Stacked trailers

I'm aware of the rules and I'm aware if you have something that's 50 feet and 1 inch better have seven tiedowns on it

 

I meant it as you are correct. I didn't think about the extra 3 feet.

 

If I'm not going thru any scales, I usually go with what looks best. That stack of trailers if I was going thru scales, I would chain the bottom(center trailer) like I said before or at least one chain on each end, then just throw 5 straps on top. But that's me.

 

Well that's an amazingly ignorant statement to make.

Aradox, what do those trailers weigh individually, might they be subject to 393.130?
FWIW I see a lot of pup trailers secured with nothing but straps, and a lot of larger trailers secured with straps and chains pulling forward and backward. That statement means nothing with regards to legal requirements though.

 

Driver's Handbook on Cargo Securement - Chapter 10: Heavy Vehicles, Equipment, and Machinery

4 tiedowns preventing movement in all directions is generally thought to meant chains pulling in each direction but it does not say that specifically. Seeing as the wheels are locked and it is sitting on the landing gear the argument could certainly be made that straps over the top does indeed meet that requirement in the same way it does with a load of lumber.

Perhaps move one strap to the bottom trailer so that all four trailer have 4 tiedowns. Get them to the front and rear as much as possible. I'd probably look to get a strap around the middle trailer, go under it, over it, and back under it. Then another one securing the middle trailer to the top trailer in the same way.

If you are looking at is as general freight you do need 7 straps over the top. If I was doing that with no chains I would do things that way, meet the general freight requirements and make the argument that that does also meet the heavy vehicle requirement. So to me that means 7 over the top and a minimum of 4 over the middle trailer. Better yet 7 over the middle trailer, you will be needing more straps than that to haul shingles so you should have the straps anyway. 14 straps seems like serious overkill, but it keeps the DOT from looking at you and it really doesn't take all that long to do.

 

7. Is. Correct

 

@Aradox I just noticed the picture, the straps go over the rub rails. I don't want to get into a big fight with any other drivers about the issue of straps and rub rails, but I will say this. Where strap rails are used to connect straps, the force is largely upwards. That is how they are strongest, from a structural stand point. When you are going over a rub rail you are putting all the force from that strap on the rub rail, pulling inward. I wouldn't do that, unless it is directly over a spool. I would prefer to go through the rub rail and let the force act on the body of the trailer itself. Plus, if something goes bad, say the landing gear breaks, loosening your straps, you are still positively attached, certainly not how you want to be, but perhaps it could be the difference between things going bad and things going really bad.

 

In the interest of honesty and full disclosure when we used to move stacks of trailers we always just used four chains and binders. We hooked to the top trailer past behind the rub rail of the middle trailer and then put our binders at the bottom and nobody ever bothered us. But with straps I would follow the 10 foot rule.