Tips and Tricks of flatbedding

And/or their trainer told them that it is illegal without supplying documentation.
There are training/entry level companies that preach many things that are company policy as illegal that are not.

 

In my 3 or so years pulling a skate board I've never short strapped. The legality of it? Don't care i feel safer with it through the winch. My cheap butt hasn't bought a strap roller either. I have always done it by hand actually you get pretty fast and its a nice tight roll.

 

Well i been meaning to post this for awhile. Had an old timer show me a cool trick runnning a open heache rack. If u hang ur binder and chains . One after the other as in order: binder chain binder chain etc all the way til the end and then take the end of each chain and hook it to the bottom of the binder hook it keeps the bottom hook from spinning out and falling into the deep depths of headache rack hell.



I have been testing it out for a month or so and it works really well , keeps it from spinning out. Cool trick , and thankful for the old hands to pass down the info and help another driver out

 

Take some s hooks off your bungees, hook one end toward the top hook end, hook the center of the chain off the other end of the s hook. Keeps each chain a lot tighter and not wrapped up in the other ends in the tray.

I bet it was said in this thread in years past. Maybe even by me lol just thinking out loud about chain racks and chains n binders keeping neat and tidy.

 

Yeah i used to do that as well. Just get lazy with it after awhile . Running my chains and binders alternating each one seems to keep the chains from getting tangled as well , i started outside to inside so when i pull them out i start from inside to outside. Keeps it nice and neat thanks for the tip ,always looking for new ways to do things

 

you are welcome..... it may not have been me but I passed it along many times over the years. Again it was not me but may have been someone I showed or someone that showed me.
We all learn from each other if we have an open mind.

 

I have been short strapping for 30 years and have never had one slip out. But I do it a little different than was described. I fold my strap usually 2 foot below the winch so I always have at least 3 wraps on the winch. I'm not sure of the regulation but I remember that a strap needs at least 3 wraps on the winch to be legal. In 30+ years I have never had a ticket for a load securement.

 

Have a very, very high tech tool for straps.
When putting the tail of the strap into the winch slot, start the fold into the slot, then use the high tech strap tool to push the fold through.

You can make your own, the instructions are relatively easy.

1 piece of 2 or 2 1/2 inch wide metal banding material, approximately 18 to 20 inches long. fold in half and hammer the bend flat. Rap the two ends down with some duct tape.

or you could just go buy a 2 or 2 1/2 inch putty scraper at the hardware store.

 

I decided that I don't like dragging chains around, so I got a bunch of 50 cal ammo cans and put one chain in each, with both hooks at the top. I can carry two at a time with the top handles, place the boxes where I need them and not have chains falling between the tractor and trailer or dragging through the mud.

 

Its hard to discuss flatbed regs when 90% of the open decks on the road have some sort of illegal strap job. Its really a “too each his own” thing. How many people run there hooks across tue rub rail then go through from the bottom? Illegal but everybody does it at some point. Most dot only care about logs anywhere bc thats what their brainwashed to do..its rare to get an actual lvl 2 inspection, 90% of my lvl 2 inspections where just a lvl 1 marked as a lvl 2.