dunnage placement advice

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Placement depends on the arch of the deck and how much of that arch will disappear when you add the weight onto it. That depends on your trailer.

 

We leaned our dunnage per truck way out. As in we don't carry dunnage. If the customer wants dunnage we want them to have exactly what they want. So they supply it.

 

not everyone has dunnage to give and some that do usually want to charge.

Depending on your freight. Could be 4, could be as much as 16. 12 is a good number to have though

 

12 is also what I carry.

 

It also depends on what the piece looks like underneath.

 

He's talking pipe and I beams though, so we can simplify it a bit.


Our company wants 8 on each trailer, which I tend to find inadequate, so I try to keep a few shorter pieces for coils and such. At least with our shippers, they generally only want dunnage under the bottom layer and they tend to provide for whatever needs to go between layers.

 

You need dunage. If you don't have any, there will come a time when somebody wants to load something and doesn't have any to use. What they will do is slide the forks out from under the load and have it sit flat on the trailer. Then on the unload, they will have to wedge the forks under the load. This can really tear up your trailer.

I'd say a bear minimum of 6 four-bys, 8' long. More would be better. Most people store them in Landing gear braces on flats and in the under deck side braces on steps. With either of these places, they really aren't taking up any usable space.

 

I carry eight 4x4s, seven foot long beveled.

I generally only use two on a load, rarely four.

Your dunnage requirements are based on your freight. Long freight (pipe, tubing, i-beams, stuff loke that) will require more dunnage. Gerdau generally wants a minimum of 8 boards, for example. Short freight or coils don't need as much, unlesss you carry a lot of coils (my highest number has been 5, all very light)