Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

FMCSA 383.5 definition for tank vehicle
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/383.5

 

He is Canadian. Unlike the US we don't have tanker endorsements nor do we need it to go into the US either...

 

THIS is a tank vehicle!! (well, is was back then....)

 

@truckdad

This is a tank vehicle ......

 

What are your weights sitting at with the way you have it loaded now?

 

Some of this week's loads












And the new driver that has been working nights, bounces from truck to truck, whichever gets back to the yard first at 5, well apparently he has been using other people's gloves and stuff and I'm in this haul truck today and seen the note they left for him

 

Pretty tall, ours are right at 13'6" on our dozer truck and that rollback is at least that tall.

 

Wax-coated steel trailer cross members. Thought I'd put together a short guide to keeping them on your trailer, especially in the heat (the wax turns to grease, more on this later).

Step 1

Throw straps over dunnage on bundles:



Required tools

Mallet or hammer (or anything that you can swing and hit the dunnage with), 30 metal corners (I haven't done it with other styles of edge protectors, but I assume they should work) and two pieces of heavy carpet:



You'll want to use the carpet to walk on and for climbing. This wax turns to grease in this kind of heat (30C/86F) and no matter your footwear, you are going to slide around like you are on ice.



Step 2: Bang dunnage boards as close to strap points as possible, making them go straight across from one side to the other (I'll show you why later):



Note: It was so hot yesterday, I was able to move most of these by hand without the hammer. Normally I have to hit them numerous times fairly hard to get them even to move. That's how hot it was.

Now you put the corners on top of the dunnage (as straight as possible, or they'll walk when you tighten them):



Repeat this with all dunnage boards. For centre, single lift, you can do it like this. It's usually hard to get the lower level dunnage to line up:



Once you get all that done, climb down and start doing up the straps.

This is the important part. When other drivers pick this stuff up, they tend to just throw a couple straps over top, and tighten and go. They don't realize they are going to be fighting these bundles the whole way down the road. Not only will they potentially face damage claims (straps over the beams tend to bend them) but the bundles have this tendency to collapse in on themselves, requiring constant stops to tighten the straps.

On top of this, in this heat, if the straps aren't tight enough (which you won't be able to achieve just by throwing them over the beams), the bundles will slide back and forth on each other as you go around corners. For me, that's unacceptable and a huge risk.

Anyways, here is what they look like before tightening:



And after:


A better angle to see what happens when the straps are tightened:



This is the way I was taught by my company. Apparently, we are the only ones in the industry that do it this way, but I've seen drivers from other companies copying our techniques because it works. They get us to do it this way because this is how they've figured out how to avoid damage claims and other issues and as far as I know, we haven't had an issue in years.

I hope there are some drivers who can find this helpful and I'm hoping to get a tarping guide together (@DDlighttruck ) soon, but we tarp so little right now, I'm not getting anything. Enjoy.

 

This, my bed is 4'5".