking ok some truck must of lost it load or something.. So I am driving and don't see a truck until about 1 km down the road (on the right shoulder) .. So first of all I don't even know how he got that far down the road... This truck had a set of B-Trains loaded up I believe 4 or 5 stacks of wooden crates filled with apples.. So you have a whole bunch of narrow-tall skids loaded on 2 flatbeds.. So anyhow it looks like he might of hit the brakes a little to hard and it made the crates tumble forward like dominos... Right into the cab of a nice looking Pete... Smashed a nice chunk of the sleeper.. Each crate had a single strap... There was nothing really stopping from forward moment not even a headboard.. Now if it was me I would have strapped the first to rows of crates with 2 straps each on both trailers... Probably the last to as well...

How would you strap a load like this???

[fptransport]

i havent been flatbedding long for 2 months to exact but I do 2 straps on the front skids and the last one as well , and I also use two additional straps as a X pattern thru the front of the front pallets to keep it from rolling forward , and a X pattern on the rear to keep it from sliding back...

[GOV'T_Trucker]

Yeah I was thinking about the X-Pattern as well for both front and back but I don't know if it would help.... Maybe tho...

[dannythetrucker]

wooden crates really have no business being put on a flatbed. I had a shipper try to put one on me with a few buckets of nuts and bolts last week. I had them take it off and put the buckets in my side box. I would have also considered strapping each bucket down if I hadn't had the space in the sidebox.

if anything you might be able to reasonably secure them if only one high and putting a good pallet on top and then strapping down as fptransport described with two straps across first and last and X-straps as well.

[TRUCK3R M1KE]

Try hauling 4'Tx4'Wx4'D crates of pipe fittings from Oakland to Tyler, TX. Just straps, crates open on top and made from crappy wire/thin wood sides that crush under the straps.

Have had to rearrange piles of fittings by hand many times to keep them from being launched out the top on big bumps. Totally ridiculous way to haul them, but it's gonna take a load being dumped down the highway for anyone to get it changed. I don't miss that crap one bit.

[NavigatorWife]

And this is why they probably have had people killed by things falling off flatbed trucks. It sounds like most of this stuff should have been in a box van. At the very least it sounds like some tarps need to be added also.

[MNdriver]

I honestly don't think I would have loaded it with something like that.

[Kittyfoot]

This is always the problem with flatbed. At least once or twice per year you will deal with a shipper who has no clue about proper packaging, let alone securement. This is where you have to be the professional; if the load cannot be secured safely you have to say NO until it's properly prepped. Because once it's on your truck and you leave it's your baby along with full responsibility for whatever mishap may occur.

Shortcuts in securement always come back to bite you.... hard.

[snowwy]

with onions. i put a board under the front row and a board under the back row. so the front row tilts back and and the back row tilts forward.

dot says two straps on the front row on any weight over 1100 lbs.

i put tarps over the top of load and straps over tarp. the pallets are usually netted pretty good. i've never done the x factor on front and back.

i've had a bag come down from the sdie once or twice. but nothing on the front or back so far.

i've seen guys do some crazy things though. and sometimes i'll see then on the onramp to the freeway. with no tarps. they are already losing there bags.

i talked to a few drivers before i picked up my very first load. they all said you'll always see a few bags laying on the freeway.

two mexicans showed me how it's done. and that's the way i've always done it. i have yet to leave a mess.

don't know how apples are loaded though.

[Junkyard Johnney]

DOT brothers told me a while back that on palletized loads no matter what it is, the front row and the rear row of each group has to have 2 straps across. So when I have rock loaded, a group on front and back, I have 4 rows with 2 straps on them- the front and rear row of each group, they say this is regulation-I say "no problem sir I can fix that" they smile and say "you may go now" problem solved right? I see the Washington boys hauling those apple boxes all the time, stacked to the sky on doubles. Seems I did see the X thing there but they were using a big rope like the hay haulers, not for me looks nerve racking.
J-J