Tarp Maintenance

Tubing with cut/sawed edges? That will leave razor cuts in your tarps.

 

Yep I learned the hard way.

 

I bought some used commercial grade runner rugs 30" wide and 8,10.15 feet long. Helps extend the life of the tarps.

 

No, they didn't check them. I just knew they needed it. And yeah, it was the same load that did image damage. I used all my padding that time. Try to keep it from happening again.

 

We have padding blankets to use. But the load that messed my tarps up was 55 feet long. And 6 feet wide. I padded the corners well, but we don't have 100 feet of padding. The steel didn't feel that sharp. But by the time I drove to Valley, Ne it had some cuts in them, totaling about 5 feet.

 

If the load is sufficiently uniform you can use old straps run the length of the load along the sharp parts. Over the straps I'll use plastic corners with my securement straps over those. That holds the old straps in place. If you are chaining you can use steel corner protectors the same way, just something to keep the straps or chains from moving the old straps when you tighten them down.

 

I carry 4 12x15 rolls of felt. Cost a hundred bucks, weighs maybe 60 lbs total, and have never had to patch a tarp since.

 

I know what you are talking about. I've done it myself....but on that load in particular, the edges just didn't feel sharp enough for it to be necessary. It wasn't a sharp edged steel, like machine cut. Pretty rounded edges, like mill rolled. But lesson learned, I guess. Even fairly smooth edges can cause tarp damage. I've hauled stuff like that many times in the past with no problem......

 

I tried to patch tarps a while back in a truck stop. I picked a rather out of the way place so as not to be in anyone's way. Wouldn't ya know it, every door banging van driver in the place suddenly needed to drive right through there. Literally acres of land to get all around the truck stop. But they had to go right there. Jerks. One guy even pulled up to the edge of my tarp and honked at me. He ended up calling me names, after I explained to him exactly how intelligent I thought he was. But he did back up, go around, and EASILY end up where he'd been aiming for anyway.

 

My company has some volunteer labour (Teen Challenge, a rehabilitation program) patch tarps for us. Every time a pair of tarps comes in from a trip, it goes in the "check" pile, and the driver takes two other "checked" tarps. It works really really well to keep them in tip-top shape.

I'd say the best way to avoid having to patch tarps is carry enough edge protection to keep them from getting cut in the first place (easier said that done for some loads I know).