Hauling stone: How safe do you think it is?

Used to do a lot of work out of quarries, and places that ship all kinds of stone, on a flatbed.

Sometimes a load is in a crate, but most times its loose on a pallet.

It is very difficult to secure a load like that. I quit hauling these loads, because I personally felt its way too dangerous to the motoring public.

Doesnt seem that it stopped most people from hauling these loads though.

The shipper can take better care of packaging these loads, but of course that would be more expensive for them, so they do nothing.

I'm sure some of you have seen these loads going down the highway.
Its scary to watch.

[Foxfire]

I loaded out of Whitestone, Ga. one time. And once was plenty for me. No way was I gonna haul those rocks in bags laying on a pallet with just a strap over them like I was seeing. I dragged out my steel tarp and covered them and used every bungie I could find to tie it down. When I got that load to Houston I was one happy camper! Just getting out of the quarry was a miracle! You started off at the bottom of a steep grade and then it leveled off and went into another steep grade. Right at the top of that one you came to the road out of there. Four lane road with a small medium and a curve on either side of you. All this while you are hanging on the side of that hill. And traffic like you see on the Watermelon 500! Well I finally just bulldozed my way out. Yup! I brought all 4 lanes to a halt. No other way to do it. And I made myself a solemn vow................NEVER go back to Whitestone, Ga!

Sometimes I would also tarp my load, but most times the stone had real sharp edges, and would rip the tarp. :yikes:

Sometimes the pallets would be wrapped with wire which wasnt to bad.

[LugNut]

I've seen them just sat on the deck of the trailer and then strapped. I followed one driver with a load like that for a while and I could see the straps coming loose as the stones vibrated. It's not a safe thing at all. Or it atleast doesn't look safe. But another question is how many accidents happen to these guys? I dont recall ever hearing of one.

There was an article in Landline this month, about hauling granite on A frames..I'll quote some of it tomorrow, when I get the energy to do it.. :zzz:

[Running Scared]

Many years ago, the flatbed company I drove here in San Antonio kept us busy in the slow times by hauling granit boulders....we could only haul one.... each weighed 45k-48k.
The quarry guys knew where to place it on the trailer so you could axle out ok, but strapping and chaining one down was something else. I used to "criss-cross" the chains front to back, on the floor and over the top. The straps would go from side to side.(bellystrap)
Since these rocks were going somewhere on the Texas coast it did not matter if we chipped one with the chains.
I made it a point to stop every 50 miles or so to check and re-tighten if nessessary.
You can never be to safe!
These loads had about a "10" on the pucker scale!! :yikes: