Making the jump to Flatbed and have Questions

saw a neat way of winding with a cordless drill with an allen wrench chucked in it, made a manual winder look like a pain in the ###.......

 

if you can't get a strap over something by whipping it high, roll it up backwards and throw it like a football, it will unroll itself on top, saving you a ton of time....

save good corner protectors, like the plastic ones that you get at certain places.

watch out for ratcheting winches, you can tell the difference because they only have two holes instead of 4. they will break, so don't try and get that last click out of it, otherwise you will bounce your head/butt/knee off the ground and it will hurt.

wear safety glasses when bungee'ing your tarp, I had a bruise right in between my eyes last month because a hook had been bent open too far, and it let go and smacked me right on the bridge of my nose, pretty irritating....

 

When you are aksed to tarp aload, see if it is possible to set your tarp onto a piece being lifted up onto the trailer, if they are not already on the trailer( side box) and just roll it open from that point.
Also your straps for tying load down have to go on the inside of the rail, and better to hook onto the stake pocket on the trailer. Most DOT boys out there will give you a hard time if you do not, they will write you up for unsafe load securment. meaning that if the strap runs along the outside of the outside rail of you r trailer, than you weere to scrape something along the side( which hopefully you don't), than your strap would be cut, and there would be nothing left holding your load. The golden rule for strapping a load down, is a strap for every 4 ft of load. Your chains, when chaining down usually are pulled opposite directions from each other, in other words, one pulling backwards on load, and one frontwards, so they work against each other, and both not pulling the same way, so they secure load, and do not let it move on you. Keep your tarps in side boxes, or put away whenever you can, there are still thieves out there that will steel your stuff. Possibly have your company name decaled on them, that is some detourance. The lists goes on and on, but do not stress to much about things, like one of the other guys said, most flatbed guys will lend a helping hand, instead of laughibng at you. Good luck.

 

Here's something NEVER to forget when picking up or tieing a load down , " When in doubt, ASK". I've learn through out the years of flatbed, to ask another driver or watch how's and what he's using for tie downs, and also ask the shipper what kind of tie downs they require. The last thing you want to do is damage it. Here's something to live by, remember the "N" word when tieing down, "NEGLIGENT", cause you will be NEGLIGENT if you lose your load and cause bodily harm and property damage. So use some extra tie downs to be on the safe side.

 

awesome advice here, thanks for the thread! I've been looking into maybe going flatbed, this info helps a lot! ~ Klue

 

By "rain suit" he really mean conestoga!

 

load securement will be your number one problem and new guys get more tickets for it than anything. Mainly because it depends on :
(1) size of the chain
(2) load limit of the binders
(3) where your attaching it to on the trailer- (aluminum trailers are only good for 5000 lbs per tie down. If you go to the frame then its good for 7000 lbs.)

For straps 5500 per strap, 40,000 load , youll need 8 straps min., no cuts or frayed edges on the straps.

On tarps the way you fold them depends on the size of the tarps, 4ft just to the center and roll them up, 6ft and 8 ft drop tarps youll have to decided how you want to fold them so that they will fit where youy'll be stowing them. I keep 2 6ft drops and 1 4ft drop in my side box, another 4 ft drop tarp above the headache rack. That way there is less the move if I need to switch trailers.

I hope this helps

 

Cheater!!!

 

You guys most be hauling lumber in the wrong part of the country all my lumber loads are $2 a mile or more most are around $3 a mile right now kiln dried loads out of OH to new england are $3.50 a mile right now for the lumber company i haul for.