How Far Can Lumber Stick Out of Your Truck Bed?

Rate this post

Transportation of lumber is a rather difficult and even dangerous deal. Whether you decide to build a house or transport materials for recycling, you should face the need to transport cargo safely.

The danger lies not only in firmly securing the transported lumber but also in compliance with the law. After all, for violating the rules of cargo transportation, you can be fined, and it will cost a lot of money.

In addition, you aren’t the only road user, and therefore, out of concern for other drivers and their cars, you need to know all the precautions.

How Far Can Lumber Stick Out of Truck Bed?

Briefly, the rule is 3x4x4, which means 3 feet forward, 4 inches to the side, 4 feet back. At the same time, the load should be marked with bright red stripes so that it can be easily seen on the road.

However, there are many subtleties, which we’re going to talk about below.

Transportation of long lumber: main features

As we said above, the transportation of lumber must comply with the 3x4x4 rule, and the cargo must be marked with special bandages. But there are 3 more important things to consider:

1. The lifting capacity of your truck

Often there is a situation when a driver, taking care of the load, forgets to take care of his car. Remember that too heavy load can crush your vehicle when a bad road can cause additional scratches and dents on the car body.

2. Reliability of fastening

Bungee cables or rubber strops are a fairly reliable way to go. However, the load must be secured from different sides: both vertically and horizontally. This is the only way you can protect yourself and other road users as well as possible.

3. Individual legislation

In the United States, even road rules change from state to state. In addition, there’re certain places where the passage of trucks is simply prohibited. Therefore, we recommend planning a route from a point to a point in advance.

What about additional cargo markers?

Depending on the projection of the load beyond the permissible limits, it’s necessary to use lamps and red reflectors that indicate the dimensions of your cargo. If the load protrudes more than 4 inches to the side and/or more than 4 feet back, the red warning flag should be used.

How to securely attach the lumber to the truck?

If your vehicle doesn’t accommodate the length of the cargo being transported, you need to make sure it’s securely fastened.

As a rule, cables and bungee-ropes are used to fix the lumber. However, it’s not enough just to buy ropes, you need to be sure of their strength.

Therefore, we recommend purchasing a rope with a load limit of 1000 pounds and approximately 3000 pounds of breaking limit.

Fixing the load must also be especially careful.

  1. Firstly, put a non-slip coating into the truck bed. Trust us, wood (especially if it’s rainy) has a rather slippery surface, which means it can cause at least a loss of cargo along the way, and at most a big accident.
  2. After you have purchased the correct ropes, fix the load on several sides – vertically and horizontally. Try to tighten the knots as tightly as possible, this will ensure that the load is secured even on difficult road sections.
  3. Take care of the car itself. Don’t forget about the cab surface, which can be accidentally scratched during transportation. Protect the places of contact between the cargo and the cab with special spacers or bags.

Use ratchet straps, these are the most reliable attachments for complex loads.

So, let’s conclude…How to transport correctly?

To avoid any problems during transportation, you need to adhere to the basic rules.

  • When transporting the lumber on the roof of a car, it’s necessary to ensure the most reliable fastening. Boards must be securely fastened using ropes special metal fasteners.
  • If transport is carried out on a trailer, the material should never stick out of it. If the length of the boards is greater than the dimensions of the trailer, the material must be wrapped with signal tape so that other road users can see it.
  • When transporting boards by road, the material must be stacked in stacks.
  • The wagons are being stacked with a “cap”. It allows you to fit a fairly large number of boards in one car.

So, now you know the basic rules and precautions for safe lumber transportation. We hope you found these tips helpful!

You are viewing this post: How Far Can Lumber Stick Out of Your Truck Bed?. Information curated and compiled by Kayaknv.com along with other related topics.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here