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.
Loads of little bales were sheeted mainly to keep the top row dry, and to hold the top row on, as its not practical to strap every bale.
I regularly deliver conventional bale hay to Wales, north of Telsarn if anyone knows it. Around 650 bales on a lowloader, stacked by hand, ratchet strapped and sheeted. I feel much happier running sheeted as the load is held together as one mass really. Two long straps, front to back and ratchets front and back, then about 8 straps side to side, ratchets both sides. I pull up the straps before I leave, the morning after loading, again before hitting the M4 and usually at Camarthen. It’s a day trip, no overnight stop. I also deliver big bale straw in Somerset and in Devon, the bales are loaded across the bed, 76 on a load, two straps front to back, ratchets front and back and that’s it. No sheet as we don’t deliver it in the rain if at all possible. If a shower does pass, it soon blows off just through driving.
Hay spontaneously combusts when it is baled damp, moisture generates heat, heat increases and a smouldering effect begins eventually igniting itself.
Round bales are transported by road but not as commonly as squares as taking the load as one mass, there is more produce in one in one big square load than lots of round ones. Many drivers or hauliers don’t get paid enought to stack a load of little bales on a lorry, a wagon and drag can carry in excess of 800 conventional bales. If a driver is on his Tod, that’s a lot of work before having to then drive all day. So big bales speed the job up no end. Fully loaded, I gross about 30t loaded with hay irbstraw.
Bales wrapped in black plastic are silage (grass mown before seeding, wilted and then baled and wrapped), haylage (grass mown at or after seeding, left to dry and then baled and wrapped. Popular with equestrian people)) or whole crop (cereal crop such as barley or wheat, mown when seed head is at the milky/doughey stage, baled and wrapped). Straw is the residual stalks of grain crops like wheat, barley and oats left behind by the combine.
hahahahahahahahaha 
fires, most of which are caused for insurance,wearing wellies your talking about something else fella,electric cables/telephone most of them are too low,one day in cornwall comes to mind where my load ended up with this chaps phone pulled out through his bedroom window and ended up on the side of my load (still working ) 
dragging a load up the side of the black mountains makes your bum twitch 
or getting the odd woble going on, telegraph poles in breacon 
" ■■■■ thing was too close to the road" as well , sheeting up has anyone tried that 15/16 feet up in the air in the middle off a field with a warm summers breeze blowing about ( no saftey harrness their ) i should no its a long way down you don’t bounce belive me, little bit of damp means more cash 
when i was driving which spanned some 20 odd years driving up and down the M4/A303/M5/A30 in and out of cornwall/wales i have seen some amazing country side,sun rise’s/ sun sets,i have woken up to some of the best breakfasts you could ever imagine" fresh", people who became good freinds. driving through a bit of cow ■■■■ always came in handy back then kept the vosa boy’s away those were the days good times
Anyone on hay and straw ever been done for insecure loading? Often had a laugh at a convertable getting covered after following a hay wagon.
Not as funny as the bird in the white BMW convertable that cut me up and then got rained on when several cows in the cattle wagon had a ■■■■■ at the same time though.
My grandad drove for hay/straw/coal merchant during the war. Regular run on a Bedford O’Type from our local stations upto London to feed it’s horse population. Must’ve been interesting in the winter along the old A40.
I do the occasional run for straw but if i have to overnight its usually on the farmers property in the middle of nowhere, so not much chance of kids/weirdos setting the load on fire for a laugh.
I have seen straw loaded in a curtainsider but you can’t get as much on as with a flat so thats probably why its not so popular!
Al
We had some drivers in to load earlier in the year who were on traction for Cobelfret. Had a few trailers in with a bit of straw on the floor, which I thought was unusual for these guys, so I asked one of them whether they’d got lost He said they’d been loading straw over here for export to Germany I believe, for a power station. All in curtainsiders.
Nobby Dunseandtangled was hauling a lot back to France when the demand was a high and there are a few UK hauliers that do Belgium very regularly.
bluenose:
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.
A lot of Hay/straw is moved off the fields a soon as it’s baled. When it is freshly cut/ turned & baled , the chemical changes within create heat, this causes spontaneous combustion ( triangle of oxygen/heat/fuel). It does not matter that the bales are large , small, round or square, that is more for cost effectiveness, & convienience.
Those that bale & use it themselves, rather than having it hauled /sold across country, will often leave the big bales on the field to ‘sweat’ out for a week or two before taking it to store, the small bales left out for a few days & then in the barn loosely stacked in the bottom.
Hey CWM, you’ve got a fair load on tha’ truck
flapper:
hahahahahahahahaha
We ran hay from Canada to Texas all last winter, stood on top sheeting at below -20 in some very stiff breezes, without harnesses.
No fires that I know of. youtube.com/watch?v=mMhPYW6kp_c
Another one last night thecourier.co.uk/News/Dundee … ridge.html 
Been on it all week!
mickfly:
flapper:
hahahahahahahahahaWe ran hay from Canada to Texas all last winter, stood on top sheeting at below -20 in some very stiff breezes, without harnesses.
No fires that I know of. youtube.com/watch?v=mMhPYW6kp_c
■■■■■■’ brill vids mate, Cath seems a good sport, my missus - as wide and bearded as she is according to taffy ■■■■■■ - would’ve killed me in the 1st 60 seconds
What a cracking vid, thanks for sharing.
If there is a job in road haulage I never fancied carrying Hay & Straw is the one, they just never look safe to me, and of all the shed loads I have seen Hay & Straw outnumber everything else, I would imagine I have seen 2/3 every year, is there a knack to securing them?.
And someone once told me if you don’t sheet them and it rains your load can gain a great deal of weight is that true?
Yes, there is a correct way to stack them solid to avoid them moving, but also they need roping down, as to sheeting the load ,it does help to stop rain from adding ‘weight’ by absorbtion, also going up narrow lanes with low hanging branches, the load would get ‘shredded’ over the top / sides, without sheeting.
There is no real science on how to load a lorry with bales. Bales very in size, lorries vary in length, bed type and combination so it is down to the driver on how is best for.him and his lorry to load bales depending on their size. The photo I posted above shows how bales are loaded on our lowloader. Across the bed, four layers atbthe frony, five on the bed. The fourth layer at the back had three bales loaded at right angles to the rest to help ‘tie in’ the stack. The big Hesston bales, often only two layers are loaded length ways down the bed, it is often these that go over as the weight naturally wants to sideways with momentum at roundabouts, corners etc. This is is not such a big problem if loaded the way I have done. Unlike other loads, you cannot put the heavy stuff nearer the bottom to aid the centre of gravity. You need to bare in mind that if the top layer will weigh the same as the bottom, in my case there is 6t over the height of 14ft.
A lot of it is just common sense, any experienced driver who has transported different cargo on a variety of trailers would probably work it out for them selves to be honest.
Like I said about sheeting earlier, with little bale hay it really does help a lot to contain the load, protect the load from branches and of course the weather. It’s a higher value than straw so you have to make the effort. I have very rarely seen any straw sheeted though, it is often going to he put through a chopper for cattle bedding so if it is a bit clammy it isn’t the end of the world but you would aim to run with it in heavy rain, it spoils and you look like an idiot.
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.
Don’t think you could get enough rain to make much difference, although it might help the load value if it rains before you weigh it
stevie dug:
Yesterdays load.
That be a fair load, nice one.
