A Car Haulers tale redux. New company, new truck, and NEW cars! Pic heavy thread of my load.

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Mon Sep-19-11 09:06 PM
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A Car Haulers tale redux. New company, new truck, and NEW cars! Pic heavy thread of my load.

A few months ago I put up this thread about a trip I made from the Phoenix area to Denver. I have since left that company and joined another firm which hauls almost exclusively new vehicles. Better pay (MUCH better), better conditions, better truck, a paid hotel every night and new units! The firm is based out of Jacksonville, FL. and delivers mostly in the Southeast.

One of the yards they pull vehicles out of is a large automobile import facility in Brunswick, Georgia. We carry Kia's, Hyundai's, Audi's, VW's and Porsche's out of there. I'm putting a load of 9 VW's on.

Here's a Wikimapia shot of the Brunswick, GA Auto Processing facility

Here's the yard where my units are. The long parking lines near the bottom are where the transporters park to load.

And here it is a bit closer to the ground;

The space for VW's and Audi's has roughly 2100 parking spaces. Mine are out there somewhere! From the left, the rows are numbered 100 to about 170 at the front, then 200's, 300's, etc. back to the fence line which is the 700's. The red and the white units in the center of the pic are at spot # 145, roughly. Each bay number represents 4 individual parking spots (bays) lined up behind each other so if my location is 653 for instance, there will be 4 units I have to look at. I'm given a color though, so it is pretty simple. Just a lot of walking! All the way to the left of the photo are Hyundai's and Kia's. There is another 2000 + bays at that end of the yard also, inside the same fenced area. So this one yard will hold more than 4000 vehicles.

From the same spot looking north.

The ship in the background is a Panamax Carrier used to carry automobiles. They are designed to precisely fit into the locks of the Panama Canal. It is my understanding that vessels of that size are capable of carrying up to 2000 units, as the interior decks are movable up and down. Fill a deck with sedans and then they can lower the next deck down to just a few inches clearance. You can barely make out the fence in the distance, but in that next yard were Bentley's and Rolls Royce's.

A shot of the units in their bays.

Note how the left hand tires are right on the line. This is an industry standard practice, be it a port facility, a rail yard or a manufacturing plant. This is done to ensure there is always space to the drivers left, so no door dings. This is also always done regardless whether the units are ready to be shipped, as they are in this yard, or being processed for shipment. The processing includes such things as placing the accessories inside the cars, placing the Monroney Sticker in the window and generally making sure the unit has all it will need for the dealer to prep the car for the customer.

First unit on the head rack.

In the past, it was typical to back this unit on if it was necessary to load 3 across the top of the tractor. However, my company insists when at all possible to drive this unit on as they have had several rear windows blow out while being transported down the highway due to a rock or even a bird strike. Apparently, the rear window glass on many vehicles these days isn't as strong as the windshield, so driving this first unit on reduces that risk.

The second unit on.

This unit I have "Spit Decked" meaning the rear wheels are on one deck and the fronts on another. Note the space between the two cars. I have to move the second unit forward in order for the tractor unit to clear the trailer when I turn the truck.

And now I've done that.

The number two position on this truck telescopes and the # 3 deck slides as one piece, so I have to put the unit in park but leave the parking brake disengaged. That way the rear wheels will roll as I move the decks. Typically when I load a unit it goes in Park or 1st gear and the E-Brake is engaged.

Here's the rest of my units;

There are two behind that line that are hard to see, but I've collected the remaining 8 of my load. That process alone took a little over an hour and I figured I walked about 2 miles.

A VW in an envelope!

Volkswagen as well as several other manufacturers use this sort of close fitting car cover on some or all of their models. This one is a VW Golf. The envelope/cover does a lot to reduce the possibility of road damage (paint chips from rocks, etc.) as well as keep the unit much cleaner.

These envelopes have a zipper opening for the drivers side door.

Just unzip it, roll it up and secure it to the roof with a little strap that is attached to the envelope.

Here it is backed on with the door zippered back again.

This is an Audi A5 I carried last week with the same covering.

Almost all of the Audi's have these, but only a few of the VW's do. Porsche uses them too. They throw them away at the dealership. I would have thought they reused them, but no.

5 cars loaded across the top.

The decks are down, so I'll secure the units and then raise the decks to load underneath.

The decks raised up and pinned in place.

This trailer design has a one piece upper deck, as opposed to the 3 individual decks the truck I drove before had. The deck is hinged in the middle and has an extendable segment at the front. It is fully extended in this pic.

This is my primary tool and it is inserted in the ratchet barrel used to tighten the cars down.

This is also an industry standard device and tool - called appropriately enough, a "Tie Down Bar".

Detail of the strap and hook.

For years, vehicles were chained down on transporters but now most new car manufacturers have gone to this "Soft tie" system, which is a flat nylon strap that fits over the tires and has hooks which are inserted into the decking the car sits on.

The "Idler hook"

This hook slides up and down the length of the strap, and the strap then runs to the ratchet barrel. Just hook one end on one side of the tire, run the strap over the tire, set the idler in place and tighten. The downside to this system is the car is still live on its suspension so you have to leave extra clearance on units loaded on the bottom. The upside is less chance of damage to the chassis. I have seen cars that were literally folded in half because a driver had split decked the unit and used his hydraulics to try and tighten the chains. I've seen a brand new Ford Ranger that was an inverted "V" shape from such an incident.

9 on and ready to go!

The #2 unit is the highest one, and it is sitting right at 13'4". Statutory height on the Interstate System is 13'6".

Now on to the DC area to drop! 4 stops. A single, a single, a 6 and a single. Rockville is first off, then DC, Laurel and then Waldorf, MD. down on US 301 near the Potomac.

Hope you enjoyed it!