The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

Not HoS material, just a truck that just looks right! And I'm not even a Pete guy!

Although I don't know if I've ever noticed chains on the upper frame before.

 

If it makes you feel better that OS sign isn’t legal for most states. (Too small)

 

I wondered about that, but didn't take the time to go look it up.

 

That’s how all the cool kids chain down new excavators.

 

18”x84” is what it needs to be on a truck. That’s a size for an escort. 12x60 I think are the size on the small ones.

 

Yeah, I don’t know about that.

 

Well, I was never considered cool anyway! Chaining like that serves no purpose other than meeting WLL in my opinion. With the swing brakes of new equipment and the boom being chained, there is no need to further limit house swing, and this will do little to nothing in preventing forward sliding of the whole machine. The binders on the track pads are ok for meeting WLL too, but you should have chains going directly to the track frame. Track pads can bend or break pretty easily. You notice there are no stickers suggesting that the track pads are a tie down point?

 

I’m guessing stickers on or near the track pads probably wouldn’t last very long. This is a brand new machine with 2 hours, the undercarriage is in perfect condition. Tracks are perfectly sufficient. These chains are to meet the WLL requirements because I only carry 3/8” chains. If I had 1/2” chains, the machine would get 4 on the tracks and one over the stick.

Here’s the other end.

 

They put stickers all over the machine with arrows to the indicated position. At least they did on the new 330 that I purchased last year.

By tying to the tracks, you are not preventing all forward/aft movement as the track frame can roll a slight bit inside the tracks. If you get in a situation of a wreck or severe panic stop those track pads aren't going to hold once the momentum inside the tracks gets started.

I really don't care about WLL. I am much more interested in preventing movement of the machine.

 

We ran one through the jaw recently. We were wondering where it broke off at....