The journey begins - purchased a truck.

I have not been a flatbedder. I only worked in a steel mill as a maintenance mechanic for several years.

 

That is not a sheet of metal, like I was referring to. Headache racks won't protect you from nuclear detonations or falling off a cliff either.

 

'05 or '06 I was delivering to a job site in northwest Pa. By the way, not a flat bedder haven't done that since the 80's. 2 pallets of anchor bolts to a rural job site, Flat bed getting loaded with huge steel slab. Long story short, they crane it on and he takes off with no securement at all. They grab my pallets of and I head down this tiny road. Half mile into my journey every care is flashing lights at me. Come around corner and there he is blocking my lane and the shoulder. Hit flashers and park behind him. Out of truck I go to see if I can get around him. Plate came off taking head ache rack off and it went into his sleeper. He ran up to me and said the dumb...bunch of bad words...women pulled out in front of me. Shakes head. Walk back to my truck and he is following me telling me it wasn't his fault, I do this all the time he said. Must have been sand on the plate he said, idiot I said under my breath as I went around him. He may have been going 25 mph down that 8% grade but when you hit the brakes it's over. @Ruthless your turn

 

He's #### lucky to be alive. Once a weight that heavy starts to slide down a slope, it's an avalanch. Glad he had that headache rack to save his ###. Even if he was a tard and didn't secure properly, I'm sure someone would have been hurt by his death.

 

F=MA can be a real #####.

 

It’s always the people that don’t run open deck telling me how headboards or cab shields save lives/ telling stories how an aluminum cab shield that can be bent and punctured by lumber stopped a massive load shift of tremendous weight and velocity and saved a driver’s life.
Most manufacturers of these products have stamped right on them from the factory that they aren’t built for that in any capacity.



You can call me the bad guy for calling out people that don’t know facts.


Cab shields and head boards are not required; they do not save lives. Secure your load properly and you won’t have a problem.

 

They have saved lives when they function like a roll bar.

 

This guy lived, braked hard for a dog

 

It's safety equipment, not a guardian angel. If you have it when you need it, then you just might live long enough to be happy you had it.

I'd put headboards in the same category as ABS brakes. They aren't always going to help, and some sorts of loads are not going to be much safer with a header, but they will help often enough to have it on the truck if you haul flat stock, pipe, small girders, etc.

 

I look at the headache rack on my old FLD as merely a place to hang my chains. After me and my 64 year old father in law picked up to move it I have little faith in it stopping anything substantial. I'll just chain and strap everything down as if it doesn't exist