Best way to secure this nonsense of a flatbed load?

You have to open the pic in a new tab to be able to magnify it, but each strap except for the first one, is belly wrapped. Notice how the bundles where the straps are, that the bundles are pulled inward? Also on magnification, you can see that each strap location, there is a double strap, meaning that the whole bunch were belly wrapped. Technically, belly wraps don't count for securement WLL, they are supposed to be more of an anti-separation technique to control movement outside of the belly wrap, rather than as a downward force, so this is what I might gig the driver for.

Tug Toy is right, that these bundles are supposed to be blocked/chocked between them, and then closed tightly. It's in the Rules. Drivers forget that although the shipper is reponsible for loading the freight, the driver is responsible for making sure the shipper loads it correctly according to the rules he's required to secure it by. Although these bundles are long, they are in no way, shape or form immune to movement and although this type of securement happens a lot, only if the driver gives a hoot, or knows better, will it be loaded otherwise.

These bundles look like they are forward enough to be counting on that headache rack to be the bulkhead stopping forward movement, but still should have two separate straps (not another belly wrap) to hold down on the front.

 

If the belly wraps are secured to the trailer on each end, why would they not count towards securement? Done properly they pull down just like a strap thrown straight across.

as for how to haul this particular load, it’s done right or not at all. The shipper can load the bundles touching and I will choke them together. They can put blocks in between the bundles and I will choke them. Or they can load the #### on someone else’s trailer.

you can Micky mouse around with weaving straps if you want to, but at the end of the day loading the bundles spaced out is done for one reason. It takes the least amount of effort. I do my best to not put myself at risk due to someone else’s laziness.

 

Just saw a flatbed with rebar on it like this today.I 10 EB coming into Houston.
He was on the shoulder,rebar up in the back of the cab.

 

Although I agree with the rest of your sentiments, and don't disagree that there isn't some downward pull on those belly (cinch) wraps, the primary purpose of those straps are to keep the freight together, so it's force is a sideward force, that doesn't really count as WLL, because of the 20% rule in:

(b) Performance criteria for devices to prevent vertical movement of loads that are not contained within the structure of the vehicle. Securement systems must provide a downward force equivalent to at least 20 percent of the weight of the article of cargo if the article is not fully contained within the structure of the vehicle. If the article is fully contained within the structure of the vehicle, it may be secured in accordance with § 393.106(b).

Notice that the requirement is for restraint of vertical movement, not expansion movement, which is the purpose of blocking, chocking, etc. A cinch wrap, which is what we're really talking about, doesn't pull purely downward, it pulls tranversely, thereby giving up most of it's downward pull WLL. Belly wrapping(strapping) on the other hand, is what securing a mid level tier refers to, but is still a strap over freight with the predominant purpose of using all of it's WLL to pull downward on the freight. If you think about it, the cinch wrap(belly wrap) is more of a banding structure, and as such it's primary duty is to restrain the load (in this case of bars) from outward movement. Not downward movement, which is why I was taught, and believe, not to count it toward WLL. Since the technique is NOT mentioned as a legitimate method of securement for any of the load types, it's purpose has to be looked at as a different aspect of the load securement tool kit regards preventing tipping, rolling, falling or shifting of cargo, which could affect the vehicle's stability or maneuverability, and cause loss of the load.

 

I see your thinking but do not agree. You take a fully tight belly wrap that goes over, under, and back over without overlapping itself, as pictured. It provides just as much down pressure, assuming the load is slick enough for the strap to properly tension itself. Sometimes I’ll put both ends of the strap into a winch on each side of the trailer. In the second picture, those chains are pulling down just as much as that strap is.

 

Love how "in God we trust" is right above the crappy securement

 

We haul all sizes of pipe from Houston to Prudhoe Bay AK.We have 20 winches on both sides of our flatbeds so we winch both ends of the straps,belly wrap every layer of pipe if layered.
Canada has some stricter securement rules than the US.They require belly wraps.Special rules for securing big hydraulic cylinders.
It's pretty rare to have anything come loose on our trailers.
I've seen a lot of sketchy loads around Houston.Saw some pipe in the back of the cab on a truck on the BW 8 about a month ago.

 

Super common in the rebar plants. Then they have a temper tantrum when you put blocks in between them. I used to avoid hauling it like the plague for this reason alone. But l used to use higher lumber for the front and rear dunnage. I always had 2 milk crates full of 12" 3x3 blocks. I would hammer them in after the fact if the crane operator wouldn't let me do it as they loaded it. In that load l would have tried to get them to load 3 across the bottom and 1 on top . That way the dunnage would have pushed down on all three when you strapped it down. That's usually good for another melt down by the crane operator at a rebar mill. Can you tell l really didn't like loading at rebar mills?

 

That's fine that you see my logic, and we'll have to agree to disagree. Every place I've worked, whatever I was hauling, was done this way either by the shipper or my insistence (that they be brought together, touching), so they could be belly/cinch wrapped at a minimum of two places, but I didn't count those as WLL in my computations, as I was taught, and because (mostly) I couldn't find any legal reference to it. They taught us that way, because they'd had drivers gigged for it before, and as you know, it only takes one DOT inspector to quote that there is no legal reference to that style, to invalidate your load securement values.

Fortunately, like me, you tend to over secure anyway, so in that regard, it makes our disagreement moot.
We both got the job done safely and securely. My concern goes to the load that only does that, or the driver was just too lackadaisical or lazy to go the extra mile, or the one officer that cites that, and I can't find a cite to counter it.