Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

So short upright pieces between the rows, chain and choke like usual. Makes sense.

Thank you!!!

 

DD, you are wrong twice, LOL. I am not an old timer nor a curser. The man I went to work for in 1968 ( I was 15) was an "old timer". He had been a gunners mate on the USS Craven (destroyer) that happened to be escorting the Enterprise into Pearl Harbor on Dec. 8, 1941. They were a day late. THIS man could blister paint and was TRUE old timer, and the toughest SOB in town. He had 7 trucks and was my 1st mentor and could work any 30 yr. old to death when he was 60. You are right about every kid needing an old guy around to be a mentor, sad thing is I would LOVE to mentor, but there just isn't anybody waitin in line and I dont expect a change in the near future. Closest you'll get, is reading these threads, there are some very sharp drivers on here. You will learn who they are..........

 

I did not say that you were an idiot and I can certainly see the need at times to side load. I have done it myself twice. The video that I posted was how I see most people side load. I personally drop the trailer and drop the airbags and block under the side but I still do not like it. The last time was because I could literally not get off the road because of the ditches and it was new asphalt along with the excavator being a 270 Hitachi.

I know that it has to be loaded at times but I still don't have to like it. We had a trailer come through our shop that had been side loaded more than front loaded because the driver was lazy and did not like to remove the neck. I'll bet the shop welded up about 50 cracks in that trailer.

I know drivers that side load every time. I have seen first hand what happens to a trailer that gets side loaded a lot and I will not subject our trailers to abuse like that. If trailers are broken then I do not work, simple as that.

Oh and you are not going to side load a trailer without touching it... LOL

 

I would have gone over/under each individual bundle and make sure to tighten them enroute. Huge pain in the ### and I hate it but I don't see it as a secure load without doing it that way.

Only once have I done a load with spaced out bundles of steel that I felt was secure going over the top like you did it, it depends on the product some as well.

I'd rather not even do those loads TBH.

 

Aint that the truth. Usually your kids or old friends. Stuff I forgot or mentally blocked out. I'll be preaching the do's and dont's to my daughter (she's 20 now) and she'll bring up something from when she was like 5 or 6 and be absolutely spot on. How do you argue life's lessons when you were just as foolish at that age?

Hurst

 

Well, I definately didn't mean any disrespect when addressing you. I have read quite a few of your posts, and assumed you weren't in your 30s anymore. If I'm doing the math right, you were born in '53, which puts you around 63 years young?

I am lucky to have had various older guys around growing up. Why do you think there are no young people around to mentor? Do you just mean geographically close to you? I think you have a lot to share (without knowing you), it would be a shame to lose that.

I personally have had a couple old businesses close locally in the last few years, and the knowledge that gets lost from the older generations is irreplaceable.

 

I'm going to chalk this one up to being a newbie. Now, that's no excuse for still taking the load, my gut was telling me it wasn't right, but I didn't know what else to do. I was loaded at 10 pm on a Friday, all of my "phoneable" contacts would've been in bed.

It's frustrating as a newer driver that there isn't always an avenue for guidance when it's needed.

 

NY spread.

 

Well, don't be afraid to post here again in the future! And pay attention to what other guys are doing as well, maybe ask them questions while you're at shippers if you can. Although, I see a lot of trucks hauling steel with straps straight over spaced out bundles... Most trucks. This coming from the world of multi-axle where we almost always have more than one layer. I don't like it so I won't do it.