Isn't securement in a dry van supposed to be the same as a flatbed?

No thanks even with a 100 nails holding things down I was still worried if I got brake checked I’d get smushed.

 

Unloaded a 53 footer loaded with skids of construction equipment last summer. Heaviest skids at the front were 2,500 lbs each. No securement whatsoever. That seems SUPER janky.

 

At that point straps and blocks aren’t enough. I thought of chain wells. Without a frame, what good are they? How do you secure paper rolls in a van? Impossible. Things need to be blocked up against the nose. Stacks of pallets, whatever. So it can’t move forward in the first place.

 

No coils, but I hauled a very large bull gear in a reefer once. It was around 7 feet in diameter and probably weighed close to 6,000 pounds. It was perfectly safe though, there were 12 pallets of broccoli in front of it.

Had to deliver the gear first and air out the trailer pretty good before delivering the broccoli because I picked up the used gear at a mine in Nevada and it stunk to high heaven.

Several vehicles and other assorted equipment too.

 

I hauled this 52k pound load of glass (it was the lightest on of the day) in a dry van with only one 5/16 chain loosely pulling back on each of the 3 racks. Nothing but your driving skills keeping the racks in place side to side. Doesn’t matter much with glass, if you slam on the brakes, it’s all coming forward, usually in a million pieces.

This plant loads regular dry vans with the same racks and 4 short pieces of wood nailed on each corner.

 

I’ve never hauled glass. Do they secure the glass to the racks somehow?

 

Yeah the soda can walls of a 53ft trailer is going to keep all that inside.

Kinda shows what a joke the DOT regulations actually are.

Outta Sight, Outta Mind!

 

Yes, two 2” straps per side. But they are slightly over snug at best. If you crank down on the straps the glass will just break.

The racks are similar to this step deck set up, except the straps attach to the rack itself.

 

Drybox is pretty much foreign to me now, but I'm sure there's van trailers that have sunken securement points built into the floor, for tie-down. I think this is just a case of wrong equipment (trailer) for the job. Regulation-wise, I'm a flatdecker and it's been too long since pulling a box, to know if it's legal. I would be very cautious driving though.