GP and load securement

Absolutely.... cant count the number of trailers I see (behind trucks or cars) that don't have the lights hooked up, or just don't work, or whatever. Used to scare the snot out of me when running 70-75 out west at night and I'd run up on some pickup with a trailer, and the only hint I had that there was a vehicle there was my lights catching the reflectors in the non-illuminated tailllights on the trailer...

 

A guy in Atlanta hauling a dryer loose in an open pickup got to serve time for vehicular homicide. The dryer blew out on 75/85 downtown on a Saturday morning. A car following stopped and follower number two ran into them at full speed. His decision to not bother tying it down killed some people.

He thought he'd get away with it (left the scene) until they tracked him down using the traffic cam footage.

 

Better than using rope, go to Tractor Supply or Princess Auto or a similar place and get some proper tie-down straps. Some of the packaging even has instructions for use on it. Rope requires knots though, and most (including me) can't tie a decent knot.

I saw a guy half-way lose a garden tractor off his trailer last week. It wouldn't have hung up on the mower deck, it would have been free-range on the highway. No tie downs, not even a loose bungee cord. Name of a lawn care place on the side of the truck. I've hauled small equipment a fair bit, and I have no idea why somebody would risk a $5000 dollar machine to save 10 minutes tying it down.

The same goes for construction materials. Even if nothing breaks and the cops don't stop you, you still have to reload your truck or trailer on the side of the road. Get some ratchet straps and tie it down.

 

Trucker yelled on the CB hey turn your brights off. I says they are off. That's when both figured out there was a car between us with no tail lights. I'm working in S. Cal right now and boy howdy they've got the cream of the crop here.

 

Naw, I got 'em here in South Texas. Latinos come here n buy cars, appliances, busses etc. and haul / tow it back to South America. Not a problem at all in fact good for them except for the speed and lighting issues.

I've got a run down to the bottom hauling chemicals....goes 2 to 3 times a month so I hook 'em up around 23:00 and head down...no biggie except for the multiple heart attacks I've had running up on a rolling junk pile with no tail lights going 40 mph at 2AM. It's become such an issue for me so once I leave the lighted interstate I take the left lane until I hit Corpus which is way after their turnoff.

Scary stuff....... ( for them too, trust me... )

 

Been there on that one - if I was doing it regularly, i'd want to get some aircraft landing lights mounted on the truck...

 

it seems that people pulling trailers tend to be the biggest idiots on the road sometimes.....i see crap flying off trailers all the time.....mattresses, couches, boxes and whatever else

do they really not understand the laws of physics???? they will put a bunch of crap in the back of a pickup truck that has no tailgate, not strap it down in any way, and i bet they are surprised when half of its gone when they get to where theyre going