Vee Boards

So because of where I live my DM told me get used to hauling sheet rock. I love 11 miles from plaster city.

My question is what is the best type of Vee boards to use and where is the best place to buy them.

My company provided a bunch of 6 foot long old wooden POS ones. I saw some guy using some nice plastic ones that looked like maybe 12 inches and a cool tool for installing them which seemed to save a crap load of time over crawling up the load after they were done. I didn't get the chance to ask him about it though

Thank you

Next time you haul out of one of those places ask if they have any of their own edge protectors. I know Georgia pacific has the little cardboard ones which aren't great but butter than nothing. You can also get some from pilot if you've hit the lottery recently. Another thing you can so is ask fellow drivers of they have any they don't need, you'd be surprised. As a last resort you could just skip on them entirely and lightly tighten your straps. But as you know, doesn't take much to damage that stuff.

The plastic ones can get very pricey those old wooden pos ones might not look pretty but they do the job just fine.

If you want to buy the plastic ones, most truck stops sell the smaller ones or go online for flatbed trucking supplies and you can buy the wider ones. As far as a tool to place them, 1/2 inch pvc pipe about 4-5 feet long and just cut a slit in one end.

I always liked the plastic ones that are about a foot long. Will your company supply them for you? They probably should.

The PVC pipe trick works great. Depending on how tall you are, it only has to be about 18 inches or 2 feet long. You can buy a 10' long piece of PVC pipe an inch or inch and a half in diameter for about $2 at Lowe's or Home Depot. Cut it into two pieces, one 8 feet long, one 2 feet long. The short one is the one you saw a slot into for putting corners up on your drywall loads. The long one is for pushing belly straps through layers of PVC pipe.

I have hauled a few loads of drywall without any edge protectors by tarping first, then strapping. You only need to tighten the straps so much, not as much as you can, or you'll damage the top layer or two of product.

The best way I found to gauge how tight is enough on that stuff is to crank the winch till the strap is sort of tight. Then put your left hand under the strap against the drywall, and tighten it with your right hand. When the strap is pressing your left hand against the drywall, that's tight enough. That stuff won't go anywhere when you've got it that tight.

P.S. That plant at Plaster City was slow to load every time I went there, and it's always hot (as I'm sure you know). Bring lots of water and something to do. The road to the plant is a little rough coming from the west. Last time I was there I thought to myself, next time I'm going to drive a few extra miles and come in to the plant from the east.

Thank you to everyone for the replies. I'll have to try the PVC thing out. Yes, the old wooden ones I have do work fine but I can not place them and strap my load while being loaded because I have to get on top of load or use a ladder. My company did supply some plastic ones but are only about 6 inches wide. I figured for drywall that they should be at least 12 inches wide.

I came up with my own little 5in1 contraption. With a cheap extendable paint pole and a custom bent cheap paint roller, I can place edge protectors, push/pull belly straps, pull tarps, and pull chains through wire spools Etc. Total cost like $7

Yeah I really like the wider ones and over time I've been able to acquire a collection of them...,found some on the roadside, some left at job sites etc....Those smaller ones will work though as the tension on your straps for drywall just needs to be pretty snug. If you get it to tight it's really easy to damage it even with the wide ones.

Thank you to everyone for the replies. I'll have to try the PVC thing out. Yes, the old wooden ones I have do work fine but I can not place them and strap my load while being loaded because I have to get on top of load or use a ladder. My company did supply some plastic ones but are only about 6 inches wide. I figured for drywall that they should be at least 12 inches wide.

We use a paint roller handle as well on a long broom stick or extendable pole no more than 6 feet. I don't have a picture but we remove the roll holding assembly and don't bend the wire, leave it as is it works great for the wooden edge protectors we use or the plastic ones as well. The wood protectors are made with 2 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood held together with 2 lengths of old strap with about 1-1/2 inches apart, the boards are about 6 or 8 inches by 12 inches. place the protectors on the ground and pick it up with the tool and slip it under the strap on the hooked side first then go to the winch side and pull the slack out of the strap and put the edge protectors under the strap then tighten.