Is it legal to haul lumber boards unsecured in a dry van?

Load locks can be placed vertically. If your load locks don’t reach the ceiling, place a small piece of wood under it (see image). Newer trailers are higher than older ones. They do sell taller load locks, but they can be hard to find.

There’s another technique where you use a small load lock used for pickup trucks. You place it between the wall and the pallet. You will need something like a long piece of wood so that the load lock pad doesn’t punch a hole through the pallet. This technique is best when you cannot use your load locks vertically because it will choke the reefer trailer chute.

 

If the product is only one unit high many places will nail blocks into the trailer floor to keep them from sliding side to side. Keep in mind you’re giving up 5-6000 pounds of payload compared to a flatbed. You guys are really over thing this stuff.

 

I’m sure they can nail blocks to a wooden floor. I have never seen anything like it for reefer trailers that are made out of some kind of aluminum. We use load locks and some reefer trailers have rails on the wall to use straps. All my 7 years of experience are in reefer. I occasionally haul dry freight.

 

Sheet goods are 4x8 as a general rule. They will load sideways. Personally I’ve never seen long boards being slid into a reefer, only into vans. I doubt anyone would want to risk damaging their floor or walls in a reefer by sliding units of lumber the entire length of the trailer.

 

5 years ago I sold a ‘68 White-Western Star cab, hood, and frame to a guy up in Oregon. The cab and hood had been off of the frame for years. So thats 3 large seperate pieces to ship. Cab was also complete with glass and interior. He wanted cab and hood to go to one address ( a body/restoration shop) and the frame to go to another place to be stripped and powder coated.
He owns his own log truck co and He worked all that out.
I figured flat bed for sure.
Nope UPS Freight.
Loading them were fun. He said no flatbed would do it

 

You’re perfectly fine......if Mexicans can move your whole house with just a pickup truck and a skinny one on top for balance, you have no worries lol

 

I have never been loaded anything like in the image the OP posted, but they have loaded me with long pallets a few times before. The cargo, if I recall correctly, was light. Reefer trailers usually max out at 45k. They are heavier than dry van trailers because of the reefer unit and the thicker walls.

 

I’ve seen reefers hauling tires on back hauls.
Got do whatcha got do sometimes.

 

Sliding a long pallet that is light is quite a bit different than sliding a long unit of lumber. A unit of long boards that’s a heavy wood can weight 5-6k or more, and will only have 2 or 3 stickers banded to the unit, which means if they’re lifting up one end with the lift then the weight of the unit is basically on a single 2x4.

Places import hardwoods from overseas and that all ships in containers. Looking at the picture in this thread it looks to me almost like some rough cut wood, so maybe still has a higher moisture content and will be heavy and likely single stacked. I know of places that will band two units together with metal bands like what they use on rail cars when they have to double stack.

And the product won’t be stacked to the roof. When they load a maxi van with particle board they single out one or two in the front, then the “X” two 2x4’s, and then start loading the doubles.

 

I’m going to guess there were at least two pallets that were loaded into the trailer the OP posted. I’m also going to guess they did not have docks or a ramp to get on the docks. With the right setup and forklift, and can see them easily loading up those heavy pallets onto a dry van or reefer trailer, and it won’t require pushing the pallets.