Use of dogs and chains

I received an email today from the National Transport Commission stating

After advice from Occupational Health and Safety agencies, the NTC would like to recommend that

What can I say. >
"EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS" unless the operator has been appropriately trained and has "common-sense"

mmm... about equal with Trawalla Jacks?

Chains? Dogs? I operate on the basis of most truck and ute owners. You only think about putting a restraint on a load, after it's slid 3/4 of the way across the tray!
She'll be right, mate! Never lost anything yet! (well, maybe one or three items that we had to go back and pick up!)

One of the classics that stays with me, and which, unfortunately, I never got a photo of .. was the house movers who barrelled, left-turn, around the T-junction of the Gt Eastern Hwy bypass, and the Roe Hwy. It happened about 1993 or 1994.

They had very sizeable, old timber-framed house on board, and the corner slopes the wrong way (crossfall runs downwards to the right, slightly .. because the bypass meets the Roe Hwy where the Roe Hwy curves to the right, in an elevated curve).

They must have been racing the light change, and going like cut cats .. because the house snapped the couple of chains holding it in place .. slid straight off the trailer deck .. and deposited itself perfectly, in the center of the Roe Hwy, on top of the median strip, just past the traffic light uprights!

I was driving down the Roe Hwy from the North, and suddenly saw this bloody house sitting in the middle of the road! Talk about make ya do a double take, and swear off the drink!

I'll wager that driver has never lived it down, and I wonder what nickname they gave him after that little exercise??

They just rolled up with jacks and blocks and jacked it all up again, and drove the truck back under it, and took off to complete the delivery!
The house didn't appear to suffer any serious amount of damage that I could see. No doubt, being totally timber-framed helped .. but I'd guess they used a lot more spakfilla than they planned, when they finally set it up!

Here's a pic of the intersection. The house ended up sitting right on the median strip, between the truck carrying the concrete pipes, and the little silver car.
The housemovers truck was travelling around the corner in the same direction as the truck carrying the concrete pipes, although they would have been straddling the lanes ..

I want to know where the 'Load Restraint Working Group' has been for the past 50 years?

I bet it consists of no one over 30YO and with no practical experience in the subject they are dealing with.

Dogs and chains have been bloody dangerious (in the wrong hands) since day dot.

Having said that - in the correct hands they work very well. Straps in the wrong hands are just as dangerious in recpect to being cut ect. And like Choc says - they simply dont suit some applications - just a chains dont.

Which brings us back to rope. It worked fine for 50 years too - again when used correctly.

Bloody experts!!

Oldfulla > :

I never said I agreed with the documents - just thought people might be interested.

I have seen the yellow and blue "Telstra Rope" fail, Inspected before use it appeared and felt fine but it just let go. Speaking to a Telstra employee he said - there is a reason they only use it once - it is put under such strain when pulling the lines over distance that they often just break - often from the inside.

So use it as guy ropes for your tents or shade stuff but don't rely on it to hold your loads in place

I'm by no means a 'truckie' although i've used chains and dogs on loads a few times. What is the main problem ... is it that the 'over-centre' dogs come undone, or is it that the load settles and the chains loosen a tad, unsecuring the dog?

I've always done a wrap of chain around the dog handle to help secure it in the closed position, or on longer distances wired it closed as well. I also always stop down the road a bit and check that the chains are still OK.

Am I missing something else? Oh ... and I use a cheater pipe to close the dogs!

Thinking from the OH&S side the problem would be the actual doing up and undoing, particularly with a cheater bar where with one slip you may injure yourself as it springs back and if working above head height the cheater bar could fly off and hit someone

Or at that is how an OH&S assessor explained it to me as he watched someone load at a steam rally once.

The main danger is in using a cheater pipe on the handle. A cheater pipe is generally insecure and it gets heavily loaded when pulling a dog handle over-centre.

However, I've only ever seen them slip a few times .. but I have seen blokes come a cropper when they slipped.
The problem is, that sometimes the operator is above ground level, so the initial problem of an insecure cheater pipe, can be exacerbated by being in a position involving poor footing as well.

A tight fitting cheater pipe that isn't too long, and careful operation, should involve a minimal chance of injury. However, OH&S are always intent on reducing any risks to zero.

They want zero injuries and fatalities in the long term, in every industry. It's often talked about as a target, supposedly an unattainable one .. but one that many OH&S people claim is entirely attainable.

The bottom line is a lot of common sense is involved here .. but common sense isn't so common any more.
I always ensure I have a handhold as well as a foothold when working above ground level (on trailer decks or on tractor components such as tracks).

After having slipped many a time when climbing over Cat dozers, greasing them (particularly on dewy or frosty mornings), the old trick of ensuring one hand always had a grip on something substantial, to allow for feet slipping, saved me from injury, numerous times.

I use both types. A lot of companys only have ratchet dogs nowdays, purely for the WH&S risk. I always thought the ratchet dogs would be slow to use, but after the flood I was driving a tilt tray for a few days that belonged to a drilling company and that was all that was on the truck, they don't take any longer to use than the lever type, you don't need to take a bit 25nb pipe with you, they don't open up if the chain comes a bit loose, you don't have to put a cable tie or bit of wire around the lever, and they have got reasonably cheap.
They are cheap enough that we use them instead of turnbuckles when we make cross braces to pull something square, cut the hooks off and weld them to 16mm round bar. If you need to buy new dogs, I'd definatly buy the ratchet type, though if you've already got the lever type as long as your carefull they are all right as well. They also make 5 tonne ratchet straps now, as well as ratchet strap type chain tensioners. If you own a transport company, or are in the mining or drilling game, your OH&S officer will tell you it's not worth the risk of someone hurting themselves using the lever type dogs. It's all about minimising risk, and for the $10 odd difference in price why would risk a smack in the head? Work Place Health and Safety here come out as soon as an ambulance is called or as soon as work cover tell them as well if an incident hasn't been recorded, and when they come out it's a pain in the bum, it takes up a lot of time, and it's not just the management who get to deal with them, if someone has been injured, they will interview them forever as well, quite often to the piont they wonder weather they would have been better off saying nothing. The best way of avioding Work Place Health and Safety coming out is to make sure you don't have an accident.
It's like when ratchet straps came mandatory instead of ropes, everyone had trouble using them, and I can still tie a knot quicker, but the thing is we have got used to them and they are better than a piece of rope.