Securing a load - I am an idiot (thankfully, I got away with it)

[MrFluffy]

I went the diy sheds a while back and there was some older couple in a audi estate trying to get a pair of double french doors and frame on the roof, no ties and a bit of rope... I looked at the load and imagined it catching the wind and being lifted clear and onto whatever poor soul was behind and it made me shudder, so I asked them where they were headed. It was near where I was going so I put it in the van for them and dropped it off, but really, what were they thinking? the car didnt even have roof bars irrc.
Father in law turns up with a tiny box trailer and his 3 section ladders loosely tied on, overhanging about 20 ft with a rag hanging off the end in some sort of sop to following traffic. It makes me shudder too, but he knows best apparently.
I run a older xlwb sprinter because I really really dislike having to struggle for load length. Its paid for itself a few times over already.

 

[dunk]

skot, build yourself a H frame so you can fasten it to the bulkhead of the pickup, you can then carry fair lenghts of steel by sitting one end in the rear against the tailgate and floor and other end up and at a diagonal onto the cross bar of the H, just remember your height

 

[bigegg]

I carry my 20ft lengths of box section UNDER the transit- sticks out about 2ft at the back, so bit of rag tied on.

 

[zx9]

I carry my 20ft lengths of box section UNDER the transit- sticks out about 2ft at the back, so bit of rag tied on.

How do you do that?

 

[bricol]

I carry my 20ft lengths of box section UNDER the transit- sticks out about 2ft at the back, so bit of rag tied on.

That's exactly how a local in Nigeria delivered steel to the plant - under his very battered, nearly car shaped. Japanese estate car. Without the rag. And sticking several feet out the back. And front.

Took a great deal of care over safety there - flip flops so you didn't get crushed steel toe caps crushing your feet. Carefully welding the water and gas pipework. A mate was assured they were professional welders and there would be no problem. Until they turned the water on. Then they decided they might like to replace the gas pipe with one prepared by an external (to the country, never mind the plant) contractor. . .

Bri

 

[Onoff]

My company used to import kit from NZ. It came over in 40' shipping containers and was braced with loads of timber, mainly 4"x2" and decent lengths too. Me being me collected it up for home projects.

There was a stack needing to come home one day so onto the integral roof bars of the estate car it went. Overdoing it a bit, a stack of 100 lengths probably 1m wide, 0.5m high and 3m long. I stacked them, put the two cheapo ratchet straps on, those 1" wide orange things with the black plastic coated hooks. I was just about to set off across the Dartford crossing when I gave the stack the obligatory shove to check it's security. BANG.........one of the cheapo straps had cut through on a sharp timer edge. Luckiest check I've ever done. I reckon the whole lot would have come off going round the first corner. Now I only use the proper 2" wide lorry straps.

 

[Kent]

Skotl, I have a similar truck to you and have recently been buying a lot of timber for use on the ranch. There's a wee switch on the centre console which opens up the rear window and gives another 1.5m inside the cab- if you do this try and remember to brake gently or risk popping the windscreen out lol

Put the passenger seat back and put it into the footwell (it will tip on the access hole you mention) I put a bit of plastic or pipe foam under the material at this balance point. Done a few windscreens in the past in other vans

 

[outofthefire]

We got a delivery of steel one day that should have had 10 30' long 6" x 6mm channel, the driver went white when he realised it wasn't there because he said it was on when he left. He went off to retrace his route and found it on a slip road off the A1. Luckily no one was hit by it but someone had put it on the verge for him.

 

[Robotstar5]

Going to Barmouth with a couple of Kayaks on the roof of a mates car when he had to brake a bit sharp, one Kayak shot off down the road in front of us, surprised an oncoming car driver as it went past him

 

[fixerupper]

I've seen stuff like that here , one the other day guy on a motor bike with a ladder over his shoulder !

 

[skotl]

We were coming down the M90 a few weeks ago and there was a roof rack sitting upright in the outside lane. With three bikes attached

One mile further down on the hard shoulder was a car and three sheepish looking guys trudging back up the shoulder toward their bikes

 

[skotl]

We got a delivery of steel one day that should have had 10 30' long 6" x 6mm channel, the driver went white when he realised it wasn't there because he said it was on when he left. He went off to retrace his route and found it on a slip road off the A1. Luckily no one was hit by it but someone had put it on the verge for him.

 

[wristpin]

Couple of years ago 7am leaving the M25 to join the M11 going north round that long sweeping bend. Builders barrow upside down in the middle of the carriageway followed at intervals by 8 x 4s of plaster board or plywood and finally a mile or so up the road a Transit pickup on the hard shoulder with two foreign gentlemen attempting to secure what remained of their load - frightening!

 

[zx9]

Couple of years ago 7am leaving the M25 to join the M11 going north round that long sweeping bend. Builders barrow upside down in the middle of the carriageway followed at intervals by 8 x 4s of plaster board or plywood and finally a mile or so up the road a Transit pickup on the hard shoulder with two foreign gentlemen attempting to secure what remained of their load - frightening!

I was on the M6 between Coventry and the M42 junction doing about 70 overtaking traffic in the nearside lane when I am overtaken by a Transit pulling a four wheeled tar boiler. He must have been doing a fare old speed because he was pulling away from me, tar boiler bouncing up and down off into the distance. I thought 'that does not look good', at which point the Transit seemed to pull away even faster and I was gaining on the now un-hitched tar boiler, I slammed on the anchors followed by the hazards. The boiler continued on its way aided by the slight downward incline of the road, it veered to the left crossing me in lane two, into lane one and then back across all three lanes before crossing onto the central reservation and bouncing off the armco. By now it had lost a lot of speed, but not enough to stop it as it again crossed all three lanes and the hard shoulder before coming to a rest on the verge. In all the excitement I lost interest in the Transit it was off into the distance, who knows how far they travelled before noticing that the poor old Ford was handling much better and was much more responsive than it was earlier that morning.

 

[fixerupper]

Many year ago when I lived in Dundee ,lorry carrying bags of cement lost it's load on the Tay bridge ...it was blowing a hooly and chucking it down and half a dozen police in uniform were trying to pickup the wet 50kg bags to clear the road...within seconds they were all coverd from head to toe in cement dust and then rain ..... jeff....

 

[Bill Edwards]

Skotl, I won't call you an idiot...

There can't be all that many people out there who've moved stuff around on the road without any of the 'oh ****' moments, it happens.
Sometimes more than once.

 

[Wallace]

I fitted gutter mounted roof bars to collect a roll of carpet on my Manta coupé and had a bit of a rip with a Renault 5 Turbo on the way, we had a quick chat at the lights as they could not catch me due to the Rover V8 engine & box. Met them on the way back with a 4m roll and they still couldn't keep up!

Went to the dump in our Volvo V40 T4 with the trailer on, chased a Jag V8 down the bypass on full chat and he had a big grin on his face as he reached the roundabout first but his jaw dropped when he saw the trailer!

 

[Bsmith]

On night shift and a big bing of 20mm round had come in to be used for re-bar, I only needed one and to go through the proper channels wasn't worth all the hassle, so, dragged one 22 foot length over to where my car was, lifted the end and tied it onto the towball, dragged it home along the road at around 5 in the morning, road was nice and quiet.

 

[fixerupper]

The gas bottle on a 50cc step through ....jeff...

 

[Tiggy_dorset]

Im 5ft 3in, my pillion passenger was 6ft 2in. I gave hm a lift home on the back of my Kawasaki Z200 with a gurt big microwave in his arms, and me hunched over the tank .
We got there in one piece and without getting pulled