The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

Hauling hay around the county it’s certainly acceptable here, I don’t do it on the freeway and personally if I’m going very far very fast I’d throw straps over but I have absolutely hauled lots of hay that way. I guess it’s different in the country than the city.

 

You’ll see this every day here in the summer, I’ve personally stacked thousands of them in my youth.

 

If hay is stacked correctly you don't need securment. ....at least thats the way we were taught when we loaded hay.

 

Five high with a tie.

 

Call it a double standard I guess, I’ve hauled a LOT of hay and I mean a LOT if I’m going far or fast I’ll tie it if I’m going field to barn over a short distance I won’t. That’s the difference between commercial trucking and farm trucking I guess. I can’t necessarily explain it. I will say if I’m being honest it bothers me more now then it did when I was a kid. The big bales on the truck I’d throw a ratchet strap over the small bales on the wagon I never would.

 

I would like to point out that I’m definitely one of the ones that will argue about securement and I’m very confident in my knowledge. However I don’t think you can find a single time I chastised anyone for them being insufficient in their securement. I typically point out where people are misquoting laws. I’ll give you an example, yesterday I moved a 20’ piece of 12” ADS pipe down the road a few mile on my way to another job that piece of pipe weighs about 100 pounds but because of its length it requires 4 tiedowns to be “legal” I put two straps on it and went, was I legal? Nope but I’m not ashamed of it one bit and I’ll do it again Monday. If I’m going a long way I’ll put the extras on because I’ll be exposed to the DOT and there’s that one they’ll bust you. Does that make me a hypocrite or unsafe? So be it.

 

Besides buckin bales in high school and hauling across the highway behind a tractor, I spent a couple of winters hauling hay from Southern Idaho to Northern Nevada with a truck and two trailers grossing around 106,000. We had hay ropes that went over the loads lengthwise, and were tightened using a come-along between the ropes. We hauled both big bales and small that way, though the ropes went around the corners of the big bales.

Occasionally the middle bales on big bales didn't end up pinched correctly by the end bales and I'd throw a strap over the middle, but other than that nothing but the ropes. Hauled through the Hollister POE every day.

 

i was taught in 40ft load, the ends need a securement within the first 4ft at the ends. Then every 10ft.

====|==========|==========|==========|==|==== > so 5 securement. Obviously this is only for length of the load and not the weight.

short version, 8ft load = 1 strap in middle
10ft load = 2 straps, within 4 ft from the ends. correct me if im wrong