Anyone knows any published guides to securing loads on trailers

Have you read the Army rigging manual yet? It should be easy to find.

-- Worry is a misuse of imagination. -- Dan Zadra

I did read it, it is great, and it does not cover what I am asking about.

i

I tried that link several times and the file won't download properly. You might check it out. See if you have the Cargo Specialist's Hdbk. If not, it's here:

or try Reviews on this look promising. tanker's guide

-- Worry is a misuse of imagination. -- Dan Zadra

How about a rigging manual? Email me if you are interested in something like that.

Mike

I am interested in a manual that explains how to tie things down.

I am not interested (right now) in setting up derricks, operating any machinery, tying fancy knots, etc.

I just want to learn what millwrights and machinery movers do to secure machinery in trailers.

i

Let me give one example.

If, as you are tying something down, you wrap the strap even once, around a round object, or the leg of something etc, it is not going to shift under the tie down. A rigger taught me that. This is really useful -- and simple -- and this is the kind of stuff I want to learn. Tricks of the trade.

i

Maybe this will lead to useful regs on cargo loading:

"Cribbing" in case you don't know means heavy timber spacers. "Dunnage" means padding material.

Construction equipment haulers block the wheels and chain down the corners with load binders.

you need to use chain with its load rating stamped on it, like "7" for Grade 70, or similarly marked webbing straps.

jsw, who last loaded industrial machinery for interstate transport on a flatbed in ~1975.

I bought my lathe from a machinery dealer and industrial rigger who tightened a strap over the spindle pulley cover and broke it. Turns out it had been broken before and poorly glued, but just because they do something often doesn't mean they do it right.

jsw

Yeah, that's a really great trick. I learned that early on, too.

Did the Cargo Specialist's Handbook, FM 55-17, help?

-- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood

I bet tricks of the trade aren't published.

My favorite: drop the chain/strap end through the tie down slot on the bed. Then the hook back up on the outside and attach. If the load shifts and slacks, the chain/strap won't come undone.

Know others?

I try, nowadays, to buy only straps with locking/latching hooks.

What I do for the straps without latches, is put rubber bungee cords to stretch them additionally, so they would not come undone.

The problem , as always, is that the situation progressively goes to shit if the load shifts and straps slacken.

i

I don't know if it's standard practice, but I first drive a short ways in the parking lot and brake hard, then recheck the tie-downs.

jsw

Yup. The trick is to find a permanently tight tiedown, both for cargo and for tarps over the top. I've had cargo nice and tight at the end of a trip which has been beat up by a loose section of tarp, and paint worn down to bare metal from the beating of the wind on it. My solution is to always find at least 3 if not 4 points for tiedowns on every piece of cargo, and to group cargo with another strap around them horizontally to ensure their group integrity. That helps prevent shifts.

Wooden beds are great, because you can bolt things to them for additional tiedowns, or actually affix the machine to them. This requires more frequent replacement of the flooring, though, but a flooring change is cheaper than a loose machine flying through the air during an emergency stop. How many people here have had idiots pull out right in front of them when you were hauling a heavy load? (SWAG:

100%) Makes a person want to mount an RPG in the grille, doesn't it?

-- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood

That's SOP here. I also try going over curbs and getting a bounce to see that all is secure.

-- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood

I do the same thing, after a mile or so.

i

One more thing. Instead of just using two ratchet straps to "hold down" some machine, I use them to pull down and "apart", so that they pull the machine in opposite directions. This has a lot less potential to loosen. Again, a rigger told me to do that.

i

I asked a heavy equipment operator this afternoon as he was prepping his trailer for a pickup run. He said if the trooper doesn't see four corner tiedown you WILL be stopped. Otherwise it's just common sense, of the kind beaten into us by the motor pool sergeant. He didn't give me a website reference.

jsw