I loaded nickel plates (scraps) the other day which are about 3'x3' and wouldn't you know it the last pallet landed right dead center on my front trailer axle. Now, you can't put a strap there cause the tire will hit the winch on bumps and such. So I put two straps on the pallet, one in front and one to the rear, thereby splitting the tire. I still thought though that the strap to rear was a little close but decided to go with it.

GUESS WHAT????

It rubbed my tire and cut the strap about halfway across, I also had some rubber in my winch teeth. I should've went with my initial instinct and will from now on.

The positives though: The strap was one that came with the trailer and was a little old, the tire wasn't damaged bad at all and it is one of the last two tires I'm going to replace anyways.

Anyone else wanna belly up to the "I knew it bar" and have a drink?
Might get some interesting stories going.

 

I knew. I just knew, when I joing this forum, I would get a lot of info on what NOT do do from other drivers.

 

At least it didn't do any serious damage.

 

Friday morning 33 degrees pouring rain and my purge valve starts sputtering like a motor boat. I am loaded of course but not time sensitive. I figure I will make it the next 50 miles to my delivery and then deadhead home 85 miles and fix it in my nice warm shop instead of just going straight home 20 miles. Well long story short I made it 40 miles, came to a stop at a light and that was all she wrote, dead in the water, in rush hour at a traffic light and loaded

Had to get the hook to drag me to a shop and replaced most of the air system before figuring out my air dryer had gone kaput and needed replacement. Had I just gone to my shop I would have spent about $450 but instead because I was stubborn, $1650. And I still have the load on because my customer closed early. So now I will have the 50 mile load on for 200 miles or so and will drop it off first thing Monday. O happy day!

 

Over the years I can think of many loads that when I got there to load them I should have just looked at it and said "Thanks but no thanks"
Last one I did comes to mind, real quick ! Load from Laredo Tx to Ca. 90 feet long 17 feet around weighing 198,000 lbs. Paid 98,000 so said "Will do it" After loading it took 6 days to get out of Tx. Arizona wouldn't let it in so had to route up into Nevada then the trailer and load sat in Tonopah Nevada for 6 weeks till Cal. figured out how to get it to where it was going. After paying all the permits, escort cars, highway patrol escorts, CalTrans for shutting down portions of Hwy. 99 (took 2 nights to do 157 miles) and all normal running costs, cleared about $20,000. Not gona do that again !!!

 

That is where you should have gotten out 4"hand ratchet with the chain on one end and put that in its place. We are issued one. I carry three.

 

I have a straight piece of pipe with a 90 degree nipple on each end. Air dryer goes kaput on you bypass it until you can get it fixed. Saved me couple times over the years. Just dont do like some guys and leave it on for months at a time.

 

You know that information would have been very helpful Thursday night

That is a great idea, I think I will add it to my box of stuff under the passenger seat. Thanks!

 

I carry ratchet straps but I don't like them as much so I try to avoid using them, guess I better get used to them.

 

That sucks and I certainly don't mean to make light of your situation at all but.....suddenly my Friday doesn't look so bad after all. Maybe I can cheer you up a little with this one, you see, sometimes I can be an idiot..........sometimes

I loaded these same plates on Thursday morning but the receiver stops taking deliveries at 1pm so I couldn't have made it in time and you remember the rain on Thursday morning right? Well I go to shippers window and the lady says "You're in the same boat as the guy in front of you, I have to get a rain sheet and the shipper doesn't open till 8:30 am and then who knows how long it will be after that"

I'm thinking oh my god, they got bring in a crew to set up a tent to protect this stuff from the rain, this will take forever.

Well I make a phone call to my people and tell them I don't think this is worth it because they have to set up a tent so we can load and tarp the plates. I'm a little frustrated with all this and it doesn't help that I DON'T like rain. Sometime in all this I see a construction truck pull up so I think good, they're here.

About 8:45 the guard waves me over, so I get out of the truck and walk over to the shipper window and the lady hands me my loading papers and says "pull up there next to the other flatbed and they'll get you loaded" I was a little confused so I asked "When are they going to set the tent up?" Well she looked at me like I had two heads and says "what?" I said "you said you had to get a rain sheet set up or something?" She got a big smile on her face and told me that a rain sheet is just a confirmation that she could load us in the rain.

My wife's been laughing at that all weekend. You see, sometimes I can be an idiot..........sometimes