Tarping

When able, you walk on the load. (Lumber, plate steel, etc) If there are voids, be careful, leave the tarp lax there so you know it's there and feel with your foot before stepping hard. Check out those videos above, look at any of the videos online to get a feel. Plain and simple..it's work.

I had a load I had to deliver in Colorado early in my flatbed career. After unloading, it was time to roll the tarps to get to another load. WINDY.. I put bungees across my stepdeck (did it on the flatbed also) and pulled the tarp under the bungees to be able to get them folded back up. The bungees kept it from being blown away while I strenously had to fold them up under the bungees pulling across and back, etc.

At the one job, and when I was lighter and more limber, I used the headache rack to get the tarps on top of the lumber load after I had struggled to push the tarps up to the edge of the lumber and leaned against the headache rack to push them further onto the lumber. Then I used the headache rack to jump onto the lumber load so I could carry the tarp to the far end to start rolling them out. By the second company, I had started carrying a ladder. I wasn't as light or limber anymore.

This is why flatbedding is a hard job, and why there's always openings available. If you're not ready to tarp, you better latch onto a company that is only Conestoga, curtain side or side kits only, because otherwise, open deck will be a bane to your existence or make you stronger, or hurt you. So keep that in mind, when you're on top of a load and it's windy and you try to wrestle with that tarp...if it starts to pull you, let it go, or you as light as you look, will go flying into a world of hurt. Just lettin' you know what you're looking at.

 

That one time. When the winds were so bad I couldn't even stand on my load. Let alone tarp it. And the shipper said the receiver don't care.

Heard it from the company the next 3 days. I told them they can tarp it then. I'm not risking my life.

 

That's one name I've heard on this forum.

 

Central Oregon Tarping Company
I tried out there,failed,I'm 63.
I was driving an 87 Freightliner,18 speed,with a big Cat in it for a few years,switching over to a newer Freightliner with a low rpm Detroit didn't work out so well,and they wanted me to double clutch every shift.I passed the tarp test though.