Waiting at the light at Deep Homo when a raggedy Chevy S10-sized truck pulls out with 15 or so sheets of plywood in the back. Front of plywood up on wheel wells, back laying on open tailgate so the whole load is slanted to the rear at about 15°. Nothing tying it down, not so much as a piece of twine. Oh, and one of those REALLY slick plastic bed liners to lubricate things.

Barely got my mouth open to say to the wife "That's an accident waiting to happen" when about 2/3rds of the load slides out and onto the street in front of me. Had just started out from the traffic light so plenty of time to stop.

Put the 4-ways on and got out to help reload the plywood. Boy Genius and his helper (both wearing safety vests and hard hats) were just going to load it right back the way it was. I mentioned that it might be better if they put the tailgate up and reloaded so the plywood was tilted towards the cab rather than out the back.

Pretty apparent that that was a completely novel idea to them...

The stupid is strong.

There were two of them? Heck, one of them could just hold it down until they get to their destination...

quote:

Pretty apparent that that was a completely novel idea to them...

I wish you could type that with a Maine accent...

Afterwards, wifey and i had some chowdah and laughed about the whole ordeal.


We see the same crap all day long here in Alabama. We've got some real enlightened residents here too. Roll Tide....not

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Pretty apparent that that was a completely novel idea to them...

I wish you could type that with a Maine accent...

Now, that made me laugh out loud.

Jim

I say a Honda with a mattress on the roof the other day, being held down by the "friend." I turned out of my way so I wouldn't have to see the results.

Physics is for nerds.

I was behind a small pickup that had a big stack of plywood with the low side against the tailgate and the high side sticking up, forward, over the cab--way over the cab. It was quite an astonishing sight.

I once hauled 14’ decking in the back of my extra cab Ranger. The 2 secrets were
- tie the boards together, on edge. Practically a lamination. Won’t flex.
- a few hundred pounds of concrete on top near the cab as counterweight.

A few ripe downs to avoid sliding, away we went. Worked well, got some odd looks.

quote:

Originally posted by pbramlett:
Roll Tide....not

Yeah, that is the sum total of their edumication, "roll tide!".

20 years ago I worked at a full service lumber yard.

I saw some amazing things happen over the years.

One time a guy came in and bought a 20' 2x4. Didn't think much about it, then I saw him put a flag on one end and hop on a motorized scooter (like the electric scooters we have now) with the 2x4 over his shoulder and down the Blvd he went.

I was waiting to go south at a stop light in Phoenix , one day ,

A glass truck headed north ,turned left in front of me , hurrying to beat the yellow turn light.

well three giant panes of glass and a giant mirror leaned off of the right side of his truck and crashed on to the pavement.

what a huge flippin mess.

By 'assisting' and 'educating' them, you inadvertently violated the Prime Directive.

A couple of weeks ago I pulled out from a side street behind a pickup. I quickly hit the brakes and gave him a lot of clear space to the rear. Inside of the bed on a plastic bedliner was an outboard boat motor, no tailgate nor any tiedowns or ropes securing it. A recipe for disaster.

So as I went through downtown all five blocks more cars got between us. Fine, a buffer I think.

About a half mile outside of there on an uphill stretch he is stopped at a traffic light, you can guess the rest. He accelerates, out of the back slides the outboard onto the roadway. The guy behind him in the older LeSabre stopped in time though. Five lanes, I went to the right lane to clear the intersection and to view the carnage of broken outboard castings, not a small motor either. Oh well, all he had to do was backtrack about a quarter mile to the local scrapyard.

I see this stuff all the time on I-96, unsecured loads, construction materials, ladders. I usually get in the far lane and pass quickly regardless if I'm in four wheels or on two wheels. These idiots need a ticket for unsecured load regardless if it comes out or not.

The year was 1985. I had been working in the Denver area, my assignment there was finished, we were relocating to Florida. My wife and I were riding our BMW motorcycles, we were on the expressway between Fort Worth and Dallas, there were several lanes, at least three, maybe more, eastbound.

A pickup truck in front of me was pulling a lawn service trailer. The tailgate of the trailer was evidently not secured properly. At about 70 mph, the tailgate opened and lawn service stuff -- rakes, weed trimmers, edgers, etc. -- came flying out.

I dodged it all, then looked in my rear-view mirror, saw my wife happily running the slalom course, weaving back and forth between the obstacles.

When we stopped later, she said, "That was fun! Just like we teach in the safety course!" (We were both instructors, in the MSF course).

Several years ago I exited the Interstate onto a ramp that had a red stoplight at the bottom and several vehicles waiting on the light. It was a warm day with my windows open and I started smelling gasoline while slowing down on the ramp. Didn’t see anything obvious until the light changed and a pickup two or three cars ahead started accelerating. Noticed a huge waterfall of liquid dropping to the ground from the gap between his bed and tailgate and the gasoline smell suddenly got extremely strong!

Needless to say, I quit following that pickup as soon as I had room to do so. Couldn’t see inside the bed from my vantage point, but one or more gas cans had to have toppled over and were rapidly emptying as he drove. Didn’t see any notice of pickup trucks burning up on that evening’s news, so I’m guessing he made it wherever he was going.

If you're lucky the gas was in gas cans...

A couple years ago a big hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. Panic set in about damage to refineries and the future availability of fuel, and I saw a nitwit pumping gas into a big Rubbermaid tote in the bed of his pickup truck here in Jerkwater. So a gas can shouldn’t necessarily be presumed to be present.