I am not sure i would want to sleep out with all that on the trailer,some offender may think it is a good laugh or a dare to set fire to the load,if i am a heavy sleeper,on my own in a lay by,the chances are low to get out in time if there was a fire,it is almost an ADR load in my book,even though we know it is not classed as that dangerous.
Park by a lake or river maybe,and sleep with your under crackers on,for a fast cab escape.
toby1234abc:
… it is almost an ADR load in my book,even though we know it is not classed as that dangerous…
Hi Toby,
There’s no “almost” about it mate. 
Hay and straw ARE dangerous goods, because the UN have given them a UN number.
UN 1327 is used for hay and straw, and UN 1327 is in UN Class 4.1, so the UN says it’s a flammable solid.
However, UN 1327 is NOT regulated by ADR when carried by road.
UN 1327 is also NOT regulated by RID when carried by rail.
UN 1327 IS regulated by IMDG when carried by sea.
I’d personally drop the bugger if I was stuck out with one and park up with a good gap between it and me 
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again - Why don’t straw merchants sheet a load up?
With most straw fires reckoned to be caused by cigarette butts flicked from a window, surely sheeting the straw would massively reduce the risk of it taking fire?
Any straw merchants here?
Phantom Mark:
I’d personally drop the bugger if I was stuck out with one and park up with a good gap between it and me
I’d say a high portion of them are wagon and drag with a load frame over the cab too…
To be honest though, don’t see many if any parked up whilst loaded.
All the burn-outs we’ve been to (and there have been a few) have been wag n drags.
The only artic we been to wasn’t a fire, the driver ‘miscalculated’ his height when loading and clanked a bridge, losing the top few rows of bales off, and scattering them across the A1 
Drivers thinking was, where he was going had a 14’ bridge, so he couldn’t be more than 14 foot high.
His trailer sat at 4 feet high, so there was 10 foot left… so far so good…
10 foot plus 4 foot = 14 foot, so he loaded the straw 14 foot high on his trailer… 
He wasn’t a regular straw man, it was just a backload.
cieranc:
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again - Why don’t straw merchants sheet a load up?With most straw fires reckoned to be caused by cigarette butts flicked from a window, surely sheeting the straw would massively reduce the risk of it taking fire?
Any straw merchants here?
I thought most straw/hay fires were caused by spontaneous combustion, isn’t that why they are in rolls now rather than squares? They used to say “kids” had burnt the barn down, when they hadn’t.
seen a few parked up over the last few weeks on the a5 at shrewsbury for the night
cieranc:
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again - Why don’t straw merchants sheet a load up?With most straw fires reckoned to be caused by cigarette butts flicked from a window, surely sheeting the straw would massively reduce the risk of it taking fire?
Any straw merchants here?
Someone once told my the sheet would hold heat in and the load could combust. Don’t know how true that is as I am a city boy.
I know they can combust if wrapped in that black plastic sheeting when wet.
kr79:
cieranc:
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again - Why don’t straw merchants sheet a load up?With most straw fires reckoned to be caused by cigarette butts flicked from a window, surely sheeting the straw would massively reduce the risk of it taking fire?
Any straw merchants here?
Someone once told my the sheet would hold heat in and the load could combust. Don’t know how true that is as I am a city boy.
That’s possible, but another reason could be they would get ripped to shreds on trees and low branches !
5RRF:
I know they can combust if wrapped in that black plastic sheeting when wet.
Thats silage.
bluenose:
I thought most straw/hay fires were caused by spontaneous combustion, isn’t that why they are in rolls now rather than squares? They used to say “kids” had burnt the barn down, when they hadn’t.
Round or square bales, it makes no difference. Those big bales were introduced to reduce manual handling. A machine can handle a big bale easier than a dozen small bales.
If the hay or straw is baled and stacked when it’s not properly dried, it can spontaneously combust. The bottom bales gets compressed when it’s stacked. Compression on its own causes heat etc etc etc.
Decent quality hay or straw won’t spontaneously combust. It takes a someone with a lighter to set it alight.
Would you want to be up there in the middle of a field or some lumpy farmyard with no safety equipment ■■
billybigrig:
Would you want to be up there in the middle of a field or some lumpy farmyard with no safety equipment ■■
Used to do it every summer when I was a kid. My 3 uncles had farms next to each other. we would all muck in and help get the hay in. Us kids would stand on the triailer and stack the bales, while the adults through them up to us. Once it got so high the only way down was to throw the bales down again, so we would sit on the top of the stack all the way back to the farm, watching out for low branches!
It was great fun, us kids would look forward to it every year. No health & safety rubbish then!
Denis F:
kr79:
cieranc:
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again - Why don’t straw merchants sheet a load up?With most straw fires reckoned to be caused by cigarette butts flicked from a window, surely sheeting the straw would massively reduce the risk of it taking fire?
Any straw merchants here?
Someone once told my the sheet would hold heat in and the load could combust. Don’t know how true that is as I am a city boy.
That’s possible, but another reason could be they would get ripped to shreds on trees and low branches !
Along with the fact that since the advent of ratchet straps and big squares, loads can be strapped from ground level with no need to clamber 16’ up onto the top risking ones neck just to get a sheet on, although some of the ‘‘proffessional’’ straw hauliers do net their loads to score a few brownie points 
I was always led to believe, if you didn’t sheet them and it rained heavy, you would end up over weight. or was that just an old tale.
Dieseldog66:
I was always led to believe, if you didn’t sheet them and it rained heavy, you would end up over weight. or was that just an old tale.
I think it’s a wives tale,unless you are carting it through the Brazilian rain forest in the monsoon season of course. 
One of the hazards of hauling hay & straw is overhead electric wires. If they are caught by the top of a load ,
then the electrical spark can cause instant combustion.
This photograph shows wires I had gingerly passed under. I thought about wearing my wellies to reduce the chance of getting an electric shock if the wires were to be snagged 
.
Cheers, cattle wagon man.
