My Mercer Experience 8-31-15

Well today was.......well it's a Monday. Unloaded this morning to find a hole in my tarp. Couldn't find what put the hole there. No big deal. I can patch it later. Then deadheaded 149 miles to pick up the next load. 45,000 pounds of quartz counter tops. 6 foot tarp. 3 hours to strap and tarp. I took every precaution to keep the tarp from getting ripped. I get to the truck stop for the night and I go check. 2 holes in the tarp from the corners of the slabs. I patched one but the other is halfway down the load and there is no way to get to it without taking the tarp off. When I get home I'm going to harbor freight to get some of those cheap moving blankets I can cut up to have extra protection.

Got to the truck stop with 30 minutes left on my clock but still had 5.6 hours left of drive time. This load has to deliver 550 miles from here by 3:30pm tomorrow. Not sure if I'm going to get there on time after being held up by the shipper. I guess I'll call in the morning and it'll get there when I can get there. Either way, this load puts me 400 miles from home so it looks like I'll be home this weekend for my wife's sonogram.

 

Yes I use the felt. Still got a hole. Went through the felt and tarp with the felt folded over so it's twice as thick

 

What blew my mind is that there was no hole or rip or rub place in the felt. I looked all over that felt and couldn't find a single hole. Oh well. I guess that why I got the patch kit.

 

Also, to any prospective flatbedder I suggest getting 2 boxes of 21 inch bungies and 1 box of 31 inch. Don't use the 31 inch on the sides if the tarp or you'll be stopping every 5 minutes as they stretch out.

 

Here is what it looked like after tarping