#5 deck

I keep my top deck about eye level with 4 wheelers when MTY. Hopefully less chance they climb up on me in the event of a rear end collision and maybe they will see my taillights.

 

I have always been told you need to pin your decks even when MTY.

 

Why do drivers run the deck fully elevated with a couple vehicles up top and nothing below? Saw one like that, again, today. F-150 up front and a Tahoe at the rear. I wouldn’t want my loaded weight all up high.

 

Fully elevated is just lazy, but you shouldn't run them too low with heavy vehicles loaded, as the shallow angle of the posts really increases the load on the lock pins.

Also, remember that our empty weight is normally 43 to 44,000 lb. So a couple vehicles on top isn't going to change our center of gravity much. We often have to move Vehicles when partially loaded, but it's not for center of gravity reasons, it's to keep from getting too heavy on our steer axle.

 

Currently in carhaul, there's an over-fixation on loading time. Those guys will literally tell you it takes too much time to raise the deck and pin it, and then having to do the opposite to reload.
They have obviously not ran in heavy icing conditions, which can cause the coil cord for the top lights to get weighted down and drag the ground, at least on Cottrell trailers.