What you refuse to haul

I've never hauled them but I don't think I'd be really comfortable hauling those preloaded Home Depot and Lowe's DC trailers- the ones that are a big mix of different lumber and shingles and junk and always have fiberglass ladders on top. Its not so much what it is, more an issue of how they are loaded. Doesn't seem like there is a great way to strap them down without breaking stuff. I used to work at a Lowe's and saw stuff just fall off of them as soon as the tarps got pulled off, like the tarps were all that was holding it.

 

for me it would be mulch... its fine for awhile... then you do it everyday, and start to lose bags off the top of your load... one ####ty shrink wrapped pallet that you have to fix on the side of the road or risk dumping it all will make you hate life...

 

Don't ever haul cows on a flatbed! when pulling nails out of the hoofs I got pooped on twice! The front row, the goggles were held in place with gorilla tape. Those 3 front row cows got really pissed when I pulled that tape off! NEVER AGAIN!!!!!

 

Always hated rebar. When you got a load that was all the same kind of rebar it wasn't bad, but when they threw in the coated rebar you couldn't chain it, and you had to be a genius to figure out how to secure the 5 stacks of the U-shaped bundles that they laid on top of the 40 ft pieces. I used 20 straps and 6 chains on a load before.

Trim board also sucked. Stacked 13'5" and fully tarped. Lots of split loads too, half here, half there, untarp, retarp. Kept me in shape though

 

Those pallets are always rotted and falling apart too. I hated even moving them with a forklift because the pallets are liable to break from the bottom and spill everywhere if they don't fall over first.

Fence mesh wire can get ugly too if it isn't stacked and banded tight. Frequent load checks and keep cranking down on the winches the whole trip. The plastic wrap tearing off makes it look really ugly going down the road. I wouldn't refuse to haul it but I've seen some really ugly looking loads in my forklift operating days. When they get stacked 2 pallets high the rolls start trying to, well, roll. Especially the longer rolls, like 7 and 8 foot wire. Also those pallets of gates like to slide. This stuff comes out of Merchants Metals in Houston, Texas and in Statesville, North Carolina.

This is a nice and neat load, would've been nice to get a few intermediate straps over the first row but only so many straps on the truck.

 

I’ve never done a full load of mulch, but I always cringe when I see them going down the highway with pallets leaning this way and that.

Believe it or not, as an electrical supplier we actually stock pallets of top soil and grass seed that the underground crews sometimes use to finish up an install, so now and then I will end up with a pallet or two on my flatbed. Seems like no matter what I do there is always one bag that wants to cause trouble.

 

That looks nice! In my rookie days I once hauled a load of flat panels out of Iowa wire and steel. Super light and every bit of 13 ft tall. I threw my straps and climbed up and made sure all my straps were tucked in between all the wires poking out. It was all nice and neat, then the load shifted when I turned the first corner. It was light enough that it wasn’t going to hurt anything, just looked like crap. Wasn’t till I got halfway to my destination that I figured out a way to chain the corners to keep it still. That was a PITA load for sure.

 

Rookie mistake.
You coat the cows in crazy glue, then tip them.
They fall over and are glued down so well they don't fall off.
At the other end, its like filleting a fish, but with a longer knife.
You just slide it under them and trim away the hair on the downward side to get them loose.

 

Ok, you've convinced me. Having a hairy flatbed would be worth it. Angus on the front and fade to Hereford on the rear. Forget acid washing, I'll COMB my trailer!

 

Gives a whole new meaning to "brushed aluminum".