Flatbed Variety

A little flatbedding tip for some....

As I was chaining this load down I kept looking at the thread and the nuts they put on there. Every one of the nuts started out about where the top right one is located. It just kept bugging me and I kept thinking that those things are going to come off with the vibration and bouncing going down the road. So, I put the electrical tape on the ends of the threaded rod to keep the nuts from coming off. As you can see in the photo, 5 of them had worked out to the tape in 150 miles. By the time I got to the drop yard 6 of the eight had worked up to the tape. This means that 6 nuts and possible washers could have possibly come off my trailer and struck another vehicle.

I don't know what you think but at 75-80 mph those things would carry a lot of force behind them. If it does not look right, come up with a way to keep things secured. The minute it took me to put the tape on possibly saved me a lot of hassle should one of them hit another vehicle. That and the customer does not have to come up with more nuts and washers as they put the building together.

Love what you did, Pat. Took the extra time to do it right!!! A big Atta-boy for you.

For some reason I am getting the really wide loads... This one is 14'6"... Not really that heavy but it is really wide trying to get through Denver... LOL

I'm just posting this picture for Bud. I know he misses getting to see this sight now that he's stuck over there in the Midwest part of the country. This is how we do things over in the Northeast - we back our trailers into these tarping bays with about one inch of clearance on each side, and then we have to put poly sheeting on our loads before we put the tarps on them. Trying to walk on top of that poly sheeting and lay out your tarps is the closest thing to ice skating you'll ever do without actually strapping on some skates. Hope I gave you some fond memories Bud! There's still work available over here if you get bored with what you're doing now days.

Thanks for reminding me why I don't go east of Gary, Old School!

Out west we do things a little funny sometimes too. Today I delivered a load of coffee beans from the Bay Area to a little place in Idaho. Since it was raining and no one told me to put visqueen on it (next time I'll know!), I pulled the straps off from under the tarps. I was going to get some pics of the pallets stacked with big bags of coffee beans, but I was so busy pulling the tarps up and over one pallet at a time while they were being unloaded that I forgot.

For some reason I am getting the really wide loads... This one is 14'6"... Not really that heavy but it is really wide trying to get through Denver... LOL

Yeah, I wouldn't want to drive through Denver with that load!

OK Bud, so for us uninformed, what is visqueen?

OK Bud, so for us uninformed, what is visqueen?

Just plain ole clear plastic sheeting

For some reason I am getting the really wide loads... This one is 14'6"... Not really that heavy but it is really wide trying to get through Denver... LOL

Yeah, I wouldn't want to drive through Denver with that load!

Lucky for me, the boss says if you cannot beat the curfew then take the 470 toll road. So that is what I did.

Got to reading some old posts and Bud A said.....

Wow, Pat M. is tarping! Maybe the Cubs really will win the World Series this year!

I guess it really works. Now to figure out how to monetize this tarping thing...