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A wrecker driver in Tulsa told me my chain binders were a lawsuit waiting to happen
I was hauling my mini excavator from Tulsa to Oklahoma City last month and stopped for fuel when a retired wrecker driver walked over and pointed at how I had my chains set up. He said the binders were on the wrong side and one good pothole on I-44 would let the whole load shift. I switched to ratchet binders on all four corners and now I check tension at every stop, even if it's just a 5 mile run. Cost me about $180 for the new binders but that's nothing compared to losing a 8,000 lb machine on the highway. Anyone else get called out by a stranger and end up changing their whole setup because of it?
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bethc931mo ago
Man, that story hits home for me but in a whole different way. Years back I bought a used flatbed from a guy who swore up and down the winch straps were "basically new" and I believed him because the price was right. Two weeks later I'm hauling a load of pipe down a back road and one of those straps just snaps at the hook, pipe rolls off into a ditch, and I'm standing there looking at about $3,000 in damage plus a ticket. Turns out the guy had left those straps baking in the sun for who knows how long and the webbing was rotten from the inside where you couldn't even see it. What got me was that nobody stopped me or said a word beforehand, unlike your wrecker guy who actually took the time to warn you. I check every strap by hand now, bend it, twist it, look for any soft spots, before I roll anywhere. Sometimes a stranger's two minute comment saves you way more than any inspection sticker ever will.
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