Profile For Anthony M.

Whats up guys,

I've been "lurking" as you guys call it on here since April and I had a few questions I wanted to ask to I figured I'd finally make an account.

A little bit about me: I want to get into flatbed work and maybe eventually into a heavy-haul type of gig. Not sure though. The only thing I'm certain of is I want to do flatbed work. I am 24, originally from Queens, NY, and been in South Florida since 09 and I've been in the mortgage industry since i first came to Florida. Office work is not for me but in South Florida, office work is pretty much the only type of work where you will get paid decent money. As in not 10 or 11$ an hour. South Florida might also be the single worst place in the lower 48 to get hired on as a rookie driver for a flatbed company so I am planning on moving to Texas to an area just outside of Houston which will put me in a pretty good place I feel to get hired on somewhere. It's also where my wife's favorite sister moved to with her family so it will work out for both of us. I figure if i have to be OTR at least her family is nearby. Exxon is also moving their corporate offices to Houston very soon and will open up some 5-8k jobs which will hopefully work out for my wife as well. Consensus is that most rookie cdl holders will probably have to go OTR to get their start. There are the few exceptions I've seen on here but for the most part, it seems OTR is inevitable. Which is fine with me. I'm a go-getter and whatever it takes, I will do. Now with that being said I respect you OTR guys but I would much rather drive mon thru fri and have weekends home or maybe work my 14hr clock everyday but take my 10 hours at home or anything similar simply because i just rather sleep at home and see my wife everyday if even for 20 mins rather than sleep in the truck for weeks but with being off comes with the wheels not rolling which means no money and defeats the purpose at that point. So hopefully I can put my plan in motion. I'm shooting for moving to Texas in March of 2015 when my lease it up here in FL. Hopefully this time next year, i'll be behind the wheel!. Went on kind of a rant just now lol

To my question which I direct at OldSchool, Pat M., Winetaster, and anyone else who might have knowledge on the subject of proper securement procedures:

My understanding is that a direct tie down means the chain goes from one side on the trailer, through the eye hole or whatever securement point there is and gets tied down back the the same side on the trailer with necessary binders, etc. Whereas, an In-direct is chain from one side, through the securement point and continuing through to the other side of the trailer where it is tied down. Assuming that is correct let me paint this picture and you guys tell me what you think.

A piece of equipment has two eye holes in the center front about 1.5-2ft above the deck. I take my chain, hook it to one side and run in through both eyes holes to the other side and hook it in respective stake pocket or to chain pocket or what have you. Now, in between the eye holes which are probably 1 ft apart, the chain is loose and hanging down. So I now take a binder and hook one end to the slack hanging in between the two eye holes and also hook a part of the chain down by where the chain itself is hooked into the stake pocket and I ratchet that tight. I repeat the process on the other side, with grabbing the remaining slack with one hook on the binder and grabbing a link down by where the chain is hooked in.

I now have a binder on each side of the same chain and there is still slack in the middle but its just useless excess chain. So my questions are this. Is it ok to put two binders on the same chain rather than having one binder per chain? The way I look at it, is by putting the two binders the chain is isolated and being pulled in each respective direction thus, to me, making it a direct tie down on each side and halving the WLL. Is that correct? Is this a normal practice? or should you use 1 binder per chain?

Also, will the DOT get ****ed for having loose chain laying on the middle of the deck even though it isn't long enough to comes of the sides or hit anything?

I know the books and reading materials might say one thing, but i've found that real life experience differs almost entirely of what you learn in the books on any subject really. Books give you the initial knowledge needed but hands-on real world "doing" get you the real knowledge and tricks of the the trade. So yea i was just wondering what you guys though. I appreciate any insight you can give. Thanks