I met DC Campos about a year ago on one of these Facebook pages that he had set up. DC and I quickly became friends and our interests lie along the same trail. That trail is using our experiences that we’ve had through our life in the trucking industry, trying to help others either get into the trucking industry or maybe do a little better, in the trucking industry, with the knowledge and experience, that we can share.
My name is Gary Mathis. I started my trucking career in 1978. That makes me kind of an old fart. I started out in tow trucks and worked on getting into OTR, but I was too young. I started my OTR in 1985 doing household. I was an owner/operator most of the time up till 2005. Then I took that experience and ran a pilot car service until 2012. I’m a couple million mile driver, irregular routes across the United States and southern Canada. I’ve done many different types of trucking. I’ve done flatbed, refer, household, and oversize. I’ve done electronics trade show, off Broadway theater, and have had millions of dollars in my trailer at a time. I’ve had a very blessed career in the trucking industry. I didn’t say all this to impress you, but to impress upon you that as a trucking brotherhood we benefit by sharing our knowledge and experiences that we’ve had in the trucking business. My farrier used to tell me, “the best horseman isn’t the one that has been around horses The longest, but the one that has the most “tricks in his bag.“ in this blog DC and I just want to share some of the tricks that we have in our bag, and maybe make your day a little more profitable and easier.
Today I want to share a few ideas about tying down a load that you may not have thought about. YES we all have our ways to tie a load down, and as an industry, we generally do a really good job keeping the load on our trailer. But today I’d like to talk about load restraints, chains and straps, and how much tension to put on your restraints. I’ve owned two different flatbed trailers where I discovered the deck has actually been tweaked upwards and in some cases has broke the supports for the deck In the opposite direction from weight carrying. This only comes from tying loads down too tight. And this is what I want to talk to you about in this blog.
I want to use this example to express a concept, not talk about the working load limits of the different restraints.
Let’s say your restraint will break at 5000 pounds tension. And you’re “really going to hold that load” on the trailer, and you are pulling that restraint as tight you can get it. Well if you put 4500 pounds of tension on that restraint it only takes 500 pounds of force to break that restraint. As rough as the roads are, as you all know, it doesn’t take much of a bump to generate 500 pounds worth of Force. Now Let’s take that same restraint and put 500 pounds worth of tension. Now it takes 4500 pounds of force to break that restraint. At 500 pounds worth of tension your chain is tight, and your strap has all the stretch out of it. And we all know to check our restraints to make sure they are all snug and regular intervals.
I’m hoping you’ll add that Concept, Or little trick, to your bag, and maybe it can help you someday, thanks for your time.
Thanks DC for letting me share on your platform this information.
Guys, Please check out the links for more great information. I’m Gary from RealDieselPower. Com
Click the three bars on the upper right and take a look at the “ how it works” at:
You are warmly welcome on board Mr. Gary Mathis looking forward to seeing your posts in the future
Welcome Gary