Strapping a Load

From th eeyes of a heavy haul driver,do it right or don't do it!!! the straps go inside the rub rails and the chains go through the pockets and back to the chain itself,outside of that,you might as well look for an accident waiting to happen.

 

I was taught to strap/chain by an oilfield trucker, and was taught exactly the way Lastofseven and Yukon say.
Where I work now, I apply that, but NONE of my coworkers do it, and they look down their noses at me when I do. I dont care, I just do what I inherently know is right, and keep on trucking.

 

True you are right about the 96".There are some 102" trailers that have been beaten to death and you can't either,but you have to do what you have to do to get the job done and done safely!!

 

Ok, I am doing the chain around the pocket and back to the chain, that's easy enough and I do feel it's safer, no matter what my trainer said. But what about when there is no stake packet where you need it? Currently I was going around two of the round brackets and then back to the chain, but I get the feeling that isn't right. Should I try and go under the trailer somehow? Back to the chain just like on top? Sorry if this is stupid, but I really do want to know the RIGHT way to do it. I don't mind a few extra minutes of work, at either end, to be safe. Also, what about my quick release question? I am not trying to be sarcastic, isn't folding the strap over and making sure you can ratchet at least two full turns the same as threading it all the way through, then feeding it back on itself? Thanks for the help and input.

 

Ok the chain around the pocket to it's self I don't agree with your just
giving that chain more leverage to rip that pocket away from the trailer

 

The legal way to do it is around the stake pocket or circle things near the stake pocket back up around to itself, and the point at which u hook it back to itself must be 1" above the deck. I always chain like that, and have had DOT use a ruler to make sure that point was 1" above the deck and they didnt say nothing or give me a fine, so i know thats the way they want it done, and the way i was taught when i first started.

 

The round thing is called a spool, and of course the sqaure thing is called a stake pocket. The trailers that I was pulling were different from each other. The Retinour trailers are braized inside the frame of the trailer and you cannot chain the same way as on one of the older units, you have to go around a spool and back up into the stake pocket. The ratings are as follows on specific trailers; a spool has a rating of 3300 lbs
a stake pocket 6600 lbs
a deck chain 6500 lbs
the chain itself had a rating of 8,000 lbs per chain, with four contact points, two on each side of trailer, that would be a total of 13,200 lbs per chain if going down around a spool and back up into a stake pocket. The securement locations exceed the rating of the chain. In fact this company exceeds all ratings on a regular basis. A 5/16 grade 70 transport chain is what is mentioned above. The trailers we pulled were capable of putting a 60,000 lb coil right in the center of the of the trailer, no problem. I hope this clears the water a bit, I cannot stress enough that different trailers have different ratings, if you can't find out, take the trailer to one of the company shops and ask the shop manager. drive55cat

 

The way I was taught, we don't throw chains or straps if you follow the co. policy. We walk alond the top of the trailer and drop the straps down to rub rail, it takes a little longer but nobody can be struck by flying restraints. The straps go behind the rub rail. I do not believe folding the strap will hurt anything as long as you do not pull it the whole way up, if you leave enough slack in the strap you can easily wrap it around the winch two or three times. If you pull it too tight you will not be able to create several wraps. I did this for five months on all types of loads without any significant problems. FYI a 4" nylon strap when tightened down can still allow the load to jump off the deck as high as four inches. The company that told me this put a load on a truck with a light and a camera under the tarp and took it on a road test. I hope that this info will be useful. drive55cat

 

First off, all info is helpful in one way or another. Thanks to everyone who has had input, I do know more now than when this thread was opened. I tried the "proper" way of straping on this last load. At least I think I did it right. Threaded the strap, inside the rub rail, through the winch completely. Came back over the winch "barrel"( for lack of the proper word) and back up through the rub rail, behind the first pass. Then I folded the strap and fed it back into itself to be tightened between the two passes. It worked fine, however it definetley took longer. This also wasn't the best load to try it on. I only had 19600 lbs of basically wire shelving. Very hard to tighten down without damaging or crushing the stuff. But as I said it did work. It also took more time undoing everything. But as I stated earlier, a few minutes isn't that big of a deal. I still wonder about the quick release way, if done right it seems it would be fine also. By right I mean that you would need to be able to wrap at least two full times. But I plan to keep trying this new way so I get faster and can more fairly compare. Safety is the most important thing. I'd rather spend 10-20 more minutes on a load than the rest of my life asking "what if..." . Again thanks to this forum more good info has been spread!