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Posted by Mr.PG [208.84.56.14] on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 17:55:50 :
In Reply to: Re: Looking for tie downs for my trailer? posted by Marty [174.7.23.230] on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 14:53:05 :
I know this has been a Big debate in the past, and I have stayed out of it. But I am going to jump in on this one.
Having hauled a "few" things around. I prefer the "good ole" snap type binders, and a 3 or 4 foot pipe. I have only ever used 2 long chains and 2 binders per-truck. What I do is hook one end of the chain to the stake pocket of the trailer and run the other end of the chain over the top of the pumpkin and back to the trailer, I then take the slack out of the chain with the binder, then go to the back of the truck and repeat this same process. You will not hit or hurt any brake lines this way. Granted most of the time I am not hauling show trucks, so this works fine. If I was hauling a show truck, I would still use chains, and put a piece of old fire hose over the chain where it would touch the pumpkin, so as to avoid scratching the paint.
I have never lost anything or had anything roll off of my trailer. I don't bother to strap or chain the body down on the trailer, like some like to. I don't see the need as long as the chassis is chained down tight! I just let the body float so to speak. PW's have heavy enough spring packs that they don't move much anyways when you hit a bump. Two of my uncles are over the road truckers and showed me this way to haul a truck, or car. They told me that if you haul a car with the body chained/strapped down you will never compress the suspension all the way, and that can cause tearing/cracking in the body mounts, because you can never compress the suspension, it will flex or bounce up and down while going down the road. Just watch one of those 7 or 8 car semi haulers going down the road,, most of the time they chain to the body or uni-body with the little J-hooks when they hit a bump the chain will have slack in it, they bounce around a lot that way. Because suspension is never compressed all the way down. And that is on some throwaway weak suspension modern car, a PW is sprung a LOT heavier so it would not jump around near as much, but I say I would still chain to the axles and let the body float.
I've been rear-ended while I had two PW's on my trailer chained down the way I do it. The vehicle that hit me was doing in excess of 70 mph the cops said form the skid marks, I was doing 45ish the speed limit was 50. Not sure how much force was put threw the rig while I was hit (??) but it was a hard enough hit that it bent and twisted the frame of my trailer, but the chains & binders where still tight and did not have to be tighten up after the accident. The PW's did not move inch!!
I been in a ditch at 70 mph (with 40' foot goose-neck trailer in tow) and back out a 1/4 mile later with one PW on my trailer, I pulled over to check everything after I got out of the ditch (and to calm down) and all the chains were still tight, I went in the ditch to avoid a 7-8 car pile up that started because something fell off of some else trailer in front of the pack that did not have it held down right in the 1st place, and the cars starting hitting what ever fell off and spinning out of control. I was able to avoid the whole mess.
I have used straps in the past, but prefer a chain any day. Like Marty said be careful with straps, and nothing sharp is near them, if it has to be near a sharp edge I use a piece of padded carpet for the sharp edge and run the strap over it. I have used the "style" straps in the link below in the past also, and they are nice and easier to use. I see a lot of haulers using them on cars and trucks, just throw it over the tire and tighten the Ratchet and walk away, one on each tire and the truck will not go anywhere. And you don't have to climb under and greasy old truck to put them on. I am not saying run out and buy those exact ones, the hooks on those look a little cheesy to me, I have seen them with nicer hooks, these are just a example of the kind I talking about.
Just my opinion, not telling you how to do it, only the way I do and feel safe while doing so. By the way I hauled 3 loads of cars like in the pic above for a guy, just like that. From Colorado to Arizona the cars never budged a inch, and yes that's the way I was told to haul them. Matt