tying down a tractor

I have a debate going on with a friend. When I haul anything, I always try to have the binders or the ratchets on the left side of the trailer so I can see them better to spot problems. My friend always puts them on the right side for safety if he has to a just them while on the road. What do the good people of YT prefer?
 
Left side. The binder's extra weight on the chain will be where the chain sags if it's loose and you want the sag where you can see it best in the mirror. For checking, pull way off the road, not just on the shoulder.
 
The DOT does not want one chain or strap run thru and tied down with one binder or ratchet they want four ,one on each corner with its own chain or strap and its own binder or ratchet
 
(quoted from post at 20:24:30 09/30/14) The DOT does not want one chain or strap run thru and tied down with one binder or ratchet they want four ,one on each corner with its own chain or strap and its own binder or ratchet

DOT only requires 4 over 10k.
 
I always boomer my chains tight. Fasten (wire)the handels so they can't release. Transport tractor in gear and with brakes set. Always travel a short distance and stop to re-check for tightness. In my honest opinion, I think it is safer to be able to see the chain boomers in your driver side mirror. Harder to see in right side mirror. The safety issue I think is noticing something loose ASAP and getting pulled off the road. Not going down the road with loose chains/straps because you think its OK just because they are on the oposite side of trailor and away from on-comeing traffic. My 2 cents.
 
I chain and binder all four corners, wrap the extra chain around the binder handle, then use a tarp strap wrapped around that to keep the chain around the binder.
 
When we hauled combines we of course had one on each corner, but we also cross chained to keep the combine from squirming. 8 chains per machine. Binders were double wired, the DOT does not like a chain wrapped around the handle. One wire through a binder handle might still break and let the handle fly if the combine squishes down on the tires on a big bump making a chain go slack and then springs back up and slams the chain tight. Tractors are a piece of cake.
 
I know that the DOT only requires 4 chains on loads over 10,000#, I use 4 separate chains on ALL of my tractors. I'd much rather have that DOT guy look at my trailer and say he's OK, 4 chains is overkill, than get stopped. If he stops you he'll find something wrong.
 
I run a chain on all 4 corner with lever binders. I wrap chain around binder and secury it. I have never had a chain or binder come loose. I made my own bar for tighting binders and it's about 4 foot long. I pull my binder down till tires on tractor squat.
 
Even under 10k I fell safer with a chain on all 4 corners. If you use a single chain on back of tractor and it breaks there is noting to stop it from going foreward. With chain on all four corners if one chain breaks or comes loose you still have the other one to keep it from moving.
 
Not to step on toes, but I wouldn't haul a riding mower with just one chain in front and one in back. A single failure will cost you the tractor at the least, and a whole lot more at the worst. I use 4 inch ratchet straps with chain leads on all four corners. I normally haul two tractors to the pulls, so that means 8 straps, brakes locked and in gear. The straps also give just enough to prevent banging, and they don't loosen up. Nothing against chains, but I would still use 4 per tractor.
 
I am sure it was no one here, but I followed a nice shinny JD on it s way to the Hamilton IL show a few weeks ago. One chain on the front two binders, the rear had one chain run through a clevis with one binder. The bad thing was the rear chain was run from the last stake pocket up to the tractor and back to the other rear. You will not believe how much the chains were jumping,it was easy to see how a chain can break. I am not saying I have never done the same thing, but now there is no way I will tie down with out four crossed chains and four binders(I am buying ratchet style, if it is good enough for the Army)
 
I was told by a trucker that they want the boomers or binders on the right side. then if you have to adjust them you are away from traffic.
and the boomers now must be the ratchet style.
boy I hate them things, not like grabbing a snip and tightening them good, fast and simple. now have to make sure threads are clean and lubed. and the damm chain wants to turn while tightening them. too many dummies getting hurt with the lever type so now safety first with these goofy ones.
 
I haul mine with binders on all four corners.
Check your local requirements.
Ours recently changed to require ratchet style binders.
Probably because of all the half locked ones I've seen used.
 
As a flatbed truck driver, I learned a long time ago. No one ever got a ticket for using more devices to secure the load than required. My wife calls me the eternal boyscout because I always go prepared, and
I over secure everything. I sleep well at night knowing that I do my best to be safe.
Tim in OR
 
(quoted from post at 00:28:05 10/01/14) I haul mine with binders on all four corners.
Check your local requirements.
Ours recently changed to require ratchet style binders.
Probably because of all the half locked ones I've seen used.

Can you show the new law that states racthet only, l don't see it in any of my DOT stuff
 
Be careful out there, a local truck driver was killed checking his binders on an interstate. With DOT rules seems like you need em on both sides over 10K.
 
(quoted from post at 20:42:42 09/30/14) Why only ratchet binders ? The new lever binders have a locking pin to keep them from poping open.

Because they're easier to get tight without risking life and limb.

Too get a boomer tight, it always seems like you have to apply an excessive amount of force. When you slip, that cheater pipe you were using can come back and catch you right in the mouth/face/head.
 
I have always used lever binders and with the right cheater bar and it takes no excessive force to get them tight.If you get hit by a cheater bar than you don't know how to use it. You never put yourself in the direction where the bar can hit you if it snaps. I have seen so many guys useing lever binder and stand in the way that if that binder snaps loose they get hit.
 
I have looked to and can't find any. The only thing I see now at some of the supplies of chains and binders is there is new lever binder with a safety pin.
 
Since I've been retired for going on 5 years now, I thought maybe some regs had changed on this stuff. So I went to the FMSCA regs, section 393.100 is where load securement starts, and I looked. I see nothing that requires the binders be ratcheting, nothing requiring they be on any particular side and nothing saying anything at all about wrapping the chain around the binder. IOW, nothing appears to have changed according to the FMCSA site http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/393.100 Everyone is free to go there and look all they want. It could be proposed changes that are coming are what's being talked about or it could be state law. And don't forget the FMCSA rules and regs only apply to Commercial Motor Vehicles.
 
(quoted from post at 06:13:00 10/01/14)
(quoted from post at 00:28:05 10/01/14) I haul mine with binders on all four corners.
Check your local requirements.
Ours recently changed to require ratchet style binders.
Probably because of all the half locked ones I've seen used.

Can you show the new law that states racthet only, l don't see it in any of my DOT stuff
I have never tried to look it up, just repeating what the nice officer who gave me the warning told me.
I was talking to a friend who owns an excavating business about it shortly afterward who said he
had just had to buy all new binders because of the same new change.
I don't know if it is local, state, etc. which is why I suggested checking local requirements.
I do not haul commercially, just a local guy hauling his own tractors.
 
not really, if you know what your doing. it don't take much of a pull with a 2 ft snip. some people want to stretch the chain links I think.
 
The owner of the combines I worked with did not like ratchet binders. He claimed they weren't strong enough but I think it was because they require some cleaning and oiling. Over center binders are more maintenance free and when you have about forty of them in the rain and weather all summer I suppose I can see why he preferred them.

I personally like the ratchet binders. They don't require as much room to operate. Laying under a combine in an aqward position while pulling on a snipe that hits a wheel or frame member before the binder goes over center is frustrating, and dangerous too if the binder twists and lets go while you are trying to sneak the snipe around something. Combines on big squishy tires are hard to pull down tight enough to keep them from bouncing. We usually have more room to swing a snipe when we chain down tractors. Jim
 

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