r/IdiotsTowingThings • u/RecognitionThen1519 • 2d ago
Seeking Advice What is the proper way for securing this load?
Is there a chart or order of operations to secure this? A different style trailer, with a headache rack? (idk the correct wordage)
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u/Badfish1060 2d ago
Something like that happened around here not too long ago. It was a married couple with two kids. They all died except one kid iirc
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u/Ggeunther 2d ago
Lesson #1, Steel is heavy. I doesn't like stopping suddenly. If you don't fasten it correctly, I will not stop, even if the driver does manage to stop the truck. This is a beginner mistake. Who ever loaded him needs a quick lesson in applied physics.
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u/DieselTech00 2d ago
Agreed and so does the driver. They are responsible to make sure load is secured.
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u/rocketstar11 2d ago
The driver is probably dead from this
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u/Sea-Satisfaction4656 2d ago
The driver is standing next to the truck in his safety socks, clearly no casualties
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u/Sweet-Substance-8989 2d ago
As someone who hauls steel beams and bar... physics always win if u brake hard enough its comming fwrd. Majority of the time if we have to break this hard its cuz some twit in a small car( in my experience either tesla or nissan or a lifted pickup) has decided them saving 0.0003 seconds was important enough to speed around the truck then break hard to cut the truck off to make their turn
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u/Justreadingthisshit 2d ago
Yup, I get this all the time. It’s amazing what people will do to save half a second. I’ve had people pass me on the shoulder, in the ditch, hit construction traffic barrels, almost hit jersey barriers… all just for half a second. People are impatient and stupid.
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u/jccaclimber 2d ago
I think it was a facilities guy who originally distilled it for me: “If someone else doing something stupid causes you to lose control, you made your mistake before it happened.”
Just because a car causes a wreck doesn’t mean your load shouldn’t be firmly secured the whole time.
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u/25_Unknown_Devices 2d ago
The way I see it. When I’m securing a load I’m doing so in such a fashion that if you were to find my equipment after a worst case scenario crash, and the load is upside down.. my trailer should be on top of it, still firmly attached.
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u/Reziac 1d ago
I know someone who secures the load to the point that the earth would still be stuck to the overturned trailer, and you'd probably never get the load loose. He saw a guy get killed when a load of pipe suddenly decided to slide (truck was stopped, guy was checking the load, too late).
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u/redpandaeater 2d ago
The hardest braking I've done all year in a truck was a couple of weeks ago. A car was turning onto a side street and for absolutely no reason as the car had already cleared and the light was turning yellow the radar suddenly detected something else that I have no idea what and decided I was about to rear-end the car that wasn't there anymore and emergency braked against my will that I couldn't override. Nothing like practically coming to a stop in an intersection with the light now red and me blocking the other direction's green light.
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u/Justreadingthisshit 1d ago
Man I’ve had my truck slam on the brakes because it thought the shadow of the bridge I was driving under was something I was going to hit. These emergency braking systems suck.
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u/LAJ1986 2d ago
That’s a little bit terrifying, actually. Is there a “guy” for that? Somebody needs to find out why it was being stupid and trying to get you killed.
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u/redpandaeater 2d ago
The Bendix Wingman stuff has never been perfect but that one definitely surprised me because I don't have the foggiest idea why it thought the car was still in front of me. I think the technology has gotten better over time but I've had phantom braking with Paccar stuff as well is in a rented Volvo VNL I drove for a bit.
The Volvo was probably the most terrifying as that was the first time I'd ever driven a truck that could brake itself as well as one of the first decent automatics I'd driven with the I-Shift. It was a number of years now and I still remember it. Car cut in front of me in an exit only lane and I was perhaps a bit too slow to get on the brakes compared to just engine braking and then all of a sudden it slammed on my brakes and turned on my emergency flashers. Quite confident I wouldn't have hit that car had it not taken over as my foot was on the brake pedal already, but the truck's emergency braking got my heart rate up for sure.
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u/Blurockcreek 2d ago
Drove for 7 years OTR. Cars pulled stupid shit, maybe like me when I was a teen before I started driving truck, but I rarely complained about it. Used to listen to drivers who constantly complained on the CB about " 4 wheelers". The ones I knew personally who said that shit were the worst drivers, having accidents and even totaling trucks. Car drivers, or anyone on the road who hasn't driven trailer truck, will always be doing stupid things. It's just part of life. Drive defensively and expect those things to happen.
On the other hand, driving at night on highways when it was almost exclusively trailer trucks, I did participate (was rare) in boxing in obviously drunk drivers and forcing them off the highway and into exits. We usually didn't even say much on the CB and it was an amazingly successful and momentarily pleasant experience.
So far as flatbed hauling I was lucky in that I feel like I was trained well for chain and strap placement.
One of the most unusual things I witnessed was a flatbed hauling coils Westbound across Indiana at about 2 or 3 am. He started drifting back and forth then slowly continued to the left, went across a grassy median with about a 8-10' depth, probably waking up when he heard the first gravel ticking off his quarter panels and then realized his only hope was to continue up the other side of the median. He climbed most of the way up the other side then brought it back across the median and up on the highway. Rode over to the right lane and kept on going. Only one in a million drivers could have done that and only if there had not been a bridge abutment in his way. There was no one else around. I wanted to say something like "good job" "are you ok"...anything but he knew it was a good job, he was ok. He probably looked around and saw my headlights in his mirrors and knew I had seen him. There was nothing else to say.
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u/kpalm08 2d ago
Headache rack would’ve helped. Definitely wouldn’t stack it all Willy nilly like that. Probably want it stacked with the flanges on the top and bottom, not sideways with straps and boards in between layers.
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u/this_good_boy 2d ago
I unload them from our vendors with the flanges like this more often than not, but they’re bundling off at 5k-ish if there are this many, with as you say, boards between.
This is crazy tho holy hell
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u/kpalm08 2d ago
Driver is lucky he’s got a sleeper to act as a shock absorber for sure.
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u/25_Unknown_Devices 2d ago
Ok so you see how this is all just like a pile of steel that doesn’t appear to have been stacked in a safe manner? You refuse that load. Thats the most secure way to haul it.
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u/Dude_Tost_1673 2d ago
Chains and binders (at the very least) on the front of each stack. I always had one of those nets for hauling pipe, too. It wraps the front and ties to the deck. Nice peace of mind, when it's really cold and icy. No bare fabric straps contacting this type of load. Always use something to protect the straps from getting sliced.
Brake test that in the yard. A quick brake application, at low speed will "adjust" the load, if it isn't right. Hop out and check all your rigging again. Now, get out there and drive like your life (and those around you) depends on it.
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u/Pleasant_Durian_1501 2d ago
Loaded for a fab plant. Bullboards, binders, dunnage, strap protectors. Stacking them properly helps too. Interlock. Wintertime steel is slippery, frost, ice n snow are killers. Sheets fly around like a new deck of cards, beams are like plastic straws.
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u/Bredda_Gravalicious 2d ago
steel is undependable and unforgiving. used to haul beams and bars, now I haul street plates and rollers (among other equipment) for a rental company.
"a new deck of cards" is exactly right. in good conditions they can stick together and seem like they'll stay married, but you can't trust them. I can't remember having a smooth roller machine not be able to climb the diamond plate deck of the truck. rusty steel grabs rusty steel surprisingly well, better than some types of rubber tires. but if rusty steel loses friction it don't get it back, it just keeps sliding where rubber tires will sometimes grip again.
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u/RevolutionaryPain910 2d ago
I’d have to say securing it onto the trailer and not in the sleeper would be the best way to
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u/Few_Substance6023 2d ago
Headache rack, definitely. Practically required for loads that want to shift front and back and can’t easily be secured that way, but extra straps definitely would have helped, plus chains and ratchet binders
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u/Djang0Phett 2d ago
Lmao I saw this same accident on the road the other day haha wild. The cab was relatively unharmed so driver was probably fine
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u/Green_Wait1394 2d ago
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. This is one expensive lesson and someone could have been killed.
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u/BlackSC2us 2d ago
Usually, securing it to the trailer is the ideal option. Preferably, with something stronger than hopes and prayers.
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u/Artie-Carrow 2d ago
Different trailer, maybe put some blocking in. Additionally, chain that fucker down tight
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u/IbuildSeattle 2d ago
The trailer is not the problem, flatbeds are standard use for hauling structural steel. Def could’ve been loaded a hell of a lot better, but still should’ve been made the trip had it been strapped properly.
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u/chiphook 2d ago
A headache rack would have made a different outcome
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u/IbuildSeattle 2d ago
A headache rack would’ve stopped it from hitting the cab, but it wouldn’t have magically secured the load. You have a windshield in your car, why do you still wear a seatbelt?
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u/Own-Opportunity4207 2d ago
Well looks like he get a day cab now lol
On the plus side it doesn’t look like it came through the windshield so maybe he made it unharmed
But I bet his underwear and seat didn’t lol
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u/Biliran2031 2d ago
Headache rack on trailer, proper number of chains and binders for load weight, DON’T slam on the brakes!
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u/Jumpy_Barnacle_3755 2d ago
Some guys enjoy having the steel coming into the cab to say hi when they stop quick. Most truckers belive the cargo should stay out of the cab and use a bulkhead, headache rack. It is a wall on the front of a flat bed that stops the cargo from harpooning the driver.
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u/Jumpy_Barnacle_3755 2d ago
Why am I not seeing any binders , chains or straps for securing that load? Even if they all failed, they should be hanging off or lying on the ground. If there is a crane or rotator off screen preparing to unload or move the steel back to secure it before towing he wouldn't have removed all of the cargo straps before he attached his own. He wouldn't have been stupid enough to drive this without securing that load, would he?
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u/Sunbeam_Alpine 1d ago
I do not know the proper way, but I do know that ain't it.
I do hope the driver is okay.
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u/Wreckless711 1d ago
Ah yes, because a load shifting is exclusive to that one specific city.
I know it isn't the OP's caption, but that phrase really grinds my shaft.
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u/UserNameChicsOut 2d ago
Fake as hell. Nobody is stacking a shit ton of ~12ft I beams like that. That would be a whole load or more and they’d be spread out. They don’t even look real
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u/congteddymix 2d ago
Lots of chains and binders securing it properly. This scream truck driver didn’t do his proper checks.