By Daniel C. Brown

Transporting heavy equipment safely is a lot like riding a motorcycle—there’s no room for error.

Unsecured or improperly chained equipment can bounce on the low-boy and chains will break. You could lose the load. People can be injured or killed.

These are some do’s and don’ts of safe equipment transport, not a complete safety manual. Portions of this article come from a session on safely transporting equipment held at the recent Equipment Technologies Conference in Baltimore, sponsored by the Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP).

The following applies to conventional-sized construction equipment, ranging up to 120,000 pounds and hauled on one low-boy trailer with a detachable gooseneck. We also talked with Steve Radtke, who’s in charge of moving equipment at K-Five Construction Corp., a $100 million contractor from Lemont, IL. The company has performed up to 50 equipment moves in a 24-hour day during especially busy times.

1. Do use three-eighths-inch Grade 70 transport chains and heavy-duty ratchet swivel binders that have a minimum break strength of 19,000 pounds. Use enough chains and binders to secure the piece.
2. Don’t over-tighten your ratchet binders. A binder can snap a chain. Don’t use cheater bars to tighten ratchets.
3. Radtke recommends against using snap-down binders. They’re not secure.
4. A basic piece of equipment needs at least four chains—one at each corner, says Dave Mason of transport firm William N. Mason Inc., speaking at the AEMP. Usually you pull forward with the front chains and backward with the rear chains.
5. Do not pull a piece of equipment forward against the gooseneck of the trailer, then use only two chains to pull the load forward into the gooseneck. Presumably the gooseneck stops forward movement and the chains stop movement to the rear. The machine can still move from side to side, explains Radtke, who says veteran truck drivers are notorious for this practice. What’s more, one of the two chains could break and you’ll lose the load.
6. Do lower buckets and booms and chain them into place, says Peter Trimble of Keen Transport, speaking at the AEMP meeting. Keen chains backhoe-loader outriggers into the upright position.
7. Always chain down conveyors and other attachments. Even conveyors that lock into place need to be chained down separately from the main section of the machine, Radtke says. If they’re not chained down properly to the deck they can swing off the trailer when making a turn.
8. Do use the designated tie-down points recommended by the manufacturers. If a piece does not have designated tie-down points, use the frame. Secure your chains to the strongest part of the machine and to the strongest part of the trailer.
9. Inspect chains and binders regularly for cracks and kinks. Chains can become stretched over time and lose their strength. A sudden stop can stretch chains, Radtke says. Replace them if needed.
10. Do a final walk-around after you’ve chained down a piece of equipment. Are binders tight enough? Are they too tight? Are there kinks in a chain? Did you place a chain over the top of a hydraulic hose?
11. Pull over after 5 or 10 minutes into a trip and check chains and binders for tightness.
12. When chaining a piece of equipment, never turn your back on the machine. You can’t trust a parking brake or a blade that has been lowered onto the deck, Radtke says. Without chains on a machine it can roll down the deck and crush anyone in its path.
13. When hauling two pieces together on a trailer, don’t let them touch and don’t chain them together. That’s an easy way to damage equipment, Radtke says. The correct way to load multiple pieces on one load is to secure the four corners of each machine using four chains and four binders.
14. Don’t run a chain under the trailer and attach it to an I-beam. If the trailer bottoms out on uneven ground, you can break or damage a chain and lose the equipment.
15. Never rush yourself when chaining a piece of equipment for transport. This can happen when a machine breaks down and an urgent call is made for a replacement piece. “No matter what the situation is, our main goal is the safety of the traveling public and the safety of our employees,” Radtke says. “Avoid all distractions when you’re chaining down a load. Don’t take a phone call when you’re chaining a load. Finish your work, do a walk-around, then take the call.”
16. “You want to chain a load for the unexpected,” Radtke says. “Anyone can throw a couple of chains over a piece and call it secure. I’ve seen instances where an air line has come off the gooseneck and thrown the trailer into a skid. If this happens and the load is not chained securely to the trailer, you can bet you’re going to lose the load. If there is ever a question about how many chains to use, I recommend putting extra chains on the load.”
17. Don’t allow drivers to pile up an excessive number of minutes on cell phones. When drivers for Specialized Transport Service in Dallas began to use too many Nextel minutes, principal Darrell Hendrix simply started charging drivers a very high rate for minutes over a maximum.
18. Do tape or otherwise cover exhaust pipes on the piece of equipment being moved. If you don’t, the passing wind pulls a vacuum on the exhaust system, feeds back to the turbocharger, and spins the turbocharger while it’s dry. You’ll destroy turbochargers, say both Trimble and Hendrix. “We just tape them all, rather than worry about which ones need to be taped and which ones don’t,” Trimble says.
19. Radtke recommends using on-board truck scales; all five of K-Five’s low-boys use scales made by Air Weigh. More than 70 trailer manufacturers offer Air Weigh truck scales. “This only works with air-ride suspensions,” Radtke says. “You can tell the weights on each axle, and check the gross weight to make sure you’re covered under your permits.”

Daniel C. Brown owns TechniComm, a communications business based in Des Plaines, IL.

GEC - January/February 2005