new flatbed owner

An umbrella...

 

I'm going to assume you're going to be a company driver where they provide all the load securement equipment.

Get you some Carharts. Stat. Overalls and Jacket or just coveralls. You're going to need them for the winter. Have long sleeve shirts - even in the summer many places like steel mills will require long sleeves. Hard hat, safety glasses - clear and tinted I would highly suggest. Boots need to be steel toed. Gloves. Good sturdy gloves that will give you a good grip on a load bar and not fall apart. Insulated ones for winter would be a great idea. Find out if your company will provide 2" ratchet straps. Most will, but I've worked for some that made those driver purchase. Same with bungees. Don't get either right now, but be aware of the policies. Keep a few 1" ratchet straps for a pickup truck in your truck - I'm going to assume you're not on a trainer truck where space will be extra limited. Carry basic tools with you, along with a can of PB Blaster for those binders and chains. Have a bar to remove nails from a trailer bed and a good hammer.

There's probably a handful of other things I could put here, but that's what immediately comes to mind.

 

.....load bar. It depends on the company. Swift, for example, provides one. I always bought my own because that's the one piece of equipment I don't want used by anyone but me because hairline fractures can get dangerous as hell. I also always keep a spare.

Yes on the hard hat. I have one given to me by a copper mine that I picked up at as a van driver. Really confuses the hell of the guys at the mines I pick up at now, but it's amusing to me.

From this and your other post though, it sounds like you'll need to go with a trainer to learn the ropes, so don't start picking up the majority of this stuff until you figure out where you're going.

 

A good chrome shop should have all the tiedown equipment or go online to places like www.tarps4less.com. Tarp suppliers usually seem to have the equipment or sometimes even an industrial supplier. Dont buy anything like this from ta/petro/loves/pilot or the J as they have huge markups on the stuff and just wait for suckers to come and get it. I have found some dealers (KW, INT, Freightliner) to sometimes have the stuff for a decent price also. BTW stay away from chinese straps, binders/chains and bungees as there is a reason why they are so much less money, its because they dont last and it will be wasted money. Carhart is the only jeans and jackets along with most my t shirts that I buy as they last. Double knee logger jeans I love as you can get on your knees when needed and it wont tear or wear holes in them. You can even get knee pads that insert into them if ya want.

 

Many companies that specialize in flatbed also offer items for driver purchase at a cut rate. I was a lease op for Arrow before they went under, and got great deals on load bars, bungees, 2" straps and the like through their equipment shop. I used their power of being able to buy in bulk. Now I have to generally stop at the chrome shops or tarp shops, but most of what you'll pick up is a once in a while purchase, so I eat the extra price and write it off my taxes.

There are three different kinds of bars:
*box end
*round end
*ratcheting

Which one you prefer will end up being trial and error. For example, I HATE box end and ratcheting bars with a passion of 1,000 suns. I don't like the sloppy feeling when I'm working with binders. I've known a lot of other drivers who don't like the round end because it's easy to put it too far down on a binder handle and lose control. Ratcheting bars weigh three times their non ratcheting counterpart for winch work... and I'm sorry, I've always been of the opinion you have to be 10% smarter than the equipment you're working with, and no matter why I'm told this bar is supposed to be safer since you won't crack your head open with it...if you're not 10% smarter than a sliding winch, you may not want to be flatbedding. LOL.

 

Oh yeah, I like to have coveralls on for tarping or just for going underneath the truck to fix something and if you go into refineries like I do, will need a pair of FR coveralls just for that, carhart makes some. Carry at least 5, 2 inch straps, lots of corner protectors, at least 50, 21inch bungees, duct tape, roll of black tape, 12 chains and binders, v-boards, 8 pieces of dunnage, 1 4 inch strap for every binder plus a couple of spares and one for 1 portable binder (need this too) plus I carry 2 OD signs, 4 red flags on stick, 4 bungee flags, set of lightweight tarps with 8ftdrops, 2 load bars. This is pretty much the basics. Make sure your chains and binders have G70 stamped into them for the new laws coming after the first of the year.