OzDozer
Senior Member
We never used to chain our dozers down when working in the wheatbelt for farmers. You'd sometimes only move a few kms to the next job, and the move would occupy far less time, than the time taken to chain down!
Besides, you'd be lucky to see 2 or 3 other vehicles a day, so the traffic wasn't even a consideration. Even taking a tractor back home to the shop, in 50kms or 80kms, you might only pass half a dozen vehicles.
In heavy traffic, or on highways, or over long distances, chaining down is a necessary part of travel. The whole thing about tie-down is that its really designed to stop any initial movement, that creates a whole heap more problems.
If a trailer rolls, its rare to see a chained load stay together with the trailer, and all the chains stay intact. In most cases, the chains just reduce the overall level of damage, by preventing the load from being flung further than it would be, if it wasn't restrained.
I hate seeing chain links being pulled over sharp edges and corners, this is good way to totally negate any chaining down. If one link fractures because it was pulled over a sharp edge, there goes all your chaining down efforts.
I can recall a bad smash many years ago, when an East-West truckie left Sydney or Melbourne for Perth. He had a loader bucket chained down at the front of the semi-trailer. He travelled about 90% of his trip without any problems - but unknown to him, a chain link had broken where it was pulled over a sharp edge of the bucket. The constant bouncing of 2,500 miles of travel had broken the link, and he never noticed it, in the dark of night.
There was a sharpish bend in the Gt Eastern Hwy about 30 or 40kms East of Merredin. The truckie approached this bend late at night, right at the same time as an East-West 45 or 50 passenger coach approached from the other direction.
They passed right on the bend, and the truckie obviously leaned hard into the sharp bend. Right at that point, the bucket broke free, and launched itself off the semi.
It smacked right into the coach windscreen, killing the driver instantly, and destroying the entire front of the coach. Luckily it was flat country, the bus ran off the hwy out of control, but stopped without hitting anything, and stayed upright.
If the bucket had smashed into the side of the coach, it would have taken the side right out of it, and the death toll would have been in the dozens.
Besides, you'd be lucky to see 2 or 3 other vehicles a day, so the traffic wasn't even a consideration. Even taking a tractor back home to the shop, in 50kms or 80kms, you might only pass half a dozen vehicles.
In heavy traffic, or on highways, or over long distances, chaining down is a necessary part of travel. The whole thing about tie-down is that its really designed to stop any initial movement, that creates a whole heap more problems.
If a trailer rolls, its rare to see a chained load stay together with the trailer, and all the chains stay intact. In most cases, the chains just reduce the overall level of damage, by preventing the load from being flung further than it would be, if it wasn't restrained.
I hate seeing chain links being pulled over sharp edges and corners, this is good way to totally negate any chaining down. If one link fractures because it was pulled over a sharp edge, there goes all your chaining down efforts.
I can recall a bad smash many years ago, when an East-West truckie left Sydney or Melbourne for Perth. He had a loader bucket chained down at the front of the semi-trailer. He travelled about 90% of his trip without any problems - but unknown to him, a chain link had broken where it was pulled over a sharp edge of the bucket. The constant bouncing of 2,500 miles of travel had broken the link, and he never noticed it, in the dark of night.
There was a sharpish bend in the Gt Eastern Hwy about 30 or 40kms East of Merredin. The truckie approached this bend late at night, right at the same time as an East-West 45 or 50 passenger coach approached from the other direction.
They passed right on the bend, and the truckie obviously leaned hard into the sharp bend. Right at that point, the bucket broke free, and launched itself off the semi.
It smacked right into the coach windscreen, killing the driver instantly, and destroying the entire front of the coach. Luckily it was flat country, the bus ran off the hwy out of control, but stopped without hitting anything, and stayed upright.
If the bucket had smashed into the side of the coach, it would have taken the side right out of it, and the death toll would have been in the dozens.
