Flatbed Variety

By the way, it is the largest thread on this site. Daniel B used to have that distinction and even tried to have his Russian hackers break in and delete everything. But alas, Brett and his Romanian security team did their job and thwarted their efforts. Daniel has since given up and took to pulling thermos bottles.

Yeah, I forgot to put smilies in that post so Pat and Old School would know I was kidding. But I think they know that anyway. I hope so anyway. I'm heading to Montana tomorrow afternoon and wouldn't want to get run over by Pat at the fuel island in Billings.

By the way, I met Daniel B. briefly a few weeks ago when I was in Cali. He showed me his rig and all the plumbing that is attached to it. (I'm talking about his truck, guys!) Then he rolled out of the '49er at about 30 mph -- and that was before he got to the street!

When I went back to finish my meal at the Silver Spoon, this guy in a black leather jacket with a heavy Russian accent said, "Let me see phone pliss." I figured he was trying to steal it so I couldn't post any more to this thread, so I told him, "No way, Jose!" He was rearing back to hit me with his big ham of a fist when another guy in a black leather jacket grabbed him and hissed, "Bulgarians here!" He jerked his head in the direction of a couple of guys at the end of the counter and hustled his friend out the door before I got whacked.

Thanks, Brett!

Your lucky, I will be in the NW corner up in Browning tomorrow. Be back in Helena tomorrow night though.

I'd really like to see how Old School does it (I don't mean pictures of pulling the sides of the Conestoga back either, OS!) since he's what's known as "hard core" and a "super trucker." I'm sure I could learn some things from him.

"Mr. Hard Core Super Trucker" checking in here... We knew you were having fun with us even without all those smiles being plastered all over the place.

Bud, I really enjoyed your step by step instructions with photos - that was a lot to put together and was very informative. I can't add a thing. I love the way you anchored four corners with bungees and rolled the side down toward the wind first. Those are both techniques that I employ, and are very useful. I have been in some places where a strong wind was blowing and the other flat-bedders couldn't seem to "git er done" without help, but those two things alone can help a lot. It is a little extra work but it is easier than chasing your tarp down two or three times before you get it to cooperate.

Don't know if it counts as flat bed but it's a ready mix concrete truck hauls about 18 yards I will be driving one in bout 2 weeks

Jason wrote:

Don't know if it counts as flat bed but it's a ready mix concrete truck hauls about 18 yards I will be driving one in bout 2 weeks

Jason that is a bad-a** rig. Good luck with it.

A couple of my last loads for this company.... yeah yeah yeah one is a box... (shudders) tough spot to get into with an office trailer behind and a big pile of gravel about 2 feet in front of the truck and the dumpsters. Not impossible but pretty tight construction area.

Just a little loader going home. I was stopped in Dupuyer at that bar and grill I posted about before. Had to get another brisket sandwich.

Here are a couple of loads from the last 4 months working with the new company. After 2.5 years with Knight Transportation and working with the SAPA dedicated account, I decided to find another flatbed job that would get a greater variety of loads and be able to go to the western states again.

I am currently working with a company that owns several trucks, but only two are leased to Long Haul Trucking. So I have gone from a major fleet to a 2 truck company, leased to a company with 350 trucks (around 100 company drivers and 250 O/O).

On to the loads...

This is a load of glass panes for a commercial building. The panes are secured in a wooden frame, then the loaders nail cross pieces to the deck and build an A-Frame to hold the crates in place. Depending on the length, each row gets 2-3 straps.

These are railway "frogs", the first stop loaded these four, the second stop added 3 more smaller ones and one switch rail. The total load was 43,000 and 40 foot long. When I had finished securing it the way I liked it, I had on 10 chains (4700 wll each) and eight straps (5400 wll each).

I also got to haul a forklift. When I arrived for loading, the loaders said that there was no way it was going to fit. After some measuring and encouragement, I got them to drive it on. I had to rock the sliding top from side to side to get it past the bulge of the tires.

A lot of coils of different sizes and shapes. There are 7 coils on this load. Two, 18" wide coils in the middle and 1 on the rear loaded suicide. The front has a stack of four coils, varying in width from 2 to 4 inches, loaded eye to the sky.

Four painted steel coils.

This are boxes of furniture and cabinets for a new Hampton Inn. The boxes didn't look this good after I got done strapping them in place. Crushed most of them and I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't delivering the boxes, just had to not damage the stuff inside. When I delivered them, the contractor dropped one of the boxes off the forklift. He didn't bat an eye, and scooped up the box and put in into the motel.

And finally, a couple of injection molding machines. Delivered these to a plant that makes plastic interior components for Nissan.

The company that I work for also owns a production company. Here is the last load I picked up with the flatbed before I switched trailers for a couple of weeks. I will start another thread with those pics.

Find the new thread "A break from flatbed" for the continued story.

Thanks for sharing the loads, Paul K.!

Here's a steel building I delivered to a job site today. It almost inspired me to make a backing practice thread, but I'm too tired after helping the guy get the load off. Took us a long time.

Here's a couple of pics of the place where it was unloaded. I really like the desert side of the LA basin. This is near Temecula.

My tarping allergies have been really bad the last 2 days... Picked up one load yesterday and delivered first thing this morning then went back and got another load that goes to Grand Junction area on Monday. Once I drop that I will pick up a load of lumber and take it to Denver and then load steel to bring back to Montana.

Anyhow, here is the first load of beaver feed.... or wood pellets. Not a bad tarp job for a rookie... And here is the load from today. The only difference is that yesterday's load had 4 pallets of presto logs where this one is all pellets.

Hey Old School, can I have your conestoga?