The Prime Flatbed Thread

You can buy HH-66 vinyl cement at Home Depot or Lowes. Sometimes there are tarp pieces laying around at shippers/receivers from people that have had bad luck, heh. Dirty tarp scraps will clean up easy if you throw them in with some laundry.

Also, Best Tarps in West Memphis across from the Pilot has some tarp tape that is really good. Just Stay clear of the gray tarp tape that Bosslemans sells, that stuff is junk.


I think Pine or Fir for v-boards would be good for what we haul.

 

My tnt trainer said he likes snap binders for equipment/machinery and ratchets for everything else because with snaps you cant over tighten it like you can with ratchet binders.

Did eye to the sky painted coils, but no chains.... X straps over the top of the first and last coil, and a single over the middle three. I did see another truck, Melton maybe, use a row of wood dunnage over the top of the coils, then strap it down. I thought that was quite ingenious, in our case, if one of the straps in the middle failed the coil was free, in the case of the other driver it would still be secure since the 4x4s covered 2 pallets/coils..... u guys ever do this?

 

The regs say you can use a single strap if it is blocked or braced but I wouldn't trust the blocking, if any, that is used on skidded coils. Most of the time they just set the coil on a pallet and when it's loaded the pallets may be touching but the coils won't be. It's the coil that is going to move, and if it does, the pallet is just going to be there for the ride. I see people put a chain on the front pallet but what is that going to do other than keep the pallet from moving it doesn't do much for the coil.

I wouldn't use less than two tiedowns per skidded coil but it's up to you. I'm sure a single strap would "make it" most of the time but if something unexpected happened there would be trouble. It takes alot less time to throw a few more straps than it does to pull a coil off the road or from someones vehicle.

Old pieces of strap make great edge protection for straps and padding for chains if you put some under the steel corners. 3' lengths seem to work well and take up alot less space than the 20 standard edge protectors that we'd need for a load of skidded coils.

 

Ive been flatbedding almost 20yrs. Theres a couple ways to secure the skidded coils that I have used. First is all chains over the top but I like straps better for that so long as you put edge protection under the strap. Securing the front can be done with a chain but I take two blocks cut from 4x4 lumber and set them on the pallet against the coil then run the chain across in front of them,using a snap binder to tighten. (Btw yes you can overtighten with a snap binder so dont believe you cant). Usually though I secure the front of skidded coils and the back also btw with a strap run across front of the coil with a coil pad between the strap and coil. This allows you to tighten enroute if you need to. As for Logan coils,those are aluminum coils and typically they are less than 24k per coil. I think Ive seen one in my time flatbedding that just peaked a little over 24k so yes three straps is all you need. Get busted violating Logans securement guidelines and they WILL ban you from loading there. They take their coils very seriously lol.

 

Use a heavy duty staple gun. Its fast and it holds well.

 

They aren't issued in bags in the first place rather in a blue drum.

But yeah half of mine are sitting in my garage. No idea why Prime makes flatbedders have 20 chains. What on earth could you possible haul that would take 20 chains? Lol

 

Sure they are, maybe not always, but I wouldn't say they aren't. :smt064

Might need them for those tiny scissor lifts or small equipment from places like JLG. I know a full load of bobcats don't take that many and I'd hate to find out what does.