Securing Personal Items

[ihamner]

How do you have your personal tools secured in the box of your truck? Do you have a hand cart, load bars, straps with metal clips, a pallet jack?

We recently had an expert in ammunitions talk with us about how all these items should be secured in the box of the truck. As expediters, most of the boxes and pallets we pick up are securely packed. Explosives, for instance, are packed securely for travel and even if a box were dropped, it would still stay intact. The thing this expert pointed out was, even though the boxes will travel secure, if the truck were involved in an accident and these personal tools and equipment became missiles launched in the box of the truck, they could easily puncture the freight box and cause a serious problem. Many of our freight boxes are NOT packed to withstand a puncture of any kind.

He indicated these personal items should not be tied down with bungee chords but rather with good heavy straps. Bungee chords might hold the tools in place for day to day travel but to prevent a serious accident these tools need to be secured with good heavy duty straps.

 

[Moot]

Hand dollies, load bars, etc. should be secured to the side walls with ratchet straps and E-Track. Tool boxes and small items could be stowed under the bunk or in locking boxes mounted to the frame. When I carried a pallet jack I would slide it into the last pallet and run a strap or load bar behind the handle.

 

[P51bombay]

For pallet jacks the thing to have is one of these pallet stops - I have one and would never be without one. I used to see Conway drivers with these when I worked on a dock and could never understand why they ALL used them. They work so well that you can park the jack in the middle of an empty box and no matter how bumpy the road gets, no matter how sharp you turn or how hard you brake - the jack stays put. Short of rolling the truck it just wont move from where you put it.

Pallet Truck Stop...Cherry's 800 350-0011

I keep other small stuff like a shrink wrap, tape, nylon tie-downs in a cardboard box near the door and it pretty much stays put. I have about 10 of those rope ratchets (another must have IMO) in varying lengths to hold from 2 to four skids. When not used roll and loosely tie them and then hang them near the door. The ratchet part only costs about 10 bucks and I get the rope free at one of my pickups - I find them to work well, they hold tight and are fast/easy to put on of take off. The only downside is for most things that are boxed you need to slip some corner protectors under the rope since it tends to cut boxes otherwise. I use the 3/8" size with 3/8" rope if its cheap rope or 5/16" rope if its the good stuff (triple braided core)

Rope Ratchet by Carolina North Mfg. ...The World's Greatest Tie-Down...1001 Uses


I keep virtually all my freight tied down in one way or another if for no other reason than I don't like picking it up when it falls over. Lazy?..................not me. LOL

 

[nightcreacher]

for me its easy,5 feet of space is sectioned off with plywood and load bars for my pallet jack and other loading and unloading items.the freight cant get to my stuff,and my stuff cant get to the freight,of course i cant haul but 48 feet of load now,but thats plenty