Chain them down

jon f mn

Well-known Member
This happened a couple years back today and thought it was worth sharing again. This tractor fell off the trailer on the left in front of me. Apperently he thought hauling it on a trailer just in gear was a good idea.
Check it out
 
I was getting a Case (model D I think) grain drill in Ohio, hit a rough piece of road, and the trailer bounced so hard the drill broke its strap! If it hadn't been strapped down no telling where that drill would have ended up.
 
I think it was late 1970's I was following a modular home section on the highway. When the trailer hit a bump the back end of the house jumped about a foot off the trailer. I got away from that!
 
Over the 38 years that I drove for a commercial carrier I have seen a lot of stuff not chained or strapped down. Myself personally I chain every thing down and have been told I over kill on chaining down.
 
I watched a truck pulling a trailer stop at a corner , on a slight incline. The trailer had a full size Case back hoe on . When the truck took off , the back hoe jumped off the back of the truck , and took off down the road for about 200 feet. Luck was with this guy that day , as there were no cars behind him. He started the hoe , and ran it back on the float, chained it down , and went on his way .
 
Have you ever followed a trash truck carrying a roll off bin and seen the bin bouncing up and down because it wasn't tied down in back? Time to back off.
 
Bought a tractor from a guy a couple miles down the road. He was fussing and couldn't understand why I was putting a chain on each corner.
 
May years ago at 5he traffic circle just up the road a guy was towing a trailer with one of those land scape dump trucks. Had a full size backhoe on it. Troubl was that the ars end of the truck was a good six feet in the air. The trailer with the backhoe firmly chained to it was sideways. And guess who didn't have a camera with him.
 
It's not just tractors that fall off trailers. We passed the aftermath of <a href="http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/249165105-story">this accident</a> on US-23 north of the Ohio state line on Monday. This is the second wreck I've seen in the past 20 years where a passenger car hit a coil of steel that fell off a semi trailer. The car driver survived the first one somehow, although there wasn't much left of his car. This time the victim wasn't so lucky.
 
In town yesterday and saw where a truck had left 2x4s and plywood in the street. Obviously not tied down and he must have really got on the throttle because it was on a downhill grade . Wonder how far he got before realized it was gone. He was nowhere in sight.
 
I saw that before. I only had my little car. If I had a truck I would of loaded it up for them. ( or ME lol )
 
Just saw a guy hauling big round bales last week on a trailer behind his pickup - NOT strapped down at all... and he was cruizin' right along too. :(
 
Even just a load binder falling off your trailer at highway speed can cause a ton of damage. Worth the time to do a good job.
 
I watched your other "Idiot" video right after that one. Why do drivers coming up the on ramp think that someone already on the highway has to pull over or slow down to make a space for them to get in?
 
Not wanting to brag about it, but this happened to me. I had a my MF 231 on my trailer. I Had the brakes set (worthless) This tractor has the worst brakes of any tractor I have owned. I had it chained front and back, probably not very tight. bouncing along to a job, the chains loosened . At a stop sign on a hill, I heard a crash, as my tractor rolled off my trailer. What little brakes it had, it stopped. I don't remember if it was in gear or not. I loaded it up again. It was a good lesson for me. Now I obey the rules and have it chained at four points. Stan
 
Well my funniest memory is the salesman at our tree company went to meet a customer. He pulls in the drive a slight incline. The customer was already outside and came over to the pickup. They talked a few minutes and the salesman got out of the truck. He left it running and walked around for a few minutes. Then he went over and reached through the window and shut the truck off. It took off down the drive and hit a tree. He had left it in drive and the automatic transmission was holding it in place. He was surprised as all get out.
 
About 40 years ago,I bought a TO 20 about 20 miles away. We picked it up in a friends feed hauling truck. Steel bed, steel sides and nowhere to tie to. The 3 of us may have had a couple of beers on the way. I took a piece of rope and tied it to the tractor and passed it in the window. I told my friend if it started pulling on me to touch the brakes and make it roll forward. We stopped to get gas and the man at the gas pump saw it and said you can't hold that tractor like that. I said it ain't rolled off yet. We probably didn't go 20 mph for the whole distance.
 
That is so common it's hard to even get mad anymore. Women are deffinately the worst for that.
 
Several years ago I was in St. Charles and saw a truck pulling a trailer with some paving equipment including a road roller on the rear of the trailer stop at a traffic ight, and whne it chnaged he took off in a hurry and as he did the roller came off the rear of the trailer and onto the street. It only moved a few feet and stopped, and the driver relaizing what had happened stopped and ran back to the roller and fired it up to drive to the trailer. As it went down the road I could hear a thump each round of the rollers.
 
A while back just as we were turning in to a restaurant drive here's this old lady coming down the drive backwards door open, one foot dragging on the pavement holding on to the steering wheel. Must of shut it off in drive.
 
My Great-Uncle was a trucker for 40+ years. One of his runs was hauling engines from the Mack Powertrain factory here in Hagerstown, MD to truck plant in Allentown (?), PA. Someone told me only the most trusted drivers got that run. One of his sayings I'll always remember is "Too many straps- nobody knows, Too few straps - EVERYBODY knows!"
 

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