When I use to repair tarps at Riechmann Transport (Granite City, across from that truck lot on West Chain of Rocks) I use to love to repair the 17x17's because they were the lightest of them all. But we had alot of 20x24's because they hauled alot of steel and don't even ask me about the Alvey (machine tarp) them things were a pain in the rear to handle. I enjoyed it and sometimes I got to tarps loads and it was a blast, I really like flatbed work because you get to get fresh air and not stay in the truck 24/7. But the disadvantage is that I have severe asthma, so I got to take my time.

 

You haven't lived until you've had to tarp 2 loads every time! :lol:
Lightweight tarps make life much much easier.. I absolutely dread having to mess around with an old heavy canvas tarp! They don't freeze up as much, they fold and roll up ten times easier. Get 8' drops, 8' end flaps and 1' flaps on the ends of the drops that the end flap would be on. These are great for wrapping around the sides and keeping air out. You can see them on my first picture here.. On the second picture, they are inside of the end flap. If I were to replace these tarps I'd consider getting the end flaps 10' wide in this similar fashion so that they wrap around the load a little bit. I've got 2 24' and 2 12' tarps here, the longer ones are nice as sometimes when I'm not cubed out a single 24' tarp will be enough to cover my load. The 12' tarps come in handy sometimes when hauling steel coils etc.