lease-on deal I was looking at

Thanks. I guess I'll go with the 27 footers then and save the money.

Menards has the 20 foot chains with hooks for $54.99...not a bad price from what I've seen elsewhere. I assume 5/16's 4700 lb is more than plenty for non-CDL weights. Is 20 foot a good length to start with if I need 4 of them? I know they make 10 and 16 ft also.

Yeah the tarping is something I need to watch some more demonstrations on. I'm also not sure about the bungee cords as far as what size and quantity to have. Seems like 21" and 31" are commonly used for tarping. I'll have to ask him again what size tarp he has because I guess that depends on what size it is and how many of them are needed to determine how many bungees to have.

 

Ok so maybe 25 of each size would be a good starting point then?

 

Yeah that's kind of what I was thinking with the chains. Sometimes you wouldn't need a 20 ft chain so I thought about putting a pair of 10 footers together with a quick link. Or does DOT not like that?

 

Good information. Thanks.

I caught up with him today and he said the tarp I wanted was a 16'x24' with a 4 foot drop. If I go on Mytee Products they have tarps they call lumber tarps, steel tarps, machinery tarps, smoke tarps and tons of sizes. So I'm picturing a 30 foot long trailer and a tarp 24 ft long and 16 ft wide. So the tarp is 6 ft shorter than the trailer deck but nearly twice as wide as a 102" trailer deck. What exactly does the 4 foot drop mean? Is it automatically a 4 foot drop because of it's dimensions or can different sized tarps also be 4 foot drops? Or did I just answer my own question by realizing about 4 feet of tarp would be hanging off the sides of the trailer if it was positioned perfectly centered across an approximately 8 foot wide trailer? (I need a nap now.)

Here's another one that has be scratching my head...is my regular auto insurance policy okay to keep for personal use of the vehicle while at home off duty? He seemed to think that was all his other drivers did when I questioned this topic. Would be nice if I could get my bozo insurance agent to pick up his phone or reply to my email since he would obviously be the guy to ask but he appears to either be on the lam or comunicada non grata. All the RV hauling outfits don't allow this if you lease onto them...they all require a commercial non-trucking liability policy before they will turn you loose out into the wild. Obviously while under dispatch or in the "dispatch loop" as defined by the FMCSA, as it was explained to me, you are covered under the carrier's general liability policy. However with 3/4 ton and 1 ton hotshot trucks, they still might be used as personal vehicles while not out on the road working, so hence my uncertainty about this. Anybody have any special insight here?