Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

That always seems to be the story. It never has anything to do with the product but always something else. I think sometimes they just make #### up to justify paying for a tarp. But as long i getting paid i dont care. Tarping dont bother me to much. Especially the small 4 fters

 

I hauled a few lock gates 20+ ft wide that required a level one inspection right in our yard before shipment. We used a lot of direct tiedowns just like @FerrissWheel illustrated. We could get some X crossed tiedowns off the front and back...Mostly just as many tiedowns as we could get to equal their WLL to the weight of the load...
Passed inspection and moved the load...

 

Ive sent out a few emails to East, Wabash and Fontaine. Hopefully I get someone on the other end who can clear this up. But this is going to take some time.

There is some confusing verbiage on the matter. In that 1 or 2 manuals I pulled rated any bellow deck securement point as 5400 or less. Which is the closest ive got so far. But i suspect that was meant for rails mounted below the cross members.

But i did at least encounter 1 or 2 that explicitly warn against an out pull on the winch track or rub rail.

And naturally most everything i keep digging up only ever mentions Beam Strength, not securement strength, which is of course the heart of this issue. And lots of caviots about "depending on how the trailer is ordered or built."

Im just going to crack open a cold one and wait to hear back. Because digging up reference material on what is a very Niche practice done by like 1% of the flatbedding world, as it turns out, worse than getting an answer out of a mule that speaks martian.

And we probably used 8 different trailer brands or models when hauling precast, some of which i don't think are even in buissness today. Mostly steel or composite flats.

I will full on admit, the instructions to do so came from our customer, and also from 3 seperate Carriers, one of which was of course mine. Because too many of the trailers over time had been ripped to shreds by people going to the rub rail or stake pockets, or doing an out pull on the winch track.

Though we did have a few ravens and wabash that were literally built with fixed winches in place underneath designed for side pull, and cross member mounted rails. Everything else though, we largely had to do a direct hook.

Anyway, have a good weekend!

 

When grabbing the bottom flange of the main frame beams, try to cluster near the spreader braces if possible. You can put a whole lotta leverage in a 20" tall vertical member thats only got a spreader welded in up at the top via the crossmembers. An i-beam does not resist torsion very well at all and will be easy to bulge out in the long spans between the lower bracing.

Also, if youre doing this alot, consider some big mouth grab hooks. You can switch back to clevis hooks as needed for normal and it wont cost or weigh near as much as more chains. Use hairpins instead of cotters for fast changeout without tools.

 

Its probably a dumb and impractical thought altogether, but if one made a full circle around the underside of the frame and connected to itself end for end.. I suspect the WLL of the trailer attachment would be eliminated and only of the strap or chain itself.

I would probably never do such a thing except to get mr trooper to release me.

 

Its easier to just not haul oversize stuff. U guys can have that crap. Ill take my tarp loads n be happy

 

Just some glass going to Oh-Canada. Nothing interesting.

holy ####

 

Got ahold of a John Deere 872GP grader from Lima, Ohio going to Dodge City, Kansas. I'm only 13' 6" tall but I am 11.0' wide and 80,160 lbs. I already had to explain the 400lb. over-weight exemption for having an APU to an inspector at a weigh station.

 

How to make a flatbedder happy: big money , legal dims, and no tarp.