This is like starting trucking all over on my first day!

That has been the case with every single one so far. I make sure that chain is tight. The one I am carrying right now is 49900 lb.

This morning when fueling I see ta Roehl flatbed trainee doing a straight line back into a parking spot. His trainer was guiding him in. The student driver was having all the common issues new drivers have with over steering and all.

Now I am trying to imagine learning strapping, chaining, and driving a truck all at once, and I do not even have to tarp the thing.

 

My first coil load was a 18" wide, loaded suicide. I never seemed to get eased into things lol.

 

Feed your flathook through the rubrail, hook underneath, throw the strap over, go to other side & fold strap slack end over end in about 1-1.5 foot folds then feed enough of the strap to go down through the rubrail and amake about a turn and a half on the winch. That will keep your straps tighter with less chance of them loosening up in transit and your excess strap is already folded and you just slip it under the strap when you tighten the winch. This only works if you pull your straps completely of the winches every load.
. Also I quit rolling my straps quite a while ago, now I will just sorta fold them over in 2 foot segments leaving the flathook out so it's ready for my next securement ^^^^ once folded I will lay them on their side right about where there curtain stops when opened toward the front. Makes my securement and strap folding quicker.

 

I prefer loading the coil suicide, just seems easier to chain down. Had a mandatory shotgun loaded coil yesterday, 46,900 pounds. I threw on five 10k pound chains crossed like an X. Ratcheted them down as hard as I could,

About 35 miles later I stop to check on them and they had loosened to the point that the edge protectors were falling off. About a hundred miles later they were still slightly loose again. Never really had a problem like this when the coil is loaded suicide.

I am thinking I should have thrown on a sixth chain to make things even out instead of being lazy and using only 5, three going one way and two the other.

Or is this just the way things work?

 

Make sure your chains are' straight' by this I mean the links, not all twisted. If they are twisted, When you start bouncing down the road they will unwind/untwist and then your chains become loose!! I never hauled 1 coil that big/heavy but yeah I would have put an extra chain on that one.

 

Forgot about going over the top, I do remember the company orientation doing it that way now.