Is this ok? (chaining)

Aluminum pockets can be a little scary, but steel pockets are pretty sturdy especially if they're incorporated into the outside rail like on a lowboy or a landoll. The only other option is to use the outside rail.I've chained a lot of cranes and excavators by just using a ratchet binder from the track to the rail, but that was all local I wouldn't think about doing that interstate.

 

45k inside the rails is rather concentrated in 4 or 5 feet. You can and will haul them, its as requested 99% of the time.

 

1/4 inch steel pickets are strong as heck. I used to abuse the hell out of them on my old steel trailers. This conbo tho? I don't trust them. If i MUST use one i take a chain all the way around it and hook the binder to the chain. I won't hook directly to the picket itself.

 

Flatbeds rely on the center rails for the majority of their strength. The outside edges and cross members tend to be thinner C channel. They aren't really built to handle a lot of weight out near the edges of the deck.

RGNs tend to have much heavier I-Beam outer rails that are purpose built to hold that weight out there at the edges of the deck.

I've hauled many 70K+ generator rotors on a Reitnour Big Bubba flatbed. They are basically a 3-4ft diameter shaft that sits dead center on the trailer. They sit on 12x12 saddles that distribute the weight out over the frame rails. The cross members in the middle would never handle that kind of weight in 12ft of the deck.

 

I remember being unloaded by a huge forklift with a single pipe in the center of the lift rails, the only way you could get unloaded was suicide. When I hauled stainless to Long Island they used an overhead gantry, I could have loaded them flat, but at the port they had that same forklift, so once again suicide.Funny thing now that I think about it, I made more money going to Long Island then I did going to Ohio. The Ohio coils were just to get me to Pittsburgh for long steel to Florida.Amherst I think, no more of that, darn shame.

 

A lowboy is designed to handle the weight to the outside rails. A flat or step are not. I agree though. Giving the option I’ll take a suicide coil over shotgun any day. I think most steel haulers would.

 

Flat would be best but that would be too easy.

 

My boss was once on the verge of loading a 65000 lb 12 wide excavator onto a step deck when we had lots of lowboys sitting around. He wasn't hearing any different so we had the popcorn watching and waiting. He got it up the ramp that was about a foot taller than the deck just about to tip it down when he smartened up!

 

Too bad you don't have a video, I'd like to see that.

 

Would have been disappointing. He chickened out. But you know at the time it didn't even cross my mind to film even though I knew what was about to happen if he did it.