New to hauling cars need advise

$75 a day for training sounds light, but hopefully he will actually TRAIN you.

I worked for a car hauler as a yard man, pre-CDL. And there's a TON of tricks in the business so hopefully he'll get you up to speed.

The average car trailer has about 23 channels of hydraulic, so you have to check all your pistons and lines. Remember every load to check your locks and set them in case the hydro fails.

When I loaded, the procedure was to put S-hooks into the frame and ratchet the cars down until there was little/no play in the suspension. I'm often surprised that I see so many haulers just run fabric straps over the tires and let the cars bounce and sway. I honestly don't know if there's a reason for that, but all that suspension travel on 10 cars adds up to a lot of movement.

Stick every load (that is measure your height) fight for every inch. SUV's usually go on the top anyway, and IIRC a lot of 10 car trailers will only run 8-9 vehicles because SUV's being so popular take up more room. Last thing you want is to "make a convertible" by smacking a bridge at 65.

Get a good cheater bar, I've had three guys yank on a long arm to get a load snugged down.

Really is one of the most complicated trailers you can run, so good luck.

 

Alot of manufacturers now don't allow S hooks to be used and REQUIRE wheel straps, vehicles with air suspensions can't be pulled down, ask the guy who cranked down a Bentley then blew out all the air bags and burned up the compressor. That was a $5-7000 repair bill he or his company got to pay for.

 

Why are you tightening them down so much? 3 guys is pretty excessive........ The cars dont have much up travel in there suspension.

 

Yes, $ 75 seems a bit light for a days worth of training, but if you can make $ 75, 000 / yr after the fact, maybe it's worth sucking that up for a few days. Good luck.

 

Putting an S hook, aka meat hook, aka cheater hook, in most GM cars and light SUV's, any new BMW, Benz, VW, newer KIA's and Hyundai's etc etc - will likely result in the hook pulling out of the sheet metal and the unit becoming insecure. There ARE NOT reinforced tie down holes in these vehicles anymore. Sure, you find a place to put an S hook in just about ANY vehicle ( suspension arms, strut towers, etc ) but you stand a good chance of bending something. Especially if three people suck it down with a piece of pipe. I actually know of a team truck that saw ( long ago ) the two of them cranking down a Toyota 1/2 ton AND BEND THE FRAME they cranked so hard. If your hauling high end units, there is a chance the checker will peek underneath for damage. Another thing to keep in mind are spies. They are your competitiors (company driver, union or not, or broker) and they are going to take a few pictures of your load when you stop to pee and refill your bladder cup with coffee. If there is a chain on a Benz, GAURUNTEED that picture has been texted before you've even got your fly down !

Most manufactureres require fabric straps, or over the tire soft tie securement now a days. Most car hauler manufacturese are only making strap trucks ( IE Cottrell NextGen ) BECAUSE there has been so much damage done over the years by over tightened chains. Soft ties don't generally hurt the vehicle unless THEY'RE over tightened and have been known to damage a tire. Straps don't have to be 'singing' tight. They just have to hold the tires in place. The load may look like it bounces around more, because it does. If your stacking a strapped load, you just leave more room between things. Straps have been the norm over seas for decades.

Hopefully that clarifies why the need for straps.

SL

 

Hmm, learn something new every day I suppose,,,

I was working car haulers over a decade ago, and they were mostly off-lease cars going to auction (with a few repos here and there) so it was very rare we got a "new" car and this was already 10 years ago. I think I only saw one car with adjustable suspension that is so common these days. (Audi-Allroad, 1st Gen)

The problem was (at our company anyway) trailers weren't set up for SUVs to be a majority of the load. They were 10-car units but all the SUV's people were leasing meant we could only load 8 or 9 vehicles. And that wasn't counting the fact we had to spread out the Excursions and Suburbans across loads to the point we had one line in our yard just of overdue "heavies" we couldn't work into a load.

So yeah we could squeeze on an extra RX300 or Pathfinder if we pulled our chains as tight as possible. I wasn't a trucker at the time, so I didn't really understand WHY we needed to do certain things but I remember it was what I was told to do and it was always a headache.

 

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I'd like to see you loosen a chain after 3 guys pulled on it, before we had "quick release" ratchets.