Advice for Hauling Steel Coil

Aren't 3/8 grade 70 6600lbs. ?

 

I'm all set up to pick up my first coil tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for their help and advice.

 

Well, my first trip was a nightmare! I-74 was closed up, so I took 136 which was an experience in ice road trucking. GPS, took me the wrong way to the shipper. When I finally arrived, I was informed I would need a hard hat so I was turned around and sent to the Pilot to use the ATM. I get to the ATM only to find that neither one of my bank cards (personal or business) would work, so I had to use my Landstar card. I head back to Nucor, purchase my hard hat, and proceed to get lost on the property. When I finally find where I am to load, all the doors or down. The guard told me to simply back into any bay that is open so naturally I decide to wait until a bay is open. Half an hour later a truck pulls out in which the driver commences to operate the overhead door himself. I raise the door and back in to the bay in which he pulls out of only to realize that two other bays have been open this whole time!!! I proceed to get loaded. Securement goes well, thanks to another driver who obviously saw just how green I was and decided to give me some pointers (Thank you, Ed!!!!). Then I start the tarping job. After finally getting the stupid thing on the coil, (I made the mistake of rolling it out BEFORE putting it on top of the coil) I wrap the thing and start putting bungees on just to have another driver inform me that it was on sideways. He then shows me the proper way to put the coil bag on and I secure it to the bed (at least I thought it was secure, but more on that later).

I pull out of the bay and head to the outbound scale only to find it closed so I get in line for the inbound scale. The line is incredibly long so 45 minutes later, I am out of the yard and down the highway. I scale, grab some lunch and hit I-74 on my way to 231 when I notice my tarp is flapping around like crazy and catching air! It looked like a balloon about to take off. I immediately realize that this tarp job is not going to survive the trip to Naperville. I head up 231 and stop at the pilot to fix my tarp. I buy a few extra bungee cords, tighten up my tarp and am on my way. another 45 minutes down the pooper.

I make it a few miles down I-65 north to find the highway at a STANDSTILL. Fortunately, I'm right at the exit for State Route 2, so I take that over to 231 and just go around whatever the heck was going on. Another 15 miles out of route. Well, after all this you can imagine I'm running late: an hour-and-a-half late to be exact which Chicago traffic commences to turn into two hours late. I reach my destination only to find it closed up and everyone gone. Not a soul is there. So I head to the I-55 truck stop in Bolingbrook and am greeted by an incredibly rude night staff. A nice little cherry on the crap sundae I've been dealing with all day.

I wake up the next day, go in for breakfast and am greeted by a very polite and professional day staff. I come back out to the truck and get a call from the consignee. They received my message and were incredibly gracious with me concerning my predicament. I warm the tractor up, and go to pull out of the lot only to get stuck behind a truck that has lost it's transmission!! It's a pay lot, so there is, of course, a single narrow point of egress. "Great", I think to myself. "This coil is never going to get off of my trailer!"

Well, after getting out of the truck stop, I made it to Promet and things went smoothly. Thank God, because I had had just about all I could handle at that point. It was certainly a tough load, but that first one always is. The good news is, a lot of this stuff is within my control, so things should only get smoother from here. Hope you guys enjoyed my story and thanks again for all the help you have provided.