dunnage

I am new to flat bedding but my standard outbound loads do not use dunnage and seldom do I get to haul back pipe loads that need dunnage. I want to carry some but what will always depend on the load. My 2 trailers are Manac step decks with 255-70/22 tires. Not much room underneath with their railing. The truck has an old school head rack I am thinking on making boxes and clamps I can brace short boards in. Most of the places have 4x4x8 wood even if it is crawling with ants. it is the special gaps I have to fill for the 4x4 to spread the load across the trailer with 12-24 inches of gap at either end of the pipe stack.

Hopefully the shop will fab up some horizontal racks under the trailer beds that I can store 6-4x4x8 boards soon.

Beyond this if the shipper cannot give me a strong base load to secure, I refuse the load. Not a single place I have been to is without a stack of old wood piled in a corner near the trash bins. Once back at the terminal like all others it becomes bonfire kindle. No shipper will let me leave the wood behind unless I sneak it on a pile there.

 

Well, we load a lot of machinery loads. A step or flat should at least carry a few 4 bys.

loaded a CNC machine a couple of weeks ago. Driver didn’t have any dunnage, said just sit it flat on the deck. We did, but I bet they have a heck of a time getting back under it at the receiver, and a fairly good chance they could mess up his nice aluminum deck.

 

I built a box inside the beams on my trailer where I had my 4x4s out of sight. I generally only used mine a couple times a year. Some places would look at the trailer not see any dunnage and assume I didn’t have any so they would go grab some of theirs. One of my favorite shippers would not use a drivers dunnage they always supplied good heavy oak, unfortunately that was one of the reasons the folks I hauled those loads to bought from them so I never got to keep any of it.

 

I carry 6- 8’ long 4x4 and 4-6’ beveled.

If I need more than 8-8’ pieces they can supply what is needed from there?

I run regular load board highboy freight.

 

Always fun. I had to unload an piece of machinery last fall that weighed about 12k lbs. Just placed flat on the deck. What a pain in the ### to fork it off. Had to screw around trying to get each end up off the deck to get some blocks under it.

Have even unloaded some equipment that had broken through the decking because the driver never put any dunnage under it before it was loaded.

 

The driver wanted this flat on the deck. I offered to let him have some dunnage, after I found out that he didn’t have any, but he said no. This machine weighed 20,000 lbs, we could slide the forks out from under it easy enough, but I don’t know how they got back under it to set it off. I told him there was a good chance of floor damage, with them trying to get the forks back under it, but he didn’t seem to care.

 

....you guys are crazy, I always take the dunnage if I have the chance!

I always carry 12 4x4’s with me wherever I go, they always come in handy.

 

How many trailers do you pull in an average week? It’s not uncommon for me to pull 3-4 different trailers in a week.

 

(4) 8' long 4x6 on hand always. So if it's something I think would benefit from an extra lift at the front/back I can tip them proud (6" vert) if the shipper puts down 4x4s.
My trailer also has pipe between the frame beams and some raggedy stuff strapped up there but that's the bosses idea not mine. Wrecks the winches and the wood and my back getting it out of there....

 

Well I have 3 flatbeds, 4 tankers and do a bunch of local PO loads.... this weeks I’m already at 15 different trailers I’ve pulled...hahah


Note, here’s my piles of goodies.