New Driver purchasing flatbed. Length question

Tarps, search forums.

My personal suggestion is tarpstop

1 x 24x16
1× 27 x 16
Both with flap, theyre both 4 foot drops
Get 150 bungees epdm if in hot climate, natural rubber (sri lanka) for cold

And get padding, crappy old tarps are good

If you must get longer tarps, fine, but the freight usually isnt worth the extra effort

 

Dont really need a 53ft flat. I used to run one and that extra 5 ft just makes it harder to manuever and maybe only a handful of loads would it ever get used. I run a 2014 48ft fontaine infinity combo for the last 2 years . ive rolled it off the side of a mountain with 50k pounds of rocks and still going strong. If you have that big truck you may want to try and keep your weight down and go with a all aluminum trailer. With flatbed you want to be able to scale 48k worth of freight or as close as possible Anything lower than 47k you are gonna miss out on a lot of loads

 

You'll need more than is been posted. 8 foot drops *tarps* chains and binders *no snap binders* a headache rack is a most, dunnage and a few more things.

 

The tarps question is a difficult one. It's going to depend alot on where you run. Then, no matter what you get.....in a year , you're going to want something different. Because you are going to find out what you like and don't and what you need and don't. For example, if you haul lumber you need 8 ft drops. If you haul mostly palletized stuff, 4 or 6 ft drops. You haul alot of steel, steel tarps. Coils.....cool tarps or bags. Pipe....smoke tarp.
I carry: 8 ft drops
4 ft drops
Steel/machinery tarp
Smoke tarp.


If I didn't live where I live, I would ditch the 8ft drops fast. Next set, I'm customizing....more. moving and adding d-rings.

You need to decide between Bungee and Bungee rope aswell.

 

On loads like that you would do whats called cross chaining on the front of the load. Basically 2 chains going across the front of the beams pulling backwards and they criss cross eachother in an 'x' shape

 

The vast majority of the headache racks you see on the road are just for looks. If you read the label on the rack itself....it says so. They aren't meant to stop anything. Now, will they help.....yeap.....but that isn't what they are built for. Some places won't load you without one. As far as the rail thing goes and alot of steel loads, your best bet is to build a temporary headboard out of your dunnage as close to the load as possible. That way it doesn't have a chance to gain momentum.

 

I carry two 27' x 4' drop, and two 27' x 8' drop. 27' will cover twelve pallets with one tarp, and two of them will cover 53' of load, which you can generally carry on a 48' trailer. All four have flaps.

My tarps are heavy, and mediocre quality in my opinion. But perfect to learn with before you get a serious set of tarps.

I'm looking at Montana Canvas for my next "real" set. But I'm also going to get custom colors, D-ring placement, and my company name on them regardless of who I buy them from. Tri-city Canvas is another well known outfit.