Last Thursday I was loading at Steel Dynamics in Indiana. A driver pulled up next to me with no headache rack or cabinet . I thought he looked new to flatbed. He was pulling chains out of the trailer side box dropping them on the ground one by one. Taking a glance as to what he was doing I could not see any binders with all the stuff he had in his side box. To me he was creating a lot more work then what was needed.
I got mine on a pallet up on the trailer. When they are in the way I just unstrap it, the forklift sets it on the ground then up on the load after. When I grab something like insulation where I can't put it up on the load, I toss the pallet in the dumpster and strap them to the headache rack.
It has crossed my mind a few times about tossing those ### tarps in the dumpster. Oh, you said the pallet went in the dumpster !!!!
Just a question , why don't you keep them in the trailer side boxes? I ask because I was thinking about getting a headache rack for my chains and keeping 4 tarps 2-steel, 2 -lumber in the trailer side boxes with my straps. Should I rethink this and go with a cabinet? which I would prefer over the headache rack.
Too much junk in the side boxes. I really need to go through and throw half of it out. 1 side box is coil racks, rubber mats, and 4 rolls of felt. 1 smoke tarp and another 8x10 piece of tarp. Plus a milk crate of 24 steel edge protectors and 2 inch straps/ratchets. The other box is 1 plastic walmart tub of 20 4 inch straps, another milk crate of 2 inch straps and ratchets. About 30 big plastic edge protectors. Another 25ish cheap plastic edgers. A crap load of old straps cut in 3 ft lengths, 30 or so cardboard edge protectors of varying lengths, 6 inch up to 24 inch. Carpet and small rubber square. Broom plus a rankee extendable strap pusher/chain grabber for reels. Strap winder. 2 portable stake pocket winches. Old gloves to save my trailer sides from my chains. A coffee can of bolts and brass air line fittings. I think that's it. The beauty of shoving so much stuff in one box...there isn't room for it to bounce around and become a tangled mess. I bought another box to put on the trailer to put my tarps in, but I know myself well enough to know that with in six months I will have filled that with more junk that I don't want to throw away.
I have 4 tarps. Two steel and two lumber. 3 tarps fit in the boxes with one underneath the headache rack. Also a smoke tarp that I prob shouldn't have bought since I've yet to and have no desire to unfold. Luckily this truck came with 3 side tool boxes for straps metal and plastic edge protectors.
I use them all the time. Tho you need to keep an eye on them, they tend to loosen up a lot more often than a regular winch. But still, when you need to put a strap right over your tire, it's either a stake pocket winches, or a portable hand winch. I'm not putting the sliding winches right over a tire. I've seen way too many guys tear up 450 dollar tires that way.
What do you use for insulation and plastic pipe loads? A 12x12 smoke tarp is much easier than a full size 16x16 heavy machinery tarp.
