Opinions On: Securing Steel Coils - Use of chains / straps / dunage

Exactly what I did, plus a chain around the front

 

Sad part is, this happens everyday. Plus ingots right down the middle. Plus machinery.

I have pulled a few vans with chain pullups. But the ones I referenced normally didn't have them. And were leaning or rolled over when I did see them.

 

Yeah I know they put a lot of them in vans with little or no securement. I’ve seen a few that had to stop quick and a skidded coil will end up going through the front of the trailer and landing on the frame of the truck. I actually chuckled to myself and say “there, now ya know why we tie them down, dumb###”

 

I’ve hauled plenty of coils, suicide mostly and we used 10,000lbs chains. For a 34,000 coil I used 6 chains totaling out to 60,000lbs of securement. I would start my base chain, then I would do an X over that center chain. Horseshoe one chain towards the front and two horseshoe chains to the rear of the coil. I would put a 5,000lb strap cross the center top of the coil then tarp. You can never have to much securement.

 

Crossed chains are illegal on suicide coils.

 

10,000 chain, Yea ok.

Plus, anyone knows you do not X chain a suicide coil. Strap over top, its like peeing yourself in a dark suit. No one really notices, but you get that warm feeling.

 

Shouldn’t feed them. They just come back for more.

 

Maybe I'm a larger predator! Not feed just bait.

 

In case you think you're being picked on by folks that don't know what you're talking about, here is the cite that prohibits the use of chains in an X formation on suicide coils. You're either a troll or a badly or completely untrained individual:

(c) Securement of coils transported with eyes crosswise on a flatbed vehicle, in a sided vehicle or in an intermodal container with anchor points -

(1) An individual coil. Each coil must be secured by the following:

(i) A means (e.g., timbers, chocks or wedges, a cradle, etc.) to prevent the coil from rolling. The means of preventing rolling must support the coil off the deck, and must not be capable of becoming unintentionally unfastened or loose while the vehicle is in transit. If timbers, chocks or wedges are used, they must be held in place by coil bunks or similar devices to prevent them from coming loose. The use of nailed blocking or cleats as the sole means to secure timbers, chocks or wedges, or a nailed wood cradle, is prohibited;

(ii) At least one tiedown through its eye, restricting against forward motion, and whenever practicable, making an angle no more than 45 degrees with the floor of the vehicle or intermodal container when viewed from the side of the vehicle or container; and

(iii) At least one tiedown through its eye, restricting against rearward motion, and whenever practicable, making an angle no more than 45 degrees with the floor of the vehicle or intermodal container when viewed from the side of the vehicle or container.

(2) Prohibition on crossing of tiedowns when coils are transported with eyes crosswise. Attaching tiedowns diagonally through the eye of a coil to form an X-pattern when viewed from above the vehicle is prohibited.

Read this entire section, if you can:
Federal Register :: Request Access

 

It’s possible he’s a troll. That being said the number of people I run across who can’t cite a single securement regulation 100% correctly is astounding. I’m not talking about new guys, guys that have been doing this for 20+ years.

2 straps required on the back row of pallets, a strap every ten feet, 2 straps in the first “x” amount of feet. All things cited as regulations but actually aren’t.