Tips and Tricks of flatbedding

@Spyder7711
Have you ever seen a railcar winch?
It's a big ol winch concreted in the ground. You hook one end of a tow rope to the lead car, throw a couple wraps around the drum and keep pulling the slack rope away by hand as the whole ******* train gets pulled towards you...

 

Quoted wrong guy. @skellr

 

Have you ever used a capstan winch? The rope is not hooked to anything, nor even over lapped, bu with just light hand pressure will lift your trailer off the ground and hold it up..

We will just have to agree to dis agree, when I get a ticket, iI will come back and let you know.

 

Man, I am slow, Old Iron posted twice while I mad a short one. lol

 

I've never messed with one but have seen them used.

 

I dont think its hard at all, but it appears you are struggling with it since you can't get them tight.

 

If a guy wanted to he could do it with no winch slot at all and it would hold if done right, again just like a tugger, capstan winch or air hoist on a drilling rig, nothing at all holds it on except your hand.

I would imagine the manufacturers recommendations stems from morons using a strap that was too short and not getting a couple of wraps on it.

 

LOL, how hard would it be to mess up?

Maybe I should rephrase things a bit. Give it 3 wraps around the winch and then try and winch it down so tight it breaks the strap. Try to break the strap!

Probably best to just toss a strap over an empty deck...

 

Actually I have broke straps more than once, broke my kiester at the same time.
The ones I broke either had a bad spot on them or had been rubbing on something on top I didn't realise and damaged them. If a guy could break a healthy strap, that would be a dude I would try to keep in good with. lol

My first actual big truck driving job was hauling heavy equipment. I didn't really have a boss except the engineer owner of the construction company, who didn't know how to start a truck, much less drive, load or secure the load, for over 6 months.
He then hired me a boss that was in his 70's, who I had noticed following me from job to job in his station wagon a couple of times the week before he came to work.
Riht of the bat he told me he had been watching me and was satisfied with my work, EXCEPT for how I tied down, it seemed I pulled my chains too tight with my 195 pounds and 2 1/2 foot cheater pipe. lol
This went on for a week before he pulled me into the office and showed me on paper how come I was tightening my chains too tight, he then told me an old man had explained this to him when he was my age. I mentioned that when he was my age, he had to have been driving a 1929 chain driven mack, and thee was no way he could have thrown a dozser off anyway, if he didn't like the way I tied down to get someone else to drive. lol

 

Ooooohhh...

...SCIENCE!