Crash course on tarping.. Experienced tarpers please chime in

I carry 150 bungees on my truck and have never had to use even close to all of them. I think that's about the most you should need, and it let's you have extra for when your bungees break. As for tarp prices I'm not sure since the company I work for supplies us with our big tarps.

 

this is where I was pricing my stuff out at last year.

http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Flatbed-Trailer-Products/Trailer-Tarps-Lumber-Steel-Tarps

I'd also get about 250-300 24" bungees. Overkill? possibly. But I also always had 7-8 bundles on my truck of 25 every time too. I'd use most of them all the time as well and always had a unopened box of 100 in the side box too. They just seemed to break all the time.

Put 24 bungees down, then take the 25th bungee double over and bundle em up together passing the hooks into the loop created. Helped in storage and also you'd have a way to just hang them at places on the trailer when you needed them.

I always went down and under the rub-rail, skip one D-ring and get the next one. They'd start to over lap and before you know it, you'd have a bungee going both directions going forward and backward. Tarp was always tight and always secure. Just how I was taught 20+ years ago.

 

I use 21" bungees.

uscargocontrol is where I bought my steel tarp from. I've been pretty happy with the quality.

 

Pretty much. Eats up a lot of bungees, but dang is the tarp tight.

Always put the rear tarp on first. Start at the rear and go forward. Then put your front on and go backwards. Fold the flaps in such a way that you ALWAYS have the pocket to the rear. The air will push it down that way.

One thing I don't like of the tarps shown I the link I gave you is the front/back drop. The ones we had were custom made to also have "wraps" and an extra row of D-rings. The wraps allowed for pulling the front/back not only down, but for going back or forward on the sides as well and pulling it tight in all directions.

I was taught old-school with two lumber and one steel tarp. I think now they are having you go with two or three 16X27 tarps and using ALL three for a full length load.

 

At this moment I have a box on my trailer that's 65' long, 16' wide and 4' tall. I had to tarp it and used 3 26' X 24' tarps with flaps. I carry 150 31" bungees in bundles of 25 and I still have 1 bundle + 6 left from tarping it. On a normal load I rarely need more than 50 or 75 at most and the tarp stays tight.

It's still dark here but later today when I stop I'll take pictures. When looking for tarps make sure you get a set with flaps and at least 3 rows of D-Rings. As for bungees, you can never have too many especially when you get something odd shaped.

 

Go to home depot and buy a roll of rope, cut that into a couple of foot lengths, and use those to secure your tarp. A lot cheaper than buying bungees you may not use often, or buying overpriced bungees.

Clothesline type or braided or twisted strand nylon will be ok. You don't have to tie knots in the rope.
I could show you how to do it in person, but couldn't explain it in writing.

Look at how some other truckers are using rope, maybe a flatbed with sides type who is using ropes to secure the tarp.