Smoke Tarps and a Dirt Burner
 

If I have a "dirt burner" (horizontal, under cab mounted exhaust), and the load information says it requires a smoke tarp, do I still need to use the tarp? I mean with a dirt burner there's no smoke to damage the load.

I think I would be inclined to put the tarp on anyway- when I hauled siding, we had to use salt tarps in the winter- but winter was determined by the calendar, not by the weather or road conditions. If we didn't have the tarp on, we didn't get paid for the load. Thankfully, I never found that out the hard way, but I know of drivers who did.

I never drove a "Grass-Burner", but back when I pulled a flat, I was always told (by the shipper) that they did not have to use them. However, I've also hauled loads of wooden spools that had been sitting out in the weather, and a tarp was required. Soil pipes (sewer pipe) that will never see fresh water after they're put in, and I had to tarp them.

I believe I would check with the shipper, or even better, the receiver, and see if they require that you put a smoke tarp on. If they tell you "YES", I would follow orders. Otherwise, when in doubt, TARP THE LOAD. I've done that and it saved my butt more than once.

For that matter, it doesn't take much to put a small tarp on the front of the load. Not like having to tarp the whole load. I always carried a "half-tarp" just for that.

I bought a “smoke tarp” as well as a three piece (24’x18’ each) 8’ drop lumber tarp, but I’m hoping to not use either very often. Of course, if I’m told to tarp by the consignee, I’ll tarp the load. I was just wondering if they would understand that there would be no real benefit to doing so in my case. I thought that perhaps others here might have some experience with this situation.


I’ve never driven a truck with a dirt burner either, but I’m about to. I decided to remove my vertical 5” rear mounted exhaust and put it under the truck so that I could move my headache rack further forward on the rails. I also removed a fuel tank, which I have been debating doing for over two years. Removing the passenger side tank made the exhaust project a lot simpler and it will save about 1,100 pounds to boot. Moving the exhaust underneath the truck saved close to 100 pounds between the brackets and pipe I was able to get rid of.

That's funny, I did the same thing a week ago so I could install a headache rack. Only, I didn't want to go the grass burner route so I ran a 5" pipe up the back of the bunk and bolted it to the headache rack so the headache rack is now doing double duty as a exhaust stack support.

My pipes are on the side, next to the tanks, shipper said no smoke tarp needed, this is an old pic, sold the flat in 2008

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...cotrip2020.jpg

Doing that wouldn’t have accomplished anything in my situation, as the 10” muffler would’ve still been behind the sleeper causing the headache rack to be mounted no closer than fourteen or more inches from the back of the cab. The rack I bought is the three door cabinet type, 67”H x 84”W x 14” deep, like the one below, except I ordered mine with polished diamond plate:

http://tlwoods.com/images/05semicab6.JPG

Because it's a fairly deep cabinet, I thought moving it all the way forward would be the thing to do to give me more room to route the air and electrical lines and also open my options a little regarding where I can set my fifth wheel.

Maniac, your truck looks great with the pipes mounted there… it’s a very slick looking configuration. I had considered placing it there as well, but it would have involved a lot more work and this is a big enough project as it is. My pipe comes down from the back of the engine and then runs directly beneath the passenger side rail and terminates about six inches in front of the “flex-air” suspension spring. I still need to do something for a quarter or half fender, but when I priced them earlier this week, all four places I called wanted over $2k for the fenders and brackets; and I’m already over $5k into converting from a reefer setup to a stepdeck (excluding the $45k for the trailer, of course) and just can’t justify spending another $2k on fenders.

I would appreciate any suggestions regarding a cost effective solution to my fender problem. Below is a pic from the website I ordered my rack from. Check out this one solution for fenders and let me know what you think.

http://tlwoods.com/images/05semicab3big.JPG

Also, I’d love to see pics or hear suggestions of what to do with my electrical and air lines. Right now I’ve settled on mounting the grab rail from the back of my sleeper onto the bottom front of my headache rack and attaching hanger hardware and a short spring from there. Right now I have the coiled type lines, by the way.

No, I moved the muffler underneath the truck, but still ran the 5" pipe up behind the bunk where the muffler used to be.

I don't recall how deep mine is....14" seems about right. It's a 3 door Merritt.

As for the air lines, so far I have coil spring attached to the top of the headache rack with an s hook. The spring hangs down and supports the lines.

Sorry, I must’ve misunderstood the first time ‘round. That would certainly be an improvement over the stock configuration; still, I’m going to be able to mount the rack just a couple inches behind the cab with the mod I did. I will certainly concede that using the rack as an exhaust mount is an ingenious idea. That thought never crossed have my mind to honest. Did you have to drill holes in the rack to accomplish your mod? I’m very hesitant to put holes in an aluminum box that I just paid $2,600 for that is designed to be weather tight.

Tomorrow, or make that later this morning, I’ll be bolting the rack on, and then Saturday I’m heading to my ace-in-the-hole welder and fab guy to have him make some mods. Instead of drilling holes all over the outer shell of the rack and using eye-bolts, I’m going to have him weld small tabs with holes so I can strap my tarps and maybe a ladder to the top of the rack. I also want to add something to take advantage of all the wasted space in the right and left compartments. Right now there’s just one piece of angle on each side for hanging chains. I’m open to suggestions if you’ve made any such mods to your rack.

hope it not alloy headrack as you call them ,on our logtrucks we have probs with them cracking near chassy mounts ,use steel instead ,can make them different so they not to heavy and saves cops not causing problems

I’ve never seen a headache rack / cabinet made out of anything but aluminum, but of course I’m no expert. I’ve also not heard of them cracking with any regularity. Could it be that off-roading on a daily basis like most log trucks do puts stress on the racks that is not encountered in the typical on-highway operation? I will be adding some additional reinforcement to the base as well as attaching the legs not only via the standard u-bolt system, but also bolting the legs to the rails with brackets.

Even if I went grass burner, the vertical aluminum I-beams of the headache rack would still hit the bunk.

Me either. I thought about it for a year, then a month ago I saw a guy down at the port of Baltimore and that's when the light bulb went on.

Yeah I drilled two holes to accommodate one of those U shaped muffler clamps. I made a rubber gasket and placed it between the aluminum rack and the steel "saddle" of the clamp. This should keep water out but mostly I did it to stop galvanic corrosion from the contact between the dissimilar metals.

Flat fenders like in the pic will hold up very well, and can be put on cheaply enough, just make them strong, if they wiggle they break.

My buddy who still pulls flat put his airlines under the tractor by the tail lights, and then modified the trailer to work with them, he also T'ed the lines so that he could pull a trailer with a regular set up, and also some one could pull his trailer with a regular setup, he used mostly quick fit air couplings, like those used on air tools, pretty slick, wish I had some pics, I'll try to find some

Now THAT would be interesting to see. I've always felt that the glad hand system was under engineered, but never envisioned anything even remotely close to what you just described as a replacement. I’d be very interested to see pics of the system your friend came up with. It’s amazing what some drivers come up with.

I went to my fab shop yesterday to get some aluminum flat bar and was talking to the owner's dad who used to flatbed, and in passing he mentioned that he had actually plumbed his duel exhaust right THROUGH the sides of his rack. I’m assuming that having a prodigy aluminum fab / CNC / welder as a son made his little project a little cheaper and easier than it would be for most other guys. . I would be worried about the heat from the exhaust harming items stored in and on the box, but still it is an intriguing idea.

Getting to galvanic corrosion: aluminum and stainless steel are not actually galvanically compatible because they have significantly different potentials, but the passivity of both can reduce the problem to non-problematical for non-critical applications if the area of the aluminum is greater than the area of the stainless steel (stainless fasteners on aluminum architectural features usually aren't a significant problem, but aluminum pop rivets on stainless steel sheets would be). Also, when I use aluminum in direct contact with steel, I apply a thin coating of Never Seize to the contact points. There is also a great product from ECK (Eck® Dissimilar Metal Protection :: By VANNAY LLC ) that is specifically designed to prevent galvanic corrosion.

The muffler clamp I attached to the rack was steel. Zinc plated probably. I know, I know....I try to use stainless hardware wherever possible, but we had it in stock.

some pics of my dirty old truck....

You can kinda see how even with the stack behind the bunk, the rack is still only 2" away from the bunk.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085556.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085337.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085455.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085631.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085850.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085829.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085750.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...2611085657.jpg

u-bolts on a headache rack!!!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!

Whaddya figure....98% of headache racks out there are like that?

I don't think I'll ever own another one. They'll all be bolt through frame style. Problem is, what if the fuel tanks are right in the way?

it moved around on you that bad did it? This one doesn't seem too bad so far. I've tightened two of the U bolts since I put it on....~ 5000 miles ago I guess. I kinda thought it would get better once I made a deck plate for it.

It has been a pain. Moving around, plus the aluminum bends. I notice on newer ones they have the bottom aluminum reinforced. I also put oak in the frame rails so the frame doesn't bend, this really helped.

Put some rubber, like a mudflap, under the feet of the rack, where it sits on the frame, cut them in 3" wide strips THEN tighten it, wont move then.

GOt this pic from the interet, check out where the air lines are

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...DR62/015-4.jpg

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/17...600x600Q85.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...Drags088-1.jpg

Rank, you’re right about stainless hardware… it’s all I’ll use in an external application. The pictures give a much better understanding of just how close you were able to mount your rack to the cab of your truck. It looks like you’re only a couple inches further than what I ended up with. I just have less pipe and maybe less work with the solution I settled on. After getting the thing actually bolted down today, it looks like my best solution for air and electrical routing is to mount one of the chrome rails I pulled off the back of the tractor either to the bottom of the cabinet or just under it and bolt it to the legs. I’m leaning toward bolting to the legs so I can keep the cabinet hole-free.

I left a bracket that my Davco fuel filter was bolted to on the side of the rail and I’m going to run a couple bolts through that and through the right side foot of the rack. Then on the left side there’s a ½” bolt running across the top of the rail that is part of the mount for my apu. I’m welding 5/8” plates to the bottom of the feet and splitting the plate on the left side so that it creates a channel for the apu bolt that will also serve to keep the left side from sliding any. I did notice that the top of the aluminum I-beams pulled in a tiny bit after I torqued the u-bolts down, but it was only a small bit.

That really is interesting. It might make for a fun spring project next year. I’ll have to consult Reitnouer though because the dealer said that cutting into the electrical harness at all would void my warranty and I’d hate to do that. Also, I wonder what the likelihood is that a piece of road debris (errant tire tread or even roadkill) could kick up and take out the lines. That would ruin your whole day.

For the electric line you could make one that plugs into the front and then goes underneath, as far as something hitting it, there is always the chance, then again, just DRIVING in general has become a take a chance sort of thing these days....

I’m with you on that one. I like the overall concept of relocating the lines, but I think there should be something a little safer than what I see in these pictures. It is definitely food for thought and I plan on devoting some brain power to coming up with an improvement in the design. “Ideating” as my wordsmith father would call it.

I would think those lines would be pretty tight possibly even pull apart a glad handle in some of the places I back into.

They look like they have about the same room as they would mounted in the traditional above frame location. I just think you’re playing with fire having something so important to your safety placed so low to the ground. I could be wrong on both counts though.

rank, I see you don't have anything strapped to the top of your rack. Do you carry tarps? Where do you keep them if you do? What about a ladder? I was thinking I'd strap my tarps to the top of the rack and the collapsible ladder I bought might fit in a trailer tool box. My two boxes are 60”L x 18” D x 12 H and my ladder collapses to 48” long and about 22” at the widest point at the base. The diagonal of the tool box should be just under 22” (according to Pythagoras of course), so I won’t know if it will fit in there until I try it out. I could also strap the ladder to the rack as well, but it is a lot lighter and a lot easier to steal than the tarps, so I'm hesitant to keep it out in the open unchained.

Not if you're behind me!

I made a smoke tarp out of discarded 2/3 piece of 8' drop half. 10.5'x11' works great.

I like mine bolted to frame. I wanted to hang my lines out the back but didn't want to take off even longer to F with the trailer. I just fabbed this setup with 12' coils.
I hate tripping over these but it's better than have some chit hanging like vines in front of my doors.

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I bought the smoke tarp when I bought my three piece 8 foot drop tarp set. I just don't want to have to use it anymore than I have to.

Isn’t it a safety violation to have even the electrical line dangling on the catwalk like that?

I’m torn with what to do about the lines. I finished the project of relocating my muffle and removing the one fuel tank a couple days ago and got the rack mounted (temporarily) to the rails. My welder / fab / CNC guy just ordered the diamond plate to make my full fenders and catwalk today so I need to figure out what I’m doing with the lines ASAP because we’ll be doing the fenders and catwalk no later than Friday (I hope).

I have several ideas in mind. Right now I have the troublesome stock coiled lines (removed from the truck right now) with the old “springy dick” suspension for them. I’m thinking about keeping the aluminum angle that all the lines mounted to the frame though and placing it 12 to 18” beneath the front of the rack. Then I could bolt one of the shorter grab rails I cut off the back of the cab, to the top face of the rack, and attach one of those long springs that are commonly used with straight lines to the rail with a carabiner that would allow the spring to freely slide, but also allow me to quickly disconnect it if it’s in my way. This method would be best if I went to the straight lines, because when I dropped them from the cabiner, they’d fall flat to the catwalk and be less of a tripping hazard.

The second solution is to mount the slider rail underneath the rack (either directly to the bottom of the box or to the top of the legs) and then attach the clamps that hold the lines together to the rail with the carabiner. The only advantage to this method is that it would keep the lines below the doors of my cabinet and negate the requirement of having to drill holes in and cause possible leaks in the top of my box. Tomorrow I’ll probably have to make poopy or get off the pot and do something.

If anybody wants to see pics of anything I’ve done so far just let me know and I’ll post what I’ve done so far.

What's a tarp?

Just kidding. Mostly we do equipment so I don't tarp that often...mostly they just sit on the floor in the shop. When I do need them, I put them in the trailer tool box. Keep in mind I am only out for 1-2 nights at the most before I am back to the yard to reload outbound. I always know what my backhaul is...and whether or not I need a tarp before I leave the yard.

4x4 dunnage has always been placed on the trailer knee braces between the braces and the main beams and ladders have always been bungeed to the knee braces. That has worked well for many many years, but know the DOT has developed an affliction to that and started ticketing us for "loose cargo" and using a securement device that doesn't have a wll. Now I have to come up with a better means of securing that stuff.

Matter of fact, just got letter in the mail today. My CSA score increased by something like 75 points because of "cargo violations" between June and Oct. So we went from being in the best 20% of carriers in my peer group to being in the worst 2.5%....even though nothing fell off the trailer or even shifted. Now we have to go ticketless for another 12-24 months until those infractions drop off......and that is impossible these days. Not sure what is going to happen, but we will be facing fines, sanctions or suspension of authority for sure. This is pretty much a load of BS.

With my trailer, the landing gear is designed in a way that there is no place for dunnage. I will probably just place it between my two load levelers and the step and throw a strap over the stack. That’s one of the nice things about having a 53 foot trailer… space usually isn’t at a premium. I thought about using a hand strap and securing the ladder to the front of the landing gear legs and then maybe adding a small locking cable to make thieves work a little harder to take it. I still didn’t check today to see if the ladder would fit in the either the trailer tool box or even in the headache rack. I did manage to go out and neatly place all the straps I have into one of the tool boxes and then I sat down and bent the ends of a hundred bungees, so I did actually do SOMETHING.

I wondered if the DOT was going to crack down on guys storing dunnage loose in the landing gear. I know they started making a stink about spare tires in racks that weren’t properly secured. My ISS score is 12, my “Unsafe Driving” BASIC is 4.37 (the wife got popped in NM in 2010… no seatbelthttp://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/...n_roulette.gif ). Everything else is zero. I’ve been very, very lucky, believe me.

I hope everything works out with your scores. I’d like to think that you’re not going to be shut down if everything else is and has been clean. GOOD LUCK!

I might be flirting with disaster with the electric cord depending on a D-bag inspector. As far as I can read it's legal. There is conduit around the cord so technically it doesn't rub on anything. The conduit rests on my "slider" plate (catwalk) and is actually wearing the aluminum not the plastic. The air lines are free. They don't touch anything which definitely would be a violation. Electric wires can be found touching in many places on every truck you'll find.

I cleared all my inspections violation free so far. 0 CSA pts.

Nobody likes a bragger. http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/.../targetted.gif
I bet rank would like to slap you right right about now for being a show-off. http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/...9/cc8955a5.gif