Secure your load when towing or hauling.

I’m sure everyone has heard the news of the tragedy down in Rosemont where a landscape truck driver had what was reported to be an 800-pound boulder fall off of his truck and the result was the death of 2 people in the car behind him that collided with the boulder.

Truck driver arrested in deaths of Shoreview mother, daughter killed by tumbling boulder

Just a really, really tragic situation that IMO is a good reminder to all of us who tow or haul stuff. Secure the load!

About 10 years ago, my boss almost lost her husband after a guy towing a hot tub on a snowmobile trailer deposited the load right in front of him on the freeway at 70 MPH. The hot tub was secured with rotten twine, the driver throught the weight of the tub would hold it in place.

I’m sure we’ve all seen “that other guy” who’s hauling an ATV with no tie downs or a pile of landscape rock on a flatbed snowmobile trailer. I hope nobody here is that guy, but even when you make the effort to secure the load, make sure it’s REALLY secure and done right.

#1 issue I see all the time is not using straps that are weight rated for whatever they secure PLUS a good safety margin. Or not using enough straps or binders to hold the load in case of a sudden stop or swerve.

If you read the label, each tie down or strap will have a rating. A lot of the rinky-dink lightweight tiedown straps are only rated for 100-200 pounds! Totally inadequate for something like a snowmobile, ATV, or riding mower. Even having to suddenly stop or slow down could strain these straps and snap them. Yet I see these little straps used all the time on stuff that I know weighs WAY more than the strap rating.

I take a sharpie marker and write the weight rating on every tiedown I buy so there’s no mistaking what tie-downs/binders are right for the job.

If you’re hauling anything really heavy, rent or buy either chains or industrial duty load binding straps. I hauled a farm disc 2 years ago and I had to invest in 4 heavy duty load binders plus I rented 2 chain binders. The disk weighs almost 1000 pounds and no way was I going to take a chance on that baby coming off the flatbed.

Inspect your boat trailers, hitches, and everything else you tow or haul. Be careful out there. Losing a load or having something fly out of your boat at freeway speed is a very, very bad deal that could cost lives and put the driver in a world of ####. Don’t be that guy.

Grouse

well said.

Good post Grouse. Not only do those rinky-dink ratchet straps have light load ratings, they’re also junk and a PITA to use. I wish they would stop selling those cheap, lightweight, POS straps.

Tragic, I agree. People also need to be prepared for the worse. If you see someone pulling a trailer, don’t ride their a**. Every time I hook up to the boat, it never fails. That guy that’s on you, the whole entire time.

Great reminder Grouse! That one almost hit close to home. My niece was traveling down Rich Valley Road to soccer practice at DCTC about 15 minutes before the accident. It sent a shiver down my spine when my sister told me about it.

You covered it pretty well but I will add one thing, a ratcheting strap will be a better choice versus a pull tight strap. I’m still amazed that some trucking companies come into our company and secure a 1-2,000 pound machine with pull tight straps. I tell them nothing is leaving our facility with a strap like that. I send them up the road to a road equipment company to get the proper straps and if they don’t want to do that we call another freight company. Our machine is not going to come loose and potentially kill someone, end of conversation.

I agree!!

Good reason not to tailgate!!

Not to take away from the awareness of properly tieing a load down.

You might want to read the story… She wasn’t tailgating. The truck was going south bound and the car was traveling north bound and when the rock dislodged from going over RR tracks it bounced into the north bound lane striking the car.

David Blais wrote:

Tragic, I agree. People also need to be prepared for the worse. If you see someone pulling a trailer, don’t ride their a**. Every time I hook up to the boat, it never fails. That guy that’s on you, the whole entire time.

A lot of problems can be avoided by just allowing some room and paying attention to the road and what’s happening on it. A number of years ago I helped a friend swap out a 390 ford engine/transmission in a pickup. The used engine was delivered and part of the sales agreement was that the one removed would be brought back to the parts place. We set the old engine/trans unit in the back of the truck when we got the swap wound up, chained it in placed and closed the gate. On the way to the scrap yard some idiot decided he like riding the bumper. We came on a red light and slowed very slowly what with the engine held by some chain but the dick behind us didn’t stop and piled smack into the rear of the truck. Foreign car. The gate was ripped open from the impact and the chains snapped. That small car had a 390 with a transmission stuck right through the windshield. Our vehicle was cleared but those two fools in the other car didn’t fare as well.

I saw this on the news last night about the rock ordeal and really feel for those families that have lost members to this. I certainly would not want to be that truck driver. Sad, sad thing to have happen.

blank wrote:

Not only do those rinky-dink ratchet straps have light load ratings, they’re also junk and a PITA to use. I wish they would stop selling those cheap, lightweight, POS straps.

What makes so many of these little ratchet straps dangerous is there is a WIDE variety of load ratings, but they all look the same.

I’ve seen ones rated for as little as 100 pounds, but they look very, very similar to ones rated for 250 pounds. I think this causes confusion and people think a strap is a strap, they’re all the same. No way.

I see ATVs all the time strapped down to trailers and I can just tell the straps are not even close to heavy enough to keep that thing on a trailer in the event of a sudden stop. Plus so many guys use only 2 straps per ATV, not near enough if they aren’t rated for 1000 pounds or more each.

Grouse

Good post, the rinky dink straps aren’t much cheaper than a few straps rated for 1500lbs in all reality. Binders and chain is a little spendy but I keep a couple in the truck always. When in doubt add another strap to it is my motto.

Thanks for sharing, Grouse. The tragedy hits close as I travel that road quite a bit.

The thing I see the most is UTV/SXS’s not properly loaded or secured. With the HUGE increase in UTV/SXS sales, it’s something that has become more and more common. People don’t realize that not a single SXS on the market is legal to be trailered sideways, that includes the new Honda Pioneer 500 (over by 1/2″).

I also see people loading 1,300-2,000lb SXS’s with the dinky 1-1.5″ ratchet straps…Those straps generally have a working load rating of 600-1,000lbs…A good safety measure is to make sure your working load rating EXCEEDS the weight of what you’re securing. Breaking strength should have no room in this equation.

I secure my 500lb ATV with 2″ Polyester straps, even if it’s in the bed of my truck. There’s no guarantee the hooks in the bed will hold in the event of a roll-over, but the straps should!

My mom was nearly killed years ago when a semi trailer driver didn’t secure down a load or rear ends he was hauling on a flatbed. One bounced over her van and the other hit the van head on but low enough it just smashed the van. A few feet sooner and it would’ve gone through the windshield.

I have a checklist whenever I haul anything. Too many times we load a boat or trailer in haste and since it’s been done a million times things get missed. I physically touch every connection point as I walk around the trailer and truck. There have been a couple times I’ve forgotten to secure things and without a system it could’ve been bad.

So speaking of ATVs, I’ve always strapped the wheeler down with running the strap up and over the racks which compresses the suspension and feels like it’s secured very well. I see a lot of ATVs that just connect to the hitch and often times you can see the straps are a little loose. What do others do?

Also, a twist or two in the strap is important to avoid it vibrating in the wind and thus loosening.

Very good advice guys. Don’t take a shortcut. I know I am guilty of doing it in the past and thankfully nothing ever happened, but I have never done it recently as in my adult life after kids. I agree 100% though that some of these ratchet straps are complete junk.
I need to get some new ones, the ones I have rusted and are difficult to ratchet.

blank wrote:

What do others do?

The best and most secure way is actually with tire bonnets, but most don’t use them. The theory behind that is it allows full articulation of the suspension and not allow it to tighten or loosen the strap over bumps. It surely makes the machine look loose from the naked eye, specially if the suspension is plush, but it’s tight.

The next best option is low in the frame or in the suspension components at a 45 degree angle. I try to use 4 to secure a machine, but sometimes only use 3. And yes, a twist or two keeps them from singing the song of their people all the way to your destination.

NEVER NEVER NEVER use a machines winch to secure your machine. It creates incredible stress on your winch’s brake and is not even close to safe.

One last thing. Your parking brake does NOTHING but put excessive stress on the machine. Keep the machine in neutral and use the straps to keep the machine in place, not the brake. If you absolutely have to have the parking brake on, engage it AFTER securing with straps.

I worked for a company years ago where we would haul 5 to 7 cars in a trailer at a time. I’m not discrediting the tire bonnets, but if you can secure the suspension you should. We hauled road race cars with extremely tight suspensions and you would be amazed how much they moved and jostled around. My rule of thumb is always tie down the suspension if you can. Anytime you can minimize movement I would do it.

404 ERROR wrote:

Keep the machine in neutral and use the straps to keep the machine in place, not the brake.

I believe you mean keep the machine in PARK so the drivetrain is locked? On my 4 wheelers, park and neutral are two different things. Maybe not all wheelers have park?

I saw a safety chain on a boat trailer break once, you think a metal chain would always secure a boat-not so.
I had a truck in front of me on the freeway loose a load of bricks, some of those bricks were bouncing like rubber balls, lucky nobody (like me the guy right behind him) was hurt.
Ive seen inspection stickers on boats from like the sheriff, was’nt that a safety inspection?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Merican Eagle wrote:</div>
Keep the machine in neutral and use the straps to keep the machine in place, not the brake.

I believe you mean keep the machine in PARK so the drivetrain is locked? On my 4 wheelers, park and neutral are two different things. Maybe not all wheelers have park?

I’d rather keep it in neutral to prevent unnecessary wear on gears while trailered. You never know what might be happening internally on each bump. Park will do nothing to hold the machine in place in the event of a sudden movement.

David Blais wrote:

Tragic, I agree. People also need to be prepared for the worse. If you see someone pulling a trailer, don’t ride their a**. Every time I hook up to the boat, it never fails. That guy that’s on you, the whole entire time.

Sometimes I don’t know weather I’m towing a 3rd unit or if the guy behind me is trying to push me?????

Another thing if you are hauling an atv/utv if you criss cross your tie straps. By that I mean tie the left corner of the unit to the right side of your trailer and vice versa for all four straps. That way it can’t move forward, backward, or side to side.

Hunting4Walleyes wrote:

You might want to read the story… She wasn’t tailgating. The truck was going south bound and the car was traveling north bound and when the rock dislodged from going over RR tracks it bounced into the north bound lane striking the car.

Did I say she was tailgating? It still is a good reason not to tailgate. Apprently someone was not tailgating allowing the rock to roll into the other lane.
Try not to read between the lines that are not there.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I believe you mean keep the machine in PARK so the drivetrain is locked? On my 4 wheelers, park and neutral are two different things. Maybe not all wheelers have park?

No, I mean neutral. Park engages the park in the transmission which creates some nasty scenarios in the transmission of the machine with constant jostling while traveling. If used while stationary, it’s great. Not so much while on a trailer. Similar to why using a winch as a secure point is a bad idea.

If your machine happens to fall off the trailer while in park, you better believe you will have one HECK of a maraca to play with between broken gears and other internals.

404 ERROR wrote:

If your machine happens to fall off the trailer while in park, you better believe you will have one HECK of a maraca to play with between broken gears and other internals.

If it falls off I don’t think it gonna matter which gear it’s in…LOL

But seriously, sad story. Secure your load. Putting it in park is just fine, you ain’t gonna ruin anything. Putting it in neutral is just fine. Just secure it!…and that goes for misc items within your ATV or boat as well.

Very good post. I cut concrete for a living and we pull lots of big equipment. It’s amazing how many people who pull trailers are not trained in ratings and strapping equipment and big saws in my case. I try to pass my knowledge even if I annoy them by telling them and re telling them. My good friend was nearly killed by a unsecure hot tub on a guys trailer that ended up coming off due to erratic driving

This morning was a very good example. A relatively large pre-cast company had a truck heading south on 52 this morning with about a dozen big pre-cast pipes all secured with ONE heavily frayed 2″ ratchet strap.

404 ERROR wrote:

This morning was a very good example. A relatively large pre-cast company had a truck heading south on 52 this morning with about a dozen big pre-cast pipes all secured with ONE heavily frayed 2″ ratchet strap.

Hopefully you called the state patrol? That sh!t should not be tolerated!

I have been using a product called LA Guard Dog for securing my ATV in the back of my truck. It looks like the picture below. I feel that its more secure than using regular straps since I need to haul with the tailgate down. I usually use a ratchet strap on the front too. Anyone think I would have trouble with this passing as a “legal” way to secure my ATV?

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   laguarddogwlogo.jpg
   

The neutral park debate has been hashed over on the atv forums. Securing an atv i would be looking at what the manufacturer recommends. Once a load leaves our plant , its the drivers responsibility to ensure it is secured properly. The driver does the strapping . Witnessed a load of 2x4s coming into Duluth on a flat bed driver made a right hand turn and the load shifted to the left,followed this guy for a number of miles before he finally pulled over . Surprised me he drove as far as he did . It looked like the steel banding was not as tight as it should be . the 2×4 bundles looked like a box of straws. At least the driver stopped .

Hunting4Walleyes wrote:

2 people in the car behind him that collided with the boulder.

Hisinker, I believe he was responding to the OP. (Just to be clear).

Either way it’s good to point out that this wasn’t a tailgating issue or even a following issue (as I thought it was when I read the story yesterday).

Just secure the load and shiuff shouldn’t happen.