Posted by Chris Jones on November 01, 2014 at 08:25:40 from (65.188.217.236):
Just felt like sharing.
I've get bunches of sewer and drain pipe (thin walled PVC) from time to time and sell it. It's 4" diameter and 20 foot long. People have traveled from 10 minutes to 2 hours away to get it from me. It's an interesting commentary on people, loading, and life.
They'll drive 1.5 hours in a Nissan Pathfinder and arrive with a bag of broken, pull tight straps and a couple ratcheting straps. Eagerly they choose 10 sections of pipe and bundle it into a circle with the two ratcheting straps then sit it across the top of the pathfinder on the little luggage rack. Next they notice they don't have anything usable to tie it to the vehicle. This fellow left the bundle and went to the HF store at my urging and bought 4 ratcheting straps and we used two to lash it to the rack. Since one corner of the rack was broken that strap went through the vehicles front doors--not the first time I've seen that done. The the other two straps at my suggestion were used to tie it down to the front and rear of the vehicle to keep the 20 foot sections from swiveling in interstate traffic while being perched on the 5 foot long luggage rack. It tied down pretty good.
I have mixed feeling about being involved in loading. If I leave it up to them I guess I will not be liable. If they seem clueless it's hard to let them go with something I know is a terrible idea--kinda feels like telling a guy who's been falling off his bar stool all night that I'm not taking responsibility for his driving so it's his call as he's getting in his car.
I usually stress several time to people loading stuff that my suggestions are just my opinion and they need to decide if it's secure enough. But this fellow spoke broken English--words might not help. Still I told him and his wife "drive carefully" and "watch the straps". I'm confident they'll have plenty of warning before it becomes a danger to others. I'm less confident as to how the luggage rack will hold up. Oddly the wife seemed to know her way around ratchet straps etc but her husband was clueless--I'm glad she was along for the drive.
I've seen everything though from twine to packing tape used. Several luggage rack jobs. A 6 foot bed pickup with the pipe stuck in over the tailgate and up under a toolbox. A couple 16 foot trailers. the two ramp kind work great for hanging off front and back a bit but one had a full width mesh tailgate--the pipe went from the front of the trailer up in the air and over the top of the tailgate which was over 6 foot high. I joked it looked like a giant race car spoiler and he'd get a lot of good down pressure on that trailer in the wind for traction. :) One guy wasn't messing around--he showed up in his employers straight truck with a 24 foot bed with 4 truck mounted ratchet tie-downs that could have held concrete pipe.
Worst job ever was the heavy, big, piece of crap home made lawn/garden trailer I got as an unwanted part some lawn equipment at an estate sale. The guy who bought it from me sat it on it's wheels on top of his trailer (which had only 1 foot sides and only secured it with one piece of bailing twine from the tongue of the lawn trailer to the front of his trailer. He jokingly insisted he knew the Mexican way of hauling things--he did appear Mexican, he spoke great English and seemed to understand when I told him if that trailer came loose in traffic it would be the most expensive trailer he ever bought. He had a 20-30 mile interstate trip ahead of him.
Lastly, let me say I have done and will probably do again stupid things. Special thanks to my guardian angel.
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