Tips and Tricks of flatbedding

Why not just carry a ladder. Seems much safer.

 

Interesting. Never thought about it

 

I just grab a 2" strap and tie some loops in it if i have to climb that kinda load (for me it was usually insulation that i cant scale up and down very well) worst case have to tie a second strap to the first.

Used that trick more than once at 1 am in a truck stop teaching people why they need to x strap front and rear of insulation loads

 

Maybe a tip and trick, maybe it belongs in the hall of shame. You guys decide.
Tying down wide loads can be a pain. Seems better then the rub rail that’s bent to #### from tying down this same load.

 

So how would you do it? The rubrail is blocked by the load on the side I hooked to the winch. Nothing to hook to underneath.

 

If you are hauling those loads pretty regular, I would have d-rings welded on to the frame rails or bolted on. if not, try to go around the stake pocket. The problem with what you are doing is: you are putting alot of pressure on a single point. If you slam on the brakes or get into an accident that hook is carrying alot of weight in a single point. It will try to, and prolly be successful at, tearing the rub rail. The hook is going to act like a scissors on you rub rail. I've had it happen personally. when I first got one of the lowboys I had on the flat deck, there were no tie down points. so I did like everyone else and I put the chain through the cut outs in the frame rail. Well, it started to cut right through it with 1/2 and 5/8 chains. so I took it back and had them weld a ton of d-rings to it. Another lesson I learned early was to pull in the direction of the d-ring. Because I tore one of those off aswell. I'm not saying you are wrong here, because in the end, you are the one hauling it and you are the one that has to be OK with it. I just think about the forces on things when things go awry. There will be alot of force applied to the leading edge of that hook.

 

Winches aren’t designed to have a side pull on them.

 

I was mainly looking at the chain hooked to the winch. Most of our guys go around a pocket, I usually do to. It still bends the rail if you go crazy with a ratchet binder. These big crates are almost the only thing these stretch flats haul, very occasionally they will be in the right spot to do another load or a back haul. This is a 2014 so I doubt it will ever get anything added to it. Frame mounted d rings would be the best solution but it’s not going to happen.

Not to start an argument, I used to think the same thing. I now think I’m much more likely to rip a rub rail off then a winch and here’s why. This trailer has what’s known as a “double L” winch track bolted to the cross members from the factory. The next two pictures show that going straight up through the rub rail or going around the crate 40 inches outside the rubrail has the winch and track loaded in nearly the same way, in my opinion.

the winch holding down my tarps:

the winch with the strap going around the crate:

we’ve had drivers pull the rubrail off of aluminum trailers with ratchet binders when hooking to 12’ wide loads. (Different load BTW) that’s why I hook under the rail or to a winch when possible.

again I’m not trying to start an argument, just trying to get others opinions.

 

I like how you tied that down. Winches on both sides of the trailer ??