The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

How are you dealing with suicided, big coils with pop-ups? I pulled an East covered wagon set up just like your trailer. There’s no way to get proper securement on anything over 48”. I regularly hauled 7’ and 8’ wide coils to a pipe manufacturer who used a giant forklift to pluck them off. With pop-ups, I was limited to how I could chain them. I had no choice but to leave the sideboards pulled and spread out my chains along the rub rail.

I never used a trip chain on shotgun coils. However, I always did on skidded coils. I always made a bulkhead for any type of bar stock.

Someone mentioned timbers being inside the frame rails. There are coil racks made to put the timbers right on the rails. They require an 8”X8” timber. Perfect for big singles. I’m pretty sure that tarp shop off I-270, Exit 3, in Granite City, is where that employer got them.

@YardMule89 Nice tarp job.

 

You're reading the ending of the previous section, he's showing a later part of the section. You're not seeing the section that that applies to.

 

Must have been one of those 14' containers. 13'6" is legal truck/cargo height, so it shouldn't have hit, unless it was a recently repaved or crowned road that didn't have a sign update.

 

Tri city canvas used to sell them. That’s all they had when we needed some coil racks once, we don’t generally haul coils. I used them once and then drug them heavy sob’s from one end of that trailer to the other 100 times before I left them at the yard. They were always in the #### way.

 

High cube on a flat bed will get ya every time.

 

I’d flip the racks over the tractor’s frame rails, put the timbers on top, then, ratchet strap everything down. I hated to leave them behind, when I moved on. I never felt safe with big singles in small racks, after using them.

 

Was this from the video, or your loading? The tarp job looks better than the one you first showed, and that securement is definitely suspect, although legal.

I always did mine different, legal and redundant. Horse shoe chain on each side, to keep the side to side limited and the telescoping in check. This is from a load headed for Carson City, CA years ago.

First, Horshoe, as close to the center of the coil as possible, chain is edge protected on each of the 4 edges (yes it's a pain) binder one side.


Then the next is an X chain, which is my specialty Hybrid X/Horshoe. It helps telescoping and tightens the closure around the coil. Edge protect 4 sides also binder on opposite side of Horshoe chain binder.

This is how it looks from the inside:

And a little closer for a better view:

As you can tell, using those edge protectors that way, took a while and it was getting late so the next pictures are outside in the dark where I had to finish.


And from the inside with the second X:


And the next morning because I had to sleep over


Later, enroute, I had to take a 34, so I was able to take a few daylight shots to show the chains better.


Normally, the above chain would have been further back, further stopping telescoping, movement and minimizing slop for the coil to begin momentum, which is what securement is all about. Stopping movement turning into momentum. The strap, as you can see though, is where the chain would have gone around the spool, and I didn't want to chance damaging the strap. Steel trailer, I have no qualms about chaining a pocket...aluminum not so much. 5 chains, 3 straps. 33.4k securement, for I think it was 42k coil.

 

The part of the regulations that people miss, is it is a cumulative system. Start with the basic, then add the specialized requirements to them.

The regulations state that a metal on metal (coil racks on the deck) is a low friction environment. This is why friction/skid mats are required between the two surfaces.

The straps or chains over the top of a shotgun coil is to increase the downforce on the coil.
You are securing for X,Y and Z axis, the chains through the eye take care of X and Y but not Z. The strap/chain over the top is the Z axis.
It is also required by regulations.

A coil, when fully intact is a fairly strong structure. If a coil starts to telescope, that structure will be unstable and can bend or collapse. It has a higher tendency to become loose. It also becomes a knife. As the coil telescopes, the leading edge gets thinner, like a knife blade. With enough force, it will cut and break chains. This can be mitigated by the trip blocking. Statistics say it is more likely to happen going forward than backward. It is also considered part of the securement system for preventing movement along the X, longitudinal axis.
Also required by the regulations.

 

Yeah I would have pulled inward with the chains but I had zero edge protectors and could only make do using a conveyor belt for the middle.

I didn’t like the video securement because he used just 5/16 chain and 4 straps. I liked the video for the tarping part. The biggest help I got from the video was the idea of using a bungee to keep the chain tight so you can put edge protection in the right spot before you attach your binder.

 

I short the racks with extra lumber, but I'm not lugging around 8x8"s. Some times the chains get spread out on wide stuff. But it's normally short like @kylefitzy is showing.

Right or wrong it's called a hide kit for a reason.