Your Worst Flatbed Load?

Load was legal height. They were sliding forward randomly one piece at a time.

 

stop the bottom at least! lol

 

Very true!

 

Winter of 2010-2011. Had to go to GraniteFalls, MN to grab one of those big off road dump trucks and take it to Corpus Christi. Got there on a Sunday. Monday, it snowed like hell. Loaded the truck in a blizzard. Got my MN,SD,IA annuals and waited til Tuesday. Left out Tuesday, got stopped at the SD scales on 90 and shut down because of the blowing snow on the road. Had to sit for 4 hours. Got released and hammered out of there.

The next storm hits. Didn't want to stop in a pickle park and so kept going. Stopped at the Sapp Bros in Council Bluffs (the food is good. If you're going get stuck with an OSOW, you have to go where the food is good). Everything cleared up Wednesday. Hammered out of there, got my Missouri permit.

Next storm hit Wednesday afternoon. Made it from council bluffs to Joplin. The weather really went to hell. 44 was shut down on either side of Joplin. Didn't matter...it snowed in Arkansas and as deep into Texas as San Antonio. Temps hit -16 in Joplin. Sat for the rest of the week. Delivered that dump truck the following Tuesday.

Talk about taking a beating....

 

Well I got $50 of broker's profit. I figured if he gave me anything it would be out of his cut. Can't go and biznitch to his customer about getting a truck dirty, can he these days?

 

Fence panels come to mind . Last load from a construction site . They are like binding mattresses . They just keep settling down and you have to pull them down from both sides or the stack will start leaning . Loaded them with a fork lift and I missed the fact that pipe that stand them up were in between the panels . pipe kept wiggling out . Had to stop every little bit to tighten the binders .

Spent more time in the mirrors than any other load I've pulled .I didn't put a tape on it but I bet it pulled down 18 inches

 

Sorry it is a little long but this is one you gotta read!!!

Worst load was a load of RAW COWHIDES......DON'T EVER haul them. It was September of last year, loaded in North Carolina to the panhandle of Florida, picked them up on Friday afternoon for Monday delivery. After they cut these things off the cow, they wash them, then they go into a huge hole in the ground (concrete) and they layer them with salt so they will cure. So, about 25 people are dragging these out of the salt bin out of the loading dock and onto my deck. Well, when they come out of the salt they are wet and they still have a little blood and goo on them, not to mention alot of salt. You can only imagine what it is like, and the smell is awful.

So booked the load the broker told me that it was highly recommended that I bring a roll of plastic. Well in between where I dropped and where I picked up I looked for a hardware store or something of that nature that I could pull off and get plastic, never could find one that I could pull into. So I went against the brokers word and went on to shipper. What a mistake once I got there and realized how they loading these things I said to myself what a mistake. I had the option of loading the cowhides on pallets or right on the deck, well a cowhide on a pallet is going to hang off of all sides and will not be very stable. So I tell him to sit them on the deck. Well 2 hours later and 40,000 lbs worth of cowhides later it is time to strap and tarp these reeking ##### things. I could've strapped over the tarps or under, I dont know why but I choose to strap under the tarps directly on top of the cowhides. So I got these things strapped down, which I might strapped down nice, but as I am compressing these things down they start leaking. It is kind of like ringing a rag, you squeeze it and liquid is going to come out. So now I look like a reefer going down the road with a blood and salt mixture dripping from all the holes on my deck.

So, I get this strapped down and now it is time to tarp it. Well the only way to tarp it is get on the cowhides, talk about gag a maggot. Finally, I get these slimy things tarped down, after about two hours of screwing with not trying to get cowhide junk on me. Now it is about 8 pm at night, get cleaned up enough to where I can get back in my truck and not get the whole thing filthy and contaminated. Get started down the road, surprisingly enough the things rode awesome, didnt move much or nothing. The next day I get to my house for a couple of days of chillaxing, now mind you it is September, still pretty warm, Mid 80's low 90's, wow you cant even go around the truck. I kept it about 100 foot away from the house, and luckily the wind was blowing AWAY from the house. And, the flies were loving it. So come monday I leave and make the rest of the journey to Florida. Get there, start untarping, talk about gag a maggott off a gut wagon, they are ripe, so ripe the hair is slipping undeneath the straps.

As I am unstrapping and untarping I realize what a mistake to go to the shipper without plastic. My tarps caked in that gooey, bloody salty solution and same with the straps, that stank absorb into the straps, WHAT A MESS. So instead of booking another load i decide to deadhead back to the house and clean up. It took me and my father two full days to clean up. We had to bleach the trailer because that reek got into the wood, wash the whole trailer and the truck. The straps had to be dipped into a bucket of hot water and bleach. I had to take the tarps to a car wash and spread them out and scrub the hell out of them. The biggest piece of advice I can give anyone is to STAY AWAY FROM A LOAD OF COWHIDES!!!!

 

I'll bet you headed for the first Mc D's for some 100% beef after tarping that mess and working up a healthy appetite!

 

I think we have a winner...

 

You don't have to tell me twice...