A flatbedder's worst nightmare

Legal minimums make me uneasy.

Especially when they talk about cargo having .8g or 80% of it's weight in force applied to it under braking.

If my company ever got me to do a 45K coil, I'd ask them to buy me enough American-made 3/8" or 1/2" chains/binders to cover 100% of the weight. I'm not doing a coil with rusty 5/16" chains from China.

 

I'm still trying to decide if I want to aim for ltl or food service when I leave my current gig. The thought that I might end up pulling a cold box....

 

Once again someone trying to post something useful for the rest of us and a few people go after the OP and attack.

 

I'm certain it is. I did rooftop deliveries of shingles for four months before getting laid off. I liked what it did to my body, and I suspect good service would be similar.

On the other hand, your job would be better than what I do now. Just need to avoid getting sucked into some line haul garbage. Not sure what pays better, though that probably depends on where you live.

 

LTL with the right company probably wouldn’t be too bad, I’m basing that on my time with CF back in the 80’s though. I’m sure some things have changed but probably still not a bad option in this day & time.

Anything to do with food service or grocery warehouses, I don’t imagine they’ve gotten any better than the last time I looked at them years ago.

 

I didn't say that's how I'd do it. The guy I quoted said 8 was the legal minimum needed.

 

If you come to a hard enough stop, the inertia created can be many times the actual weight of the coil. A hard brake wouldn’t be enough though, you’d have to actual hit some immovable object, and one could argue that what you hit would be at least as much concern as what is coming from behind.

I was sitting at a dead stop one time and another truck rear-ended me running about 40mph. Driver never did hit the brakes. I did break 2-3/8 chains but the load stayed on my trailer. The truck that hit me was hauling crane counterweights and one of the weights did fall off.