I am looking for advice regarding loading/ unloading slippery (cold, wet, snowy, greasy) lowboy trailers. I understand things like go slowly, keep appendages low and leave your effing cell phone in the tractor. I am wondering about sanding the deck and maybe using some kind of ribbed rubber nailed to the deck. The rubber seems like a good idea but maybe impractical. After doing septic systems for a year and always having to back my triaxle into the hole i discovered that well placed sand enabled me on several occasions to crawl back out without having to call the boss to bring the shovel to pull me out. I would think a couple of pails of sand at the back of the trailer deck and on the ramps would be beneficial and give the bite when you need it. Anyone from Quebec knows when it gets too cold the municipality puts down sand, not salt. I'm starting a new job and i know i am going to have to load up to a CAT 352 shovel. I bought some of that Ricky Bobby tear away underwear from amazon so i'm half prepared Any advice appreciated. Thank you.
I don't know how practical this idea is, but every time I had major drama it was because of side slope. All roads have around 2% of that, and the shoulder is often more. I would carry some dunnage to put under the trailer tires to level the deck as much as possible. It is an extra two steps minimum, but if the side slope is gone and you slip going up, it is not instant bad times. So with side slope gone, now you are sweating climbing traction only.
Find some chunks of conveyor belting. They work well on steel to steel contact. Sand sounds good on the wood deck.Im still working in the stone age and have to load my flat pad cranes the belting works better than tires and its easy to carry on a lowbed.
went back and read your post again. 352 = RGN? it is 11' plus wide and tends to grip the standard 102" deck. This is very helpful.
As Skyking stated, angle of dangle caused by road crown, and as Tugger stated conveyor belting.
I use snowmobile tracks on mine. I leave them on year round. They help when it's just wet also. Wet planks can be almost as slippery as snowy or icy decking. I've also used sand when additional traction was needed.
great repurposing of scrap Mater.
I had to load my crawler crane onto a barge at its new home. They had a smooth plate portable bridge set up to load on the barge running at a very steep angle but had no belting. One of thier guys went to Home depo for some stall mats ,but returned with a pallet of light rubber floor mats you would have on the office floor. I was skeptical of the light mats but they gave good grip between the smooth pads and smooth plate deck .Walked on perfectly. You learn something new every day.
I know not everyone has the luxury but we park all the ramps trailers this time of year and use the detachable goose necks. Track machines and rollers are dangerous. If possible, I'll load an excavator with the boom 90 degrees from the front towards the low side of the road. Chain it down, then swing the boom into the haul position. Most of the guys carry salt or calcium. Calcium will work in colder temps
Isn't a 352 wide enough you only can haul on a beam trailer??
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I'll bet the snowmobile owner isn't too happy.....
Talking to one of our guys that served on a few aircraft carriers, he indicated there is a special paint for on the flight deck, rough as all get out, nothing seems to faze it, Fuel, oil, etc. if no one else post's up the name, i can get it in a few days.
Chemsol Navy G.
Sand is good. I used to carry a bucket of Quikrete concrete mix in the truck with me during the winter. Sprinkle several handfuls of that up each of the ramps and on the deck if it's leaning and it'll walk right on. Even scraping the small rock or sand off the road shoulder and throwing on the ramps makes a huge difference. The most important thing is to make sure your trailer is flat and level. Take your time, think everything through before starting and use a light touch on the controls while loading. Wet, frozen, and greasy ramps and decks are nothing to mess around with as you're well aware.
Sled decks for snowmobiles have ribbed hard plastic but don't know if it would hold up to heavy equipment. I ran a chain across the deck of a tandem dually trailer so I could grab it with the backhoe bucket to pull my track loader up the beavertail onto the deck. I had conveyor belting on the deck but the triple groupers had no traction in freezing weather.
On one of my trailers, I used what feels like thousands of these screws on the wood planks and the steel rails. Specifically to keep it from being slippery in wet, cold weather. I used self tappers on the metal and regular on the wood and tried for a 6” spacing.
Dead level, some sand sure couldn't hurt. Larger machines seem to chew up and spit out belting etc (but could work, especially on smaller machines) Get centred nicely then nice slow/steady on travel, ease over breakover point nice and slow but don't hesitate at that point, just have to continue steady...sometimes helpful to ease an excavator up with bucket gently pushing on ground. Keep bucket low and adjust height as you are advancing to keep it low...(while preventing it from slamming down on deck once past breakover point) This said, sometimes just plain difficult (or downright scary) to achieve! My worst situation wasn't with snow/ice but greasy clay...Loading our Hyundai 210-7 after walking several km's through terrible clay (the kind you slide on when just walking on foot). Spent a good hour cleaning undercarriage etc. But of course the triple grousers are packed with clay & it was pouring rain. Made multiple attempts, sliding each time. Blocked Lowbed with some dunnage; tried side loading. Even worse, slightest movement and entire machine would slide. Finally just built a dirt ramp level to back of trailer and drove right on. As we were on bush roads this was an option... I watch operators that are a lot better than I am and they make it look easy!
Oh...and yes keep that extra underwear handy! Good luck, be safe, wear seatbelt for this procedure.
All the years hauling equipment I’ve only slid off twice, both to the side. All the machines I’ve seen slide off were also to the side. Granted, we don’t get the cold/snow and ice like the great white north. We do have our share of rain/clay/shale/mud. I’ve always wondered if a few decks boards replaced with the rumber stuff would help. A few lengths of conveyor belting seem logical to me. Can be reused, doesn’t leave a mess etc. Sometimes a feller needs to know when to quit too. Try again later or another day. Cheaper than a machine on its side or somebody hurt.
Roller is the worst especially a double drum. Once it starts to slide she gone
I can only imagine! Doesn't sound like a fun ride...
Been there with roller on a tilt. Nibble at it and spin, it walks to the low side right now. So you rear back and take a brisk run at it. I'm ok to be done with that.
Just to repeat what some others have said; being side to side level is 1st concern, gravity is the enemy here. Selecting a loading site is the first thing I would look for on a jobsite. Very soft touch on the controls and slow but steady travel and having a visual marker on the deck to align with is important. I carried a couple 16-20' x 12" lengths of conveyor belt on each lowbed mainly to protect the apitong $$$ boards but they help with a slick surface especially with a little sand thrown on them. Once the machine is on the deck and you aren't level side to side, the machine may want to slide sideways with any movement. I have chained a machine down and moved to the opposite side of the road to let gravity help get the machine back to where I wanted it. Patience. And extra securement when things are slick. Lowbed work (IMO) is the most interesting and fun in the trucking world.
Appreciate this post, helpful to everyone, staying safe is the main concern. Nice picture by the way!
All of the above is good advice, the one thing I try to also do is plan ahead (I know that isn't always possible when hauling equipment daily.) Every time we get a snow I shovel/sweep all the trailers off so the sun can melt and dry them, even if I'm not immediately going to need them. Better to take a few minutes now to clean them and have them ready then to have something come up and have to load up in a hurry on a snowy or icy trailer. If the latter does occur a propane weed burner torch can melt and dry them quick, but it takes a carefully touch or you'll burn the decking.
I nearly rolled a Liebherr 622 off the back of a beavertail trailer one winter. It climbed the ramps and the beavertail just fine but one track slipped just as it began to break over onto the deck. The machine turned 90 degrees and slid straight back down the ramps at about 350 mph. It caught one ramp hinge and took the whole hinge assembly and ramp off the back of the trailer. Time slowed to a crawl as the machine tipped, hung with one track in mid air for several hours then settled back down to it's normal stance. Of course in real time it probably took a second or two but I had aged enough to have some white hair by the time I got out of the machine to look things over. The ramps, beavertail, and deck were all wood and I thought they were wet but they actually had a thin layer of ice... In my experience rubber mats don't work well on wet or icy decks with heavy equipment. Sand, gravel, concrete mix, lime, or in a pinch a chain laid up the ramp work well.
I have done that time stand still tipping thing in a 416 backhoe. Picture a four to one-ish kind of compound slope in in solid rock. It was at the Cowlitz Falls project and I needed to go down and remove some tights with the hoe ram. It didn't look too bad so I started down there and away we went. I started sliding and then I came up on a knob at the very bottom on the downhill big tire. It did that pendulum while my heart was in my throat. Once that settled I drove down and did the job and then attempted to come back out there with the bucket. It was a two-wheel drive extenda hoe and the rubber was worn off of the outriggers. I reached up and caught a seam and drug myself all the way up to it and then I'd set the parking brake set the outriggers down play with the front bucket edge to try and hook anything. Every combination I tried didn't work. As soon as I let go that little edge I slid to the bottom. The drillers had an IR500 track drill there and I had them toss me the line and give me an assist I was done.
Junk tracks are easy to come by. They have all sorts of uses if you have a good imagination.
Y'all got big balls. I was moving some rocks in the yard and I had to fish one out of the pond, in my backhoe. I was on what was maybe a 10 degree slope that felt slippery as can be and being a bit sideways and off camber, due to a tree, a rock pile, and just the shape of the ground I was nervous as can be. I can't imagine trying to move some of the equipment y'all mess with in the sub-prime conditions. Good on ya!
I only had one come off the side. It was a little 12 ton ramp trailer and a 450 dozer. I honestly don't remember the brand. It was side hill too much, I was green and learned about that. She danced and bounced off the side and straddled a ramp before I got to the deck. I was able to extricate myself and get it loaded on the second go. Details are fuzzy now, I think the tendency is to try and purge these things from memory.
Exactly. I kinda remember sliding a Cat 220 off the side of a highboy. Seems my memory is quite fuzzy but do remember having to pay for the one panel replaced. Steel tracks on a steel deck and slightly uneven on a wet deck. Was able to borrow a 988 to tip it back over gently, let the oil settle and crank it up.
That's friggin' brilliant, time to start collecting tracks. I'm chubbing a little right now.
With excavator I like to put it on track motors first up the ramps, can sit back in seat with gravity and go careful as you need. If pucker gets to much, chain it on some before slewing round to stow the attachment. Then coming off is easier. Can plant feet far & wide and just use big toes on front corners of pedals, nicer to control especially if the ramps are steep. If it starts to slip, get tracking!
I always use my hands for travel when loading. Im not a hoe man so I don't feel comfortable using my feet. I know it complicates using your boom. One of our cedar rapids asphalt spreaders has a steering wheel instead of levers .I find it bad as it's so touchy especially if there is tack on the tracks.
Personal opinion here. All of our excavator's drive handles are in the shop. They get reinstalled at trade in or sale. Sure makes getting in and out of the little ones a lot nicer and I don't miss them in the medium size and larger either.
I did use the handles when spotting the 120 on the edge of the deck, standing up after the tilt. That was the only place but I could lean out and look down the edge. Funny, when I started with the stock tracks it was exactly 102" Edge of track on edge of bed, done. The replacement tracks are about 3/4" wide of the bed. Technically the man could have given me crap about that. I just did my best to center it, it was never an issue and no longer my problem
Pretty awesome! Tires inside hdpe culvert stubs, then piece of track through bolted to the culvert? Any other pics?
I started a new thread to keep my random stuff from derailing useful threads: HeavyEquipmentForums
All per memory of course, but the low boys I have been around the wood deck has always been above the steel rails maybe by 1/2 inch or more, and if its chewed up from dozers there is a fairly rough surface. I've never slipped on a lowboy, ramp trucks different story.
this is a steel track machine with rubber pads and it was slippery
Unloading a 225 in Yakima on a Sunday morning on a heavily crowned narrow street with a deep ditch on right side, 3 axle Hyster folding neck. Kept the bucket towards the ditch bank as reached the fold it slid off the right side with bucket contacting bank and track in air. Maneuvered using bucket back to street. There was apartments with balconies and a guy drinking coffee reading the Sunday rag, he put the paper down stood up a clapped.
25 years ago I slid a 1080B off of a 25 ton tag trailer. Sunday morning, about -10F, laid it over on the cab. Dad came running out of the house in bare feet, he was getting ready for church. As soon as he saw only the machine was damaged, the ass-chewing began in earnest. We sat it back up with the 9030 and 7H. Found a used cab shell and straightened out the sheet metal. I've never slid off of a high trailer since then, but have slid off a lowboy a few times.
Rubber definitely gets hard and slippery when cold. Today I had trouble with the grader on the snow because the tires are too hard at these temps. It would go ok on flat ground but wouldn't go up a gently sloped driveway. I had to head downhill with gravity assist to get it onto the trailer.
Putting some chains across the trailer may have helped for traction.
I see some ramp trailers have angle iron bolted along the deck either side of the middle, to keep machines central. Would these help in the ice do you think?
Small machines, potentially. Larger machines, not so much.
A 350 linkbelt i think is over 11 feet on a standard float your chains sit right at the edge of the deck. They have those little fold outs that you can put planks on. Only use them with our 470. Though I doubt they would hold much
For the most part if it's too big to haul behind the pickups, it sits in the yard for the winter . . .