# Tool Talk >  Steel rolls roll off truck bed - GIF

## Jon

Steel rolls roll off truck bed.



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Previously:

Marking and bundling large hot metal rolls - GIF

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baja (Dec 22, 2018),

Drew1966 (Jul 10, 2019),

EnginePaul (Dec 22, 2018),

PJs (Dec 26, 2018),

Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019),

Seedtick (Dec 21, 2018)

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## wizard69

That had to hurt

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Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019)

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## Toolmaker51

> Steel rolls roll off truck bed.



YIKES! Damage for two trucks bad enough, near certain injury for driver on left. If banding on the spool broke; thicker materials will spring open just a bit, lighter would unspool, another kind of nightmare.

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Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019)

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## ranald

looks like left truck stopping but no brake lights. would not like to have been one of those drivers. probably should have chains & dogs to restrain, if not possible to lay load flat on side.

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Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019)

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## Toolmaker51

Never seen rolls or spools carried on their sides; only the periphery. Material handling equipment partly due, loaded by cranes/ forklifts equipped with a spike, of course standing is how the factories use them. Can't even recall seeing a flat un-coiler; maybe for wire but presses need sheet fed flat.
Who knows what happened to tie-downs. Would have been at least 2 or 3 through the middle tending flat [least effective] 1 each tending forward and to the rear. Some use lever binders, others ratcheting and specified load chain. Is it possible tractor-trailer left a depot unsecured, or just the tie-downs worked loose?

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## Jon

Looks to me like maybe, after tying down the load, the driver failed to pat it with one hand and say: "Yup, that'll hold."

You gotta do that!

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EnginePaul (Mar 6, 2021),

Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019)

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## ranald

A second look reveals that both trucks look like they are carrying the same load and the left oneshows no restraints like the right. maybe just left warehouse as cant see any clear traffic lanes . Wouldn't like to be in any car/vehicle in place of the right one or any vehicle behind the left one if starting up an incline.
Here, it is the drivers responsibility to check the load: including its weight & bet same where that accident occurred.scarey how an oversight can cause havic/death.

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## wizard69

> YIKES! Damage for two trucks bad enough, near certain injury for driver on left. If banding on the spool broke; thicker materials will spring open just a bit, lighter would unspool, another kind of nightmare.



Those rolls are not light either. The public is lucky the roll got jammed between the two trucks. Could you imagine what would happen if the roll decided to roll down a busy side walk.

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## mbshop

Back in the late 60s a roll came off the freeway, rolled down the embankment and into a house. Destroyed the concrete porch and pillars and stopped in the house. This was a half block from my tech school in Los Angeles. I usually see them chained through from side to side by 3 chains but also over the top by 2 chains, how it should be done. Chp will stop them otherwise.

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Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019)

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## Frank S

> BI usually see them chained through from side to side by 3 chains but also over the top by 2 chains, how it should be done. Chp will stop them otherwise.



 That is the accepted way of securement but also the rolls are usually set in coil chocks these are nothing more than a strip of flat bar folded on each end to form a triangle the coils are set on top of them 2 per coil in lew of these chocks many drivers will chain down their dunnage for and aft of the coils If a driver has neither chocks or dunnage the shipping company may elect to nail triangle shaped blocks to the floor of the trailer. I don't know all of the DOT regs any more but back in the day no shipper wold load coils on a flatbed trailer if the trailer or the truck was not equipped with either a bulkhead on the trailer or a headache rack on the tractor. If they did and the driver got a ticket for not having one the shipper was liable for the ticket. But that was back in the day.
Looking at the gif in full screen I couldn't see any straps or chains on the 2 rolls on the left rig. Also as noted I did not see any brake lights There is one other thing I noted all of the trucks passing on the other side were cabovers meaning this happened either in Europe, The East or in the Middle East . One note of Identifier was the refrigerated ZIM trailer ZIM transportation and shipping started in 1945 in Israel They used to be mostly a passenger liner service but became a cargo shipper in the 1960's Now operate ships all over the world but their refrigerated line is mostly in Europe and the Upper Middle east.

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Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (Dec 23, 2018)

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## Toolmaker51

> Those rolls are not light either. The public is lucky the roll got jammed between the two trucks. Could you imagine what would happen if the roll decided to roll down a busy side walk.



As wizard69 states, definitely NOT light. You might see a truck carry 3 large spools of wire rope, never coiled sheet or wire. Wire rope can only be rolled to a particular minimum diameter, hence the hollow core of wood or metal spool, and I suspect a fraction the length of coil stock. The whole point of coil is shipping greatest quantity possible and that is bound by GVW of semi's and flatbeds. 
All that aside, even truckloads of crackers need to be secured. 

I appreciate Jon's comment "...driver failed to pat it with one hand and say: "Yup, that'll hold." 
"You gotta do that!" 

Somewhere in HMT.net a comment noted a video depicted a hand pat on a project indicating completion and satisfaction. They added it's a common Teutonic gesture, rather like affection for an inanimate but 'live' object.

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## mklotz

> You might see a truck carry 3 large spools of wire rope, never coiled sheet or wire.



I swear one can find ANYTHING on the web. Curious about the weight of a roll of steel, I Googled and found...

Steel Coil Weight Chart

which says, if I'm reading correctly, that a coil 12" wide and 48" in diameter (close to what I see on the road around here) weighs around 5000 pounds (2.5 tons).

No wonder you never see the trucks carrying more than two. Most of the time I see them with only one, but I have seen them with two, although it's been too long ago to remember dimensions.


On edit...

I used my WEIGHT program to calculate the weight of a steel washer with the following dimensions...

ID = 20 in
OD = 48 in
thickness = 12 in

and it came back with ~18000 in^3 for a weight of 5089 lbs which is in very close agreement with the result obtained from the table. IOW, there isn't much difference between the rolled steel and solid steel which seems intuitively correct.

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PJs (Dec 26, 2018),

Scotsman Hosie (May 15, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (Dec 23, 2018)

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## Toolmaker51

Yes Marv, totally correct search and calculations. Very little 'air' in a coil, nearly solid. Loose coil happens occasionally, and cause problems in the un-coiler and straightener rolls because inconsistent tension. 
For whatever reason I look at what trucks carry, a 12" wide spool is rare. I see ~ 48" ish commonly, we have garage door manufacturers in the area, so those might run 20k+. I'm sure they slit 18" or 24", getting 2 or 3 panels from that width. The gauge of door at home is maybe 24 [.0239] flimsy by itself, requires corrugations and surface embossing to attain state of semi-rigidity.

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## Jon

Wire spool rolls down highway. 1:36 video:

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Scotsman Hosie (May 19, 2019)

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## Frank S

> Wire spool rolls down highway. 1:36 video:



The guy is lucky no one was killed by the spool rolling down the wrong side of the highway.

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Scotsman Hosie (May 19, 2019)

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## Jon

Regarding the weight of a steel coil:

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Andyt (May 19, 2019),

baja (May 19, 2019),

Scotsman Hosie (May 19, 2019),

Seedtick (May 18, 2019)

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## Toolmaker51

Hmm, what else is a concentrated load [round on the bottom even] over the beams instead of the axle sets. When I notice coils being trucked, they're never so far forward, unless one is over the pin and other back on the axles. 
Looks like problem for a wrecker to clear too.

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## Frank S

rated for 60,000 lbs in 10 feet does not mean it can haul even 40,000 in just a few inches. Toolmaker 51 is correct the large coils are normally loaded over the axles or the pin. A coil of this size needed to be over the center of the forward axle of the group this would have still transferred some needed weight to the tractor but not put extreme stress on the weakest section of a trailer, the area right in front of the most forward suspension mount.

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Toolmaker51 (May 19, 2019)

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## hemmjo

> The guy is lucky no one was killed by the spool rolling down the wrong side of the highway.



I want to know what the guy with the truck and trailer was doing? Looked like he pulled away and lost a tire off the trailer, then he is stopped again on the side of the road after the spool stopped? Surely that spool of wire was on that little trailer?

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Scotsman Hosie (May 19, 2019)

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## trinketman

*That size coil would weigh 45-50 K . I know ,I've loaded them. The driver says where he wants it placed.*

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baja (May 19, 2019),

EnginePaul (May 18, 2019),

Scotsman Hosie (May 19, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (May 19, 2019)

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## Scotsman Hosie

Good Lord. What you'd expect to see if that coil had just fallen out of the sky.

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## Francis4344

Not sure it's wire on that spool. Could be just plastic pipe...

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## trinketman

*There is an interchange I55-70 near troy Illinois famous for high center roll overs and lost coils. The state spent a bunch of money re-designing it to be less of a problem. Typically 7 chains on a coil.*

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## trinketman

> I swear one can find ANYTHING on the web. Curious about the weight of a roll of steel, I Googled and found...
> 
> Steel Coil Weight Chart
> 
> which says, if I'm reading correctly, that a coil 12" wide and 48" in diameter (close to what I see on the road around here) weighs around 5000 pounds (2.5 tons).
> 
> No wonder you never see the trucks carrying more than two. Most of the time I see them with only one, but I have seen them with two, although it's been too long ago to remember dimensions.
> 
> 
> ...



I loaded them at the mill. minimum 5K to 45K

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## Toolmaker51

> rated for 60,000 lbs in 10 feet does not mean it can haul even 40,000 in just a few inches. Toolmaker 51 is correct the large coils are normally loaded over the axles or the pin. A coil of this size needed to be over the center of the forward axle of the group this would have still transferred some needed weight to the tractor but not put extreme stress on the weakest section of a trailer, the area right in front of the most forward suspension mount.



Been away from home a few days, mainly peeking in, during lulls between visits. Looking at the pic, 60k Frank S mentions seems appropriate. I missed that's a double drop deck trailer, ie lowboy definitely suitable for loads with a big footprint. But lower means less ground clearance; smaller and/ or not so curved beams AND a flat deck.
Somebody missed the load appraisal, that coil looks a bigger diameter than usual, but so much to interfere at a bridge or doorway. . . ?

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## VinnieL

Wouldn't the load have been much better if the spool was rested on the side over a wide area versus the two edges of the spool? I can't tell from the photo if it would be way oversized widthwise to do so. It definately looks though that it was loaded forward of all the axles. Over the axles is where it should have been located!

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## Frank S

> Wouldn't the load have been much better if the spool was rested on the side over a wide area versus the two edges of the spool? I can't tell from the photo if it would be way oversized widthwise to do so. It definately looks though that it was loaded forward of all the axles. Over the axles is where it should have been located!



you may be talking about 2 separate instances 1 the spool rolling down the highway, and 2 the coil of steel. Coiled steel is almost never hauled laying flat unless it is narrow, and then only if it will dimensionally fit a standard 42x48 pallet or come close as in 48" in diameter otherwise narrow coils under 18". wide are often banded together to become a wider coil. Trying to lay one of those huge coils of steel over without them becoming a telescope is both dangerous and difficult. 
Real thin gauge sheet metal coils usually arrive in various widths depending on the user's specifications our sheet metal coils for the C purlin machine would arrive from the mill then since we did not have a slitter and a re coil machine we sent them out to be sliced to which ever width was required for the size purlin run we were doing we would often have several sluff coils of under 2" sometimes as narrow as 1/2" but mostly we tried to calculate a run of the next wider or narrower c purlins or a combination of widths when the coils were sliced to prevent this. There is not a lot of call for a 1000 meter long strip of 12 or 13 mm wide 2mm thick material.

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Scotsman Hosie (May 22, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (May 20, 2019)

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## hemmjo

Just happened today in Central Ohio. Amazing there was just minor injuries.
As with most news videos, the link does not have much information. ODOT (Ohio Department Of Transportation) posted the photos.
https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-new...nty/2016780354

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Scotsman Hosie (May 22, 2019)

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## Jon

Captioned as yesterday in Hamilton, Ontario.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...e_fullsize.jpg

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baja (Jul 11, 2019),

Drew1966 (Jul 10, 2019),

Scotsman Hosie (Jul 14, 2019),

Seedtick (Jul 10, 2019)

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## Crusty

In the trucking industry this is known as hauling suicide because a roll usually comes through the cab in the event of a quick stop. Most flat-bedders haul the rolls turned 90º to prevent this. I hauled suicide once (my first time - didn't know any better) and I used every chain and strap that I had onboard and drove slow and carefully the entire way. Going into the mill to get them was a memorable experience - most of you've never heard anything like a couple of 16" carbon arc rods going into the pot to melt a batch of steel.

In that picture the rear axles have a 10' 4" spread between them so the rear axle set can carry more weight than the front axles (which are close together), because there's a span between the two rear axles.

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baja (Jul 11, 2019),

Drew1966 (Jul 10, 2019),

Jon (Jul 10, 2019),

Scotsman Hosie (Jul 14, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (Jul 10, 2019)

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## Toolmaker51

When I see spools on a truck, they are over the back axles. About 3 chains through the loop, blocked front and back and another couple over the top.
And we've seen other broken flat beds here at HMT.net, those loads were between rears and the pin too. I can't see a reliable loader at a plant doing this; even if the trucker is clueless. Be interesting to know if this is owner/ operator or a company tractor.

Trailers vs heavy GVW flatbed, hmmmmm.
I probably won't haul coil, more likely bar stock and structurals and occasional machinery; this has talked me out of heavy trailers. Mine still camera shy [ugly, not presentable] but identical otherwise to this.

Speaking of which, how & where do I find replacement fuel tank caps. They are male 4-7/16" OD thread, what appear 8 TPI, about 5/8" of full thread. Originals were bronze, probably why they were stolen. Once I buy [or make aluminum ones] I'll fabricate a pad locking arrangement.

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## Crusty

That coil's position may be due to what's referred to as bridge weight. The front load axles and the rear axles should be carrying equal weight (for an equal number of wheels) so that the wheel loading at each end of the "bridge" is within legal limits for that span. Too much weight concentrated on too few wheels can damage the roadway and the trucker's next mortgage payment when the DOT discovers it. Looking at the situation I'd guess that there was a shock from the railroad tracks that momentarily overstressed the trailer because it could have been going too fast for that bump.

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Jon (Jul 10, 2019),

Toolmaker51 (Jul 10, 2019)

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## ncollar

I think there is a factor not thought of. The truck just came over a railroad track. Most railroad tracks are ruff and raised up some compared to the approaching road and the road leaving the track. The truck went over the track too fast and when the final axle was on the track all the weight was transferred to that span between the real tandem and the axle at the far back causing all that weight to broke its back. Another thing is it was an aluminium trailer, I would like to know just what king of experience that person had. A very good case of operator error.
Nelson

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## Frank S

> That coil's position may be due to what's referred to as bridge weight. The front load axles and the rear axles should be carrying equal weight (for an equal number of wheels) so that the wheel loading at each end of the "bridge" is within legal limits for that span. Too much weight concentrated on too few wheels can damage the roadway and the trucker's next mortgage payment when the DOT discovers it. Looking at the situation I'd guess that there was a shock from the railroad tracks that momentarily overstressed the trailer because it could have been going too fast for that bump.



Yep only in America can we spend 10 years to study how to build the road 20 years to build it then then next 5 generations repairing it.
As far as the bridge law goes with a spread axle trailer he could legally gross 40K on the 2 trailer axles 34K on the drives and 12 on the steer but at the same time still be limited to a gross weight of 80k having the spread means he has a 6 k cushion at 80K that he doesn't have to be so precise in locating the load many call it the fudge factor. One problem with spread axle trailer is the scuff the tires real bad in tight turns another is they inherently have lighter frames.
From the distance traveled after the tracks it appears that the load leveling valve for the air ride susp. is mounted on the rear axle we don't have a great view of the lead on ramp to the tracks so the tracks could be quite elevated from the preceding road way. If this were the case the tractor already being past could be on a downhill swing, while the forward trailer would be going up causing the rear air bags to be over extended so the leveling valve would compensate by releasing air. Some trailers are equipped with rapid suspension fill and release this could be one such trailer causing the front trailer axle to bottom out while the rear axle thought it were still over extended. Then the sudden impact of bump from the second set of tracks with the weight too far forward for the type of trailer the result was a delay in delivery.
Guys in the northeast tend to load close to max weight on their drive axles as a force of habit due to winter driving conditions while guys in southern states and western states Not the North West, have a tendency to put more weight on their trailers. While Crusty pointed out keeping the weight closer to center is better for the roads. Like I said the spread axle trailers foul up the optimal distributional plan
This was just an observation form someone who wasn't there.

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Toolmaker51 (Jul 10, 2019)

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## jimfols

> Captioned as yesterday in Hamilton, Ontario.
> 
> Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...e_fullsize.jpg



Good reason to slow down for RR crossings.

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## jimfols

I see the driver standing behind the trailer, but I cannot tell what she is pointing at.

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## hemmjo

> I see the driver standing behind the trailer, but I cannot tell what she is pointing at.



Just curious, how you know she is the driver?

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## ncollar

not with them shoes on

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