I got a citation hauling firewood!

[bassman]

DID YOU SAY (24) TWENTY FOUR TICKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND YOU KNOWTHE LAW ? SHOUDA BEEN A COP ; 24 TICKETS ; STILL GOT INSURENCE???? WOWWWWWW :deadhorse:

I am 33 and that has been since i was 15 .
not all driving some parking and some that involved charges like leaving a tractor on a city street that was being used for landscaping.
I have never been in jail never driven drunk so no impared charges .
I keep all tickets .
My good friend is a cop.
yes i have insurance.

 

[ben14826]

is everyone as confused as i am?



but your first post says otherwise:

My point was that I was not aware that firewood was considered a loose cargo! I know that loose cargo like garbage or whatever has to be covered, but I NEVER knew taht firewood had to be covered. Seems everyone mistook my point on that.

 

[jrclen]

I drive slower than posted limits, Tarps just rip to shreds in a few miles, I never tarp anything, a cargo net would be more useful.

Get a better tarp. You're driving slow and the tarp is shredding? Sounds like a cop out to me. I buy the reinforced plastic tarps for cheap and haven't shredded one yet, even on the freeway. I bought 4 of those nylon straps with hooks and ratchets on them real cheap. I'm lucky, I cut in the back 40 and don't have to travel on the road but I see a lot of nimrods loosing stuff on the highway from the back of the pickup or out of the boat they are pulling. Everything from coolers to lawn chairs to lumber. Saw a guy loose a dozen sheets of drywall one day. Funny how that heavy stuff just jumped out of that utility trailer. I bet while he was buying new drywall he was wishing he had secured his load.

 

[osb_mail]

buy a nursery trap it they are mesh. Also people please dont follow behind slow moving vehicles if they can be safely passed it makes it harder for the person behind you to pass . Maybe you got the time to wait behind with your flasher on but the car behind might think they dont have time makes it scary when people are passing 2 slow moving vehicles instead of one .

 

[Mr. Firewood]

Tractor Supply has the mesh tarps for like $75, that is what I use

 

[Sprig]

instead of tarp for firewood use commercial fishnet

Bingo! Ya beat me to it! Works great with a few bungies!





And yu should see the wood I pick up every year from the sides of da road, no poop, this is stuff thats fallen off trucks, Big pieces, free but scary :biggrinbounce2:

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I only skimmed the the first few posts...but if you are operating professionally then US motor carrier codes (I think I'm phrasing it righy) require that the load be secure so that if you turn over it will not leave the trailer.

This is why you see larger trucks with the heavy tie-downs. The cargo net sugested above would work better, if it had proper tie down points.

Law enforcement is just concerned about one piece coming out, but what may happen if you have to jump on the breaks, over correct and your load goes all over the road.

 

[Dillon]

hauling firewood

I haul wood all the time with a one ton dump I throw the wood in and stack a rank a crossed the back and put a chain and binder a crossed it. I have never been pulled over for not being covered. Hauling this way I see no need for covering it. I haven’t seen any one around me that covers wood. my dad got pulled over one time for wood chips and bark blowing out of the back of his pickup they told him to clean it out and let him go. It was in the middle of the winter a the stuff had been laying in there all winter I had to beat it lose with a 10 pound maul it was so frozen I don’t think it was blowing out. The cop had fallowed him for 5 miles before he pulled him over right in front of the station.

 

[pyromaniac guy]

My point was that I was not aware that firewood was considered a loose cargo! I know that loose cargo like garbage or whatever has to be covered, but I NEVER knew taht firewood had to be covered. Seems everyone mistook my point on that.

be careful when you are back peddling that you don't trip over a piece of wood that fell outta your (uncovered) stack

 

[PWB]

A lot of stuff in this thread.............

Most of us don't meet the standard we should....... whoever said the load (or any part of it) has to be tied down well enough that it stays attached to the truck if it rolls was right. That means nothing loose in the box when you're not loaded (saws, gas cans,axes, shovels, spare tires etc.) I'm as guilty as the next guy, but most of my stuff is short distance/low speed/close to home/low traffic volume roads.

I was an owner/operator hauling flatbeds for about 10 years, once got an insecure load ticket for a loader bucket the the DOT wasn't happy with. Bucket weighed about 3000 lbs (load was 5 of them). 2 chains on each bucket, 5/16" grade 70 transport chain. 1 chain on one bucket was loose, he pointed it out to me while checking the truck. I thanked him for spotting it, and tightened the chain binder about 2 links. Everything else (and my attitude) was good. Still got the ticket. One chain would probably have kept the bucket on the truck in a rollover (rated for a lot more) but I also knew that arguing with the guy would have kept me at that scale for hours, AND had me pegged for a troublemaker every time I crossed that scale, something I did sometimes 3 times a week. Got to suck it up when you screw up........

As for overloads......
Up here I can license the truck (old 3/4 ton GM) for any weight I want, has to be heavy enough for the total of truck/trailer with a few exceptions. Maximum license without an annual safety etc. is 4500 kg (almost 10,000 lbs) Door sticker will tell you AND the cops the maximum the truck is rated for without trailer (about 8600 lbs in my case). Since my truck weighs 6200 lbs (older 4 door with Perkins 354 power) I'm only axle legal for about 2400 lbs. Usually haul about 2 ton of hay (square bales, 80 balesx50 lbs) but never get bothered BECAUSE it's a well built tied down load. They won't bother you if it looks good!

Got pulled over once speeding, cop says
" do you know why I pulled you over?"
I just said" I've got a pretty good idea......."
cop says "how fast do you think you were going?"
" I says " to be honest, not a clue. Speedo broke last week and I haven't fixed it yet, but it was too fast"
Ticket should have been 122 km in an 80km zone (about 75 or 80 in a 50)
good for a lot of points and a lot of money
Good attitude, he wrote me for 15 km over, no points. If he looked close at the truck could have wrote me for a lot more on top of the big fineand points. no dash lights, holes in floor, no speedo, etc, etc, etc. BUT!! good attitude, truck looked okay, lights worked (nighttime) tires good etc. Keep the attitude under control...........

 

[bama]

I learned quite a bit on this post. I have a 3/4 ton chevy and use a 51 dodge pickup box trailer. I would hazard a guess that my load would be judged as unsecure. The trailer is never stacked above the box, but the pickup does. I plan to change my ways right away. I just never thought about it. I use backroads for 90% of my travel and only go about 30 mph, but I don't want to be the guy who gets someone hurt or killed. Thanks for the information!

 

[yukiginger]

Cargo net

I bought a cargo net for my pickup. Maybe a couple of those would work for you. Harbor Freight tools has a 6'x8' (unstretched) net on sale for $7.99. (Item number 36598) Maybe two of these together, secured with the supplied hooks or bungied would work.

MarkG

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I learned quite a bit on this post. I have a 3/4 ton chevy and use a 51 dodge pickup box trailer. I would hazard a guess that my load would be judged as unsecure. The trailer is never stacked above the box, but the pickup does. I plan to change my ways right away. I just never thought about it. I use backroads for 90% of my travel and only go about 30 mph, but I don't want to be the guy who gets someone hurt or killed. Thanks for the information!

Now, THAT's what I call an honorable attitude!

 

[KMB]

Now, THAT's what I call an honorable attitude!

+1

Kevin

 

[CaseyForrest]

Hauling a load of BB trees for a company I used to work for I got a ticket for having an unsecure load.

It was a Chevy 7500 flat bed with about 12 6'-8' BB Blue Spruce. Truck had sideboards on it and none of the balls came above the boards but they were packed in there tight, no moving. Didnt matter, since the tops of the trees were above the sideboards, unsecure load.

 

[computeruser]

Another reason I don't live in NY.

 

[Gologit]

I learned quite a bit on this post. I have a 3/4 ton chevy and use a 51 dodge pickup box trailer. I would hazard a guess that my load would be judged as unsecure. The trailer is never stacked above the box, but the pickup does. I plan to change my ways right away. I just never thought about it. I use backroads for 90% of my travel and only go about 30 mph, but I don't want to be the guy who gets someone hurt or killed. Thanks for the information!

Yup...good ideas and good attitude. Wish there were more like you. Every September around here the firewood cutters go into their annual fall panic and start hauling massive loads of firewood home. Most of them use no tiedowns of any kind and create a real hazard to others.California state laws about failing to secure a load are among the strictest anywhere and the cops don't hesitate for a minute to write a citation. You could buy a lot of rope and tiedown gear for what a ticket costs.

 

[bama]

I used to get wood with my Father(mid 70's---when I was about 6). He had an old 75 Chevy 1/2 ton. Well, it was -25 degrees and we were 5 sticks from being out of wood, so we loaded up the pickup from the toolbox all the way to putting a row on the endgate and piled it to the top of the cab.

Dad started the 30 mile drive home and we hit a small bump on the road. The front wheels lifted off the ground! Needless to say, we drove VERY slowly the rest of the way.

Seems funny now, but after today's post, I know we were awfully lucky!

On a lighter note:

I also was with my father when we loaded the pickup(not as heavily), but forgot to take out the spare tire and jack from under the toolbox. We had a flat and had to unload over 1/2 the load on the side of the road. This was in the late 70's.

 

[jerseydevil]

2cents worth

#1. BlueridgeMark is the man.
#2. I too have had a to of tickets, everything from speeding to no docs, parking, illegal uturns, no inspection, lights out, wrong way on one way, the list goes on and on. Hell, I even got a ticket for drinking while operating a canoe(and a bunch of other stuff I am ashamed to talk about). That is a funny story, but for another time. My point is, I have done very well, by keeping cool, being nice(and talkative) and going to court with a good attitude. I'd say I got 80% of my tickets downgraded or thrown out. That's not to say I got off, scott free, but I got off a lot easier. It is pretty common for the DA to down grade charges, if you are not an Ahole. The problem is, Aholes don't know they are Aholes. Anyway, most of this stuff is in my past... most... Now I have kids, and very little time to spend in court. I actually got a ticket a few months ago for a rolling stop on my own street, I saw the cruiser, but figured, I was barely moving, and he'd let me go since I was about one block from my house(stupid, I know). Well he didn't. I was gonna go to court to ask for a lesser, no point ticket, but I know I am the first person to shake my fist at people speeding or not stopping so, I paid up, took the points and now I stop completely, most of the time...
Anyway, I forget why I chimed in...
Gotta be a reason...
While I think about it, here is a funny story.
So I;m driving down the road(rt 70 in NJ) and I see a cop coming right by me. As he passes, we look right at each other. He turns around and pulls me over. He says, I pulled you over cause I saw you looking at me, and that is suspicious. He gives me a ticket for something stupid, I forget what, probably a light out or something of that nature. Anyway, we go to court. I tell the judge, that he said he pulled me over for looking at him. The judge questions him on this, he says " Your honor, I usually keep notes on my stops, but I don't have anything on this guy, I just remember he was nice and courteous". The judge throws out the ticket. I still had to pay court fees, and my evening was shot. Is that funny? Maybe...
Well, I still don't remember why I am here, but I will add, BlueridgeMark is the man.
Ps, I have o add this, My girlfriend through highschool, her dad was a NJ trooper, and we got off several times, speeding and such. Also, when I say Aholes don't know they are Aholes, that doesn't include me, I figured that out a long time ago, it's partly why I was always in trouble with the law. I guess I was a tolerable one, so they went easy. Lastly, to protect my rep, the stuff I am ashamed of is nothing too bad, I bet most of you guys have done worse. Right?

 

[Woodie]

Here in MI, not only must your load be tarped, but you must be 2' below the sides of your trailer. You can be heaped in the middle, but along all the edges its 2' below. Ive never seen a residential guy get nailed under this law, but seen many singles and trains get pulled over.

Casey,

Can you point me to those laws, please?? I just bought a utility trailer for firewood duty, and it took me a friggin week just to find the weight laws for trailers here in MI! (Yes, I now know I need to have breaks added...even the guy that built the trailer didn't know the laws.)

Any help appreciated.