Ratchet strap fail

[Matt Young 63]

Last week I was hauling the c-121 back from my daughters softball practice (I used it to drag the diamond) and I made a right hand turn and stopped at the stop sign. As I made the left onto a non busy county road I watched in my right mirror as my horse decided it didn’t want to be trailered any longer. It rolled over 1 completely time and sat on its wheels. Unfortunately it broke some parts and tweaked the hood and deck lower-lift handle. I did manage to put it back on the trailer as a tripod and get it home. Always check your straps and rigging. Found the ratchet failed in my case. And unfortunately i cannot download a picture for this🤨

Edited August 1, 2018 by diddy78c
Picture

[WHX?? 48,813]

Dan's @Achto  brother Tim had a freshly painted mint Ford come off at highway speed and made a mess of things. I think it's time for a refresher  thread on proper trailering & tie down techniques.  

[CasualObserver 3,408]

Bummer @diddy78c and thankfully no one was injured in this event.  It does highlight the importance of checking and re-checking straps as well as inspecting and replacing worn or broken ones.  And for those people who think one of those dinky little 1 inch ratchet straps made by the cheapest bidder will hold a tractor well enough, please reconsider. Always at least two straps. Redundancy.... two hold downs.  God and Gravity don't count when it comes to keeping stuff secured to a trailer or even in the back of a truck!

[Achto 27,562]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Glad that there were no injuries. I use ratchet straps also but I shy away from "gadget straps" ( self retracting, no tag left to deal with, etc). Ratchets & straps are not the only things that can fail though. @WHX20 mentioned my brothers misfortune, the cause of his was a chain link that failed.

 

This pic was taken on Sun 7/22, right after we put it back together.

 

This one on Wed 7/25

 

Accidents can & will happen despite our every efforts. I hope yours is repairable @diddy78c

Edited August 1, 2018 by Achto

[Matt Young 63]

Definitely no fun, was he able to fix his

[oldredrider 2,548]

And this BEFORE strapping down...

 

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by oldredrider

[Achto 27,562]

33 minutes ago, diddy78c said:

Definitely no fun, was he able to fix his

This happened last Wed. On the look out for parts yet - broken rear axle housing, grill, steering column, dash parts & the list keeps growing. I think he would be better off looking for a roller instead of trying to piece it back to gether. 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 2,998]

2 hours ago, Achto said:

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Glad that there were no injuries. I use ratchet straps also but I shy away from "gadget straps" ( self retracting, no tag left to deal with, etc). Ratchets & straps are not the only things that can fail though. @WHX20 mentioned my brothers misfortune, the cause of his was a chain link that failed.

 

This pic was taken on Sun 7/21, right after we put it back together.

 

 

This one on Wed 7/25

 

 

Accidents can & will happen despite our every efforts. I hope yours is repairable @diddy78c

 

I think that would almost bring me to tears. All that hard work and then something like that happens. Sickening.

[peter lena 8,600]

see a lot of those junk straps on the back of suv,s barely holding on to a bike, coming from cape cod you have to see the tie down arrangements securing bikes going to new York. I never follow those people, I use cam lock straps on rafts and anything else without issues. pete

[rmaynard 15,434]

2 hours ago, oldredrider said:

And this BEFORE strapping down...

 

 

Hey, and I wasn't even drinking when that happened. 

[CasualObserver 3,408]

Just now, rmaynard said:

Hey, and I wasn't even drinking when that happened. 

 

probably did after though? 

[squonk 41,050]

I use at least 4 straps along with axle straps on every Horse that goes on the trailer. 

[WHX?? 48,813]

Yes Dan's bro was using a piece of chain that was welded by dad many years ago but was used many times before that might have weakened it. Guess you should never use things that have been monkeyed with. Heck even cold shuts have been known to open 

 

He also had it on a trailer behind his fit wheel camper so even worse he never knew it jumped off. He mentioned something about looking into those new fangled back up cameras to monitor. Not a bad idea.

 

On our way to the BS this year one of the safety chains came off the trailer hitch. These were even the good hooks with the safety spring over the hook. No idea how it came off but just goes to show ALWAYS check your rigging at gas stops and pee breaks.

 

Last couple of hauls I never evened tied down the horses but in an enclosed but maybe I should rethink my laziness. My open flatbed from work has sideboards and I didn't tie them down either thinking where they can go? They didn't move at all the way I had them wedged in. Should rethink that stupidness too.

Edited August 1, 2018 by WHX20

[Matt Young 63]

4 hours ago, peter lena said:

see a lot of those junk straps on the back of suv,s barely holding on to a bike, coming from cape cod you have to see the tie down arrangements securing bikes going to new York. I never follow those people, I use cam lock straps on rafts and anything else without issues. pete

I have had these straps 6 years none failed until that day

[Matt Young 63]

On a positive note I did get an old c-175 last Saturday 😎

[953 nut 55,155]

Any implements or small items like transmissions get hardwired to the trailer railing. Every  gets at least two straps tied to cleats bolted to the deck.

[19richie66 17,500]

I think I had two 2" ratchet straps and three 1-1/2" ratchet straps holding Skittles on the trailer to and from the show this year. I found that all the bouncing around on the interstate loosened even these up. Every time I stopped for gas or break, I tightened them up. Never can have enough security. I hope you guys get everything repaired. Best of luck,Richie

[ebinmaine 67,390]

Whether you guys are truck drivers like myself or not, I'm sure you're aware that there are minimum cargo retention laws placed by the federal government which are also over written by more strict or stringent laws by a lot of the states.

 

It sounds like those of you who use a lot of ratchet, (not pull to tighten!!), Type straps have definitely got your methods down and should be doing fine.

 

The company I work for focus is quite a bit on safety and trying to follow the rules most of the time and they actually require one additional strap on every unit than is required by the DOT. Sometimes this is a little challenging to accomplish but we do the best we can with what we have.

Please pay very very close attention to the working load limit or WLL that is on the tag of every single strap.

 

Rope is not legal.

 

Rubber cords are not legal.

 

 

[Matt Young 63]

1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

Whether you guys are truck drivers like myself or not, I'm sure you're aware that there are minimum cargo retention laws placed by the federal government which are also over written by more strict or stringent laws by a lot of the states.

 

It sounds like those of you who use a lot of ratchet, (not pull to tighten!!), Type straps have definitely got your methods down and should be doing fine.

 

The company I work for focus is quite a bit on safety and trying to follow the rules most of the time and they actually require one additional strap on every unit than is required by the DOT. Sometimes this is a little challenging to accomplish but we do the best we can with what we have.

Please pay very very close attention to the working load limit or WLL that is on the tag of every single strap.

 

Rope is not legal.

 

Rubber cords are not legal.

 

 

Sounds like you work for a similar company I did several years ago. I always try to look stuff over but apparently I missed it that day. But lessons learned no one was hurt, except the pocket book.

[Stormin 9,981]

  I have sides on my trailer and they give some peace of mind should anything come loose. I usually carry three tractors. All secured with ratchet straps front and rear. Tractor tyre sidewalls, front and rear, pulled up against the side.

  The roads up here are not the best and I check everything after the first 6 miles. 

[Matt Young 63]

Finally got her back together!

[cleat 5,905]

Good to see she survived.

 

Keep her better strapped on from now on .

 

Cleat

[Matt Young 63]

5 hours ago, cleat said:

Good to see she survived.

 

Keep her better strapped on from now on .

 

Cleat

Will do upgrades to my aging ratchet straps 

[Mudrig150 298]

One time when we were going to pick up one of my tractors the strap almost got tangled in the wheels of the trailer, and then the front pto cover, which has some SHARP edges almost flew off. We were on the highway for quite a while, so if that would've flown off, it definitely caused a crash or some form of damage.