The safety minded individual knows you should secure sandbags in the
bed of your pickup truck to reduce the risk of them going through the
cab in the event of an accident.
People like my boss, on the other hand, thinks that securing them is
unnecessary, because a sandbag can't possibly go through two layers of
automotive steel, and do any harm to vehicle occupants.
I agree that one single sandbag probably wouldn't be a huge threat.
But, the threat increases this time of year when the sand gets
saturated with water, and freezes into a solid chunk. The threat
increases even further for my truck, because instead of just one 50
pound bag of sand, I have 300 pounds. It is actually in plastic
buckets to keep it dry, and I'm actually going to increase it to 500
pounds. Traction can be an issue where I live.
I have mine secured in a wooden frame that boxes the bed between the
wheel wells. The front and rear sides of the box are chained
together, and the whole box is chained to the bed. I'm not sure how
much farther I can go to keep it from moving.
Anyway, as I said, my boss thinks I'm nuts.
I'm wondering what people here have seen in their lifetime that has
managed to damage, or even penetrate, or injure occupants of pickups
because they didn't have it properly secured.
I put this in the metalworking forum because most people here are
safety conscious, and we are talking about penetrating automotive
sheet metal. I figure it should at least make for an interesting
discussion.
Dave
- posted
18 years ago