Flatbed Variety

I have only tarped one load and that was because the fuel cells had hazmat stickers but were empty. It was just to save the hassle of scales.

That was cool. Field expediency is what we called something like that in the army. By the looks of the loads you have posted, you get the luxury of hitting the road as soon as your load is secured. Nice!

I have only tarped one load and that was because the fuel cells had hazmat stickers but were empty. It was just to save the hassle of scales.

That was cool. Field expediency is what we called something like that in the army. By the looks of the loads you have posted, you get the luxury of hitting the road as soon as your load is secured. Nice!

Yeah that is a good thing for the loads that I haul. Last week was 4 loads in one day. Short ones but I was home that night... LOL

The other day I had to take our beavertail trailer to move an old beer truck. (used for a tool truck on road construction jobs now.) Well the frame would bottom out on the deck at the top of the ramp. Had to find a location where the trailer was 2 feet lower than the rest of the ground that I could back up to place the axles in so that the ramp would not be as steep. Easier to find that at the other end but it got moved.

With the equipment, I get to load it myself. Sometimes there is not even anyone around when we pickup or drop off. We just hope we get it in the right place.... LOL

This trip I was hauling roofing materials. Looked like insulation to me, but then again, I'm just a trucker. I had to drive into their plant/warehouse to be loaded. We were not allowed out of the truck during loading. It was kind of narrow in there, too.

There's the door we had to drive out.

Once outside we were required to use their tarping station (for safety). As you can see, we had to back into it. There were only two slots available. You can't see it in this picture, but there is a harness you put on and then a cable you attach that slides along the I-beam overhead. There were also a set of movable stairs you used to climb on top. That's how I got the tarps up there. The safety equipment is fine and appreciated. But it also slows you down considerably.

All finished and ready to roll.

This is another case of being on time. I delivered to a job site where they were actually repairing the roof. The crane was there putting the bundles on the roof.

The entire time I was at this site unsecuring, untarping, repositioning, rolling tarps, etc., I saw four other Melton trucks delivering the same stuff.

I guess flatbeders are good at rapping christmas gifts.

Here was another 'end of the day' load. It was a smaller plant that you drove through to be loaded. Nothing difficult. They loaded the trailer with an overhead crane which is quite common in these plants. Here in the picture, I am already secured and started tarping.

On the top layer, you can see that I belly wrapped that one to make it one unit. Turned out to be a very low-profile load.

Something else that happened on this load turned out to be quite nice. You meet some really good people out there on the road. Like I said, I got to this plant late in the day. The loading, securing, and tarping took some time and it was dark by the time I was done and out of hours. It was a Friday night and what the plant does for this shift of about 20 people is cater in supper for them. This is every Friday night that they do this for their people. Well I was working away and the foreman came over and invited me to eat with them. I never expected this and wouldn't have even known that they were having a catered supper in their break room. I was very thankful and when it was time for me to leave, they told me where I could park for the night without getting into trouble with anyone. Trucking can be such an adventure!

I guess flatbeders are good at rapping christmas gifts.

Heh! That's what Old School said why he likes flat bedding!

Here I was doing the only "oversized" load I hauled so far. It was quite different. Usually you think of the loads that Pat M. hauls a lot as oversized and wide loads. This puts you into a special category and you have to have permits in order to drive in certain states. Now this is where it gets interesting. Every state is different and has their own requirements. You think of these gigantic loads going down the highway with lead and chase cars having all the lights flashing, flags flying, banners banning..... Well, you know what I mean. What the permits do is inform the driver where and when he can pull that load. I am by no means an expert in this; I only pulled one load so far. But as far as what I had to do to get from A to B I can share.

My freight was a load of flat steel. I was pulling a 53' trailer. Because of the definitions of an oversized load, my load went into that category and therefore I had to comply with any and all states that had special requirements for these loads.

Here is where my load was oversized:

It's kind of hard for me to believe that these overages would affect anyone out there on the road, but since the load was over 53' long, MO, IN, and OH required permits. The other states I drove through on this run, the banners came off and it was hammer down! MO had speed limits and time of day restrictions in certain areas. IN had special routes and speed limits. If I remember right, OH was just speed limits. This all made sense for those stereotypical oversized loads, but it sure didn't make a lot of sense for my load. But then again, I'm just a rookie.

Here is one of my trips to the Alcoa plant. They want you to position the trailer close to the wall as they do a side load. There is fall protection on the driver's side. Those strap pads are a hot commodity. I try to collect as many as I can as they have many uses!

I also had to tarp this load, but I guess I didn't get a picture of that.

I have only tarped one load and that was because the fuel cells had hazmat stickers but were empty. It was just to save the hassle of scales.

Wow, you do realize that's highly illegal, right? Man, if they would have caught you doing that you would have been in a mess. Even the empty barrels were probably enough to still be considered Hazmat. If not, leaving the Hazmat stickers on there is illegal. So either way you would have been in a mess.

Here is one of my trips to the Alcoa plant. They want you to position the trailer close to the wall as they do a side load. There is fall protection on the driver's side. Those strap pads are a hot commodity. I try to collect as many as I can as they have many uses!

I also had to tarp this load, but I guess I didn't get a picture of that.

I guess this is what they mean by "rub rail"

Straps look really nice. So far I am really leaning towards flatbeds. I love seeing the loads and the hands on part.

Did you need any additional straps across the front of the forward most coil or a bulkhead?