Tarps
 

im a flatbedder. luckily , i dont have to tarp much.
usually steel coils coming from southern cal to northern cal
problem is, since we dont tarp much, the company wont spring for nice rubber tarps with D rings for us to carry on our trucks.
i have to use canvas tarps that have no D rings. only eyeholes on the edges.
therefore, the tarps have to be secured with straps and ropes.
would there be an advantage for me to go and get 1 or 2 nice tarps to make it easier for me to do my job. or, should i just hope to get faster and more skilled with what i have to work with?

any tarping pros out there want to chime in and tell me what you use and where i could get 'em.

thanks, mike

The more you tarp the more proficient you become. You state that you don't do that much tarping anyway. I would not buy tarps unless I owned the truck. Tarps are not cheap. You can spend from about $235-375 per tarp. A three tarp set can run $800 or more. That is a lot of money to save a few minutes every now and then.

Our tarps ran about $1500-1800 per set (2 tarps) if your company doesn't care why should you? (I know that may be a bad attitude) I can't imagine having only one row of bungee securement on a tarp, especially on the bottom edge, that's just cheap. I’d rather it be 3-4 feet up from the bottom so I could at least roll up the excess fabric, or just have them get some coil tarps.
I did tarp a small coil once with my smoke tarp. :wink:
That may be worth investing in, if it saves you time and energy.

thanks.
i didnt know they cost that much. YIKES

i think i'll just work with what i have and pray for few coil loads.

If you primarily haul coils, they do make coil tarps. I don't recall how much they cost, but it should be less than regular tarps.

thank you

I checked a couple of companies who make the coil bags. They seem to run from about $155-180 each.

thats more than i thought they would be. i guess i just have to suck it up and deal with what i got.
i cant really complain. that seems to be the only part of my job thats a pain.
thanks for looking into it for me

Sometimes you might catch an O/O that is changing tarps out for new ones,might get a good deal on the used ones.

If I was still hauling coils, and the bags truly were in that price range, I would surely hafta get my own personal bag. I can recall LOTS of time wasted tarping with damm lumber tarps in the wind!!!!!! I wound up cutting @12' of length offa a tarp that was headed to the trash, saved me a little time. What really sucked was tarping a coil they pluck out of the MUD!!!!