Straps too tight?

I see a lot of guys who pull plate steel and don't have x chains on it, I don't get it.

 

Makes perfect sense to me. That is what I do. If one of them has too low of a pitch, I will tighten it more.

 

i know where you loaded at !!!

 

LOL....every time I drop up that way this LS agent has them loads going into Houston I've moved a few....she said she moves them a lot to PA but I've never asked a price.

 

I get mine from an agent in San Antonio. They always go to Cameron, TX for DOD armor stuff

 

http://www.loadchoker.com.au/

That'll get them tight. Supposedly coming out with a 4" version soon.

 

That would be handy.

 

Oh my...More "stuff". That's all we need is more stuff. Yep, looking online right now. Bought one of those Sta Rat things, didn't think I would need it much since I don't pull a stepdeck much anymore. Man, is that thing strong! Getting the StaRat to pull the pins out to slide an axle isn't the hard part. Shoving the StaRat back in and resetting it is.

How tight is too tight?
Pulled a light pole years back on a stretch Rgn. It was 53 ft long, 11 ft diameter on one end, 7 ft on the other. Dunnage was on the ends. I put the big end up against the neck, and the small end on top of the rear deck. Got my straps out and did the old '2in the first 10 ft, and 1 for every 10 ft and fraction thereof' thing. Tightened it down as best I could. Yep, you guessed it, wrong thing to do. Straps kept flinging off. They'd fling off and go under the trailer and get burned.

The thing about securement, and asking how tight is, it is nearly impossible to answer. There's no one fast rule that will apply. Someone mentioned air conditioners. They WILL bend if you torque them down and you will have a claim. But they're not heavy. You do not need as much tension on AC units like you do steel plate. So the guitar strum may be a much lower note.

Light poles are like crane booms. Structurally stiff. The trailers are not rigid. They are designed to flex. Put your dunnage and securement on the ends, not in the middle. It will stay tight. I put securement in the middle too and when the trailer flexed, it flung the straps off. Heck, I didn't even think about it until I ruined 4 straps.

 

I bought 6 of these at MATS, 3 years ago. They work great for chains.

 

I strap those suckers down as hard as I can with a cheater bar on cardboard.

Granted, I only pull cardboard (on Mondays, no less.)

The only time I have troubles with this, is when it rains. Then I just toss a tarp and a few bungees across it, and have zero problems after that.


But I tourqe those ###### things as tight as they will go, to the point I'm almost pulling myself up on those bars. I've had a bale come loose, at a stop. It was loose, I stopped harder than I'd expected, it slid right off the #### back of the truck. Hurt my pride, but that was about all. Since then, I don't take chances.