Flatbed Variety

Remembered to get a photo before it got unloaded. 60k of lumber.

Got an extra load this week. I had a load for the weekend when my FM called and asked if I could run this shorty first. This was a rare Saturday delivery, Laredo to San Antonio. Still have the original load I got for the weekend, air conditioners from Laredo to four different stops in Texas. Bonus points, I'll still get a reset too.

I moved this machine earlier this year to someone that bought it. Then apparently a friend of mine bought it from that guy and sold it to someone else today. I had to move it for the second time in a year. I thought it looked very familiar.

Here is the summer photo.... And here is the photo from today.

I forgot to add that I had to cross a dam to get there and back. 90° turn onto and off of either end and you need it all. This is the approach. Not very wide on the top of this thing. It is 2 lanes but just barely.

So a couple weeks ago I got to use a nifty little device to lay my tarps out. I had loaded plywood near Roseburg, OR, and after rolling out some plastic over it, they instructed me to head over to their tarping station. I figured it would be one of those raised catwalks with a harness to keep you from falling, but instead I found this:

There was a video playing on a loop which gave instructions on how to use it. Basically you lower the straps with the remote, hook them to your D-rings on one side of the tarp, then raise it up and move it over, lowering the straps once the tarp is centered. I have to say it was pretty cool and obviously safer than climbing on top of a load, but it probably took just as long if not longer than the traditional way.

Here is about 45,000lbs of road salt/de-icer in 50lb bags. I loaded these in Salt Lake City, which I thought was pretty ironic. Get it? Salt Lake City...?

Pre-tarp...

...and post-tarp:

I had to remember not to make my straps too tight because if I did, they would just keep digging into the bags. Apparently the plastic wrapped around them is enough to hold them laterally, and the tarps add that extra layer of "keep-it-all-contained" protection.

My current load, waiting to unload tomorrow morning near Denver. They are part of a log structure being built at a Gander Mountain jobsite. I got lucky: there were 3 of our trucks assigned to take these logs down, and since I was the last one to be loaded, I got the leftovers. I ended up with about a 30k load, and only 2 levels high, while the others got a full 48k and 3 levels. Helped my mpgs quite a bit!

I forgot to take a pic of it tarped. I guess I could get out of the truck and take one now, but I'm too busy trying to upload the pics I already took...

So a couple weeks ago I got to use a nifty little device to lay my tarps out. I had loaded plywood near Roseburg, OR, and after rolling out some plastic over it, they instructed me to head over to their tarping station. I figured it would be one of those raised catwalks with a harness to keep you from falling, but instead I found this:

There was a video playing on a loop which gave instructions on how to use it. Basically you lower the straps with the remote, hook them to your D-rings on one side of the tarp, then raise it up and move it over, lowering the straps once the tarp is centered. I have to say it was pretty cool and obviously safer than climbing on top of a load, but it probably took just as long if not longer than the traditional way.

Here is about 45,000lbs of road salt/de-icer in 50lb bags. I loaded these in Salt Lake City, which I thought was pretty ironic. Get it? Salt Lake City...?

Pre-tarp...

...and post-tarp:

I had to remember not to make my straps too tight because if I did, they would just keep digging into the bags. Apparently the plastic wrapped around them is enough to hold them laterally, and the tarps add that extra layer of "keep-it-all-contained" protection.

My current load, waiting to unload tomorrow morning near Denver. They are part of a log structure being built at a Gander Mountain jobsite. I got lucky: there were 3 of our trucks assigned to take these logs down, and since I was the last one to be loaded, I got the leftovers. I ended up with about a 30k load, and only 2 levels high, while the others got a full 48k and 3 levels. Helped my mpgs quite a bit!

I forgot to take a pic of it tarped. I guess I could get out of the truck and take one now, but I'm too busy trying to upload the pics I already took...

Man, using that thing is almost like cheating on your tarps...LOL

So a couple weeks ago I got to use a nifty little device to lay my tarps out. I had loaded plywood near Roseburg, OR, and after rolling out some plastic over it, they instructed me to head over to their tarping station. I figured it would be one of those raised catwalks with a harness to keep you from falling, but instead I found this:

There was a video playing on a loop which gave instructions on how to use it. Basically you lower the straps with the remote, hook them to your D-rings on one side of the tarp, then raise it up and move it over, lowering the straps once the tarp is centered. I have to say it was pretty cool and obviously safer than climbing on top of a load, but it probably took just as long if not longer than the traditional way.

Here is about 45,000lbs of road salt/de-icer in 50lb bags. I loaded these in Salt Lake City, which I thought was pretty ironic. Get it? Salt Lake City...?

Pre-tarp...

...and post-tarp:

I had to remember not to make my straps too tight because if I did, they would just keep digging into the bags. Apparently the plastic wrapped around them is enough to hold them laterally, and the tarps add that extra layer of "keep-it-all-contained" protection.

My current load, waiting to unload tomorrow morning near Denver. They are part of a log structure being built at a Gander Mountain jobsite. I got lucky: there were 3 of our trucks assigned to take these logs down, and since I was the last one to be loaded, I got the leftovers. I ended up with about a 30k load, and only 2 levels high, while the others got a full 48k and 3 levels. Helped my mpgs quite a bit!

I forgot to take a pic of it tarped. I guess I could get out of the truck and take one now, but I'm too busy trying to upload the pics I already took...

Man, using that thing is almost like cheating on your tarps...LOL

I love shippers that have proper tarping stations like this one. I don't love shippers that make you tarp off their property at a truck stop or on the side of the road somewhere. There's one sheetrock place in Albuquerque that actually has guys that get up on top of the load and do everything for you except putting on the bungees.

Pat, hauling 60k of lumber must be really fun on snow. I think I'd be worn out after driving all day with that load.

PC, I like how it worked out for you with the logs! Looking good!

Here's a load of air conditioners with four stops. I got the double stacks off the trailer this morning, which is a relief since these things don't weigh very much and it's been windy in south Texas. I also couldn't get a twist in the straps on one side for the second stack from the back (even re-threw them but the wind caught the straps as they sailed over), so they were vibrating for a couple hundred miles which isn't great.

Here's the back haul load I picked up in Cressona, PA today. I delivered a load up in Charlestown, New Hampshire yesterday, and this one is designed to get me back down south so I can grab another load out of the SAPA plant in Delhi, Louisiana. These are some aluminum beams that will go into the trailers being manufactured at a Fontaine manufacturing plant in Haleyville, Alabama.

This is what it looked like before I had it tarped.

Here's what the final load looked like once I had it protected from the road salts and the weather.

Ya'll are probably very valuable people to your families during the holidays. You guys probably do all the gift wrapping at home and you all probably do a splendid job at it too! Just about the only advantage to being a flatbed driver - you're above average at wrapping Christmas presents.