My best suggestion is to not haul pipe on your pretty trailer, some forklift drivers can be very rough and if you load in a port, good luck, some longshoremen could destroy a anvil let alone a aluminum trailer. Texas terminal in Houston has a sign in the office that says they do not pay for damage on aluminum trailers.

Clearly I don’t want to make my living hauling pipe, just as I don’t want to tarp anymore loads than absolutely necessary. I do however want to be prepared to haul the best paying load available. If it happens to be pipe once in a while, so be it.

I appreciate your concern for the safety and condition of my new trailer. As this is your second mention between two different threads expressing that concern, I can only assume that you’ve had one or more bad experiences yourself. While this is the first factory-new piece of equipment I’ve owned, I understand that it is going to get bumped and bruised and nicked and dinged. Do I want my nice new trailer to get banged up? Of course not, but it is inevitable with a working piece of equipment. http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/...69/shrug_n.gif What am I supposed to do, keep the trailer parked and go out back and look at it every now and then? That would be the only way to keep the think looking relatively new, and that doesn’t put food on my table.

[QUOTE=Musicman;505970]Clearly I don’t want to make my living hauling pipe, just as I don’t want to tarp anymore loads than absolutely necessary. I do however want to be prepared to haul the best paying load available. If it happens to be pipe once in a while, so be it.
[QUOTE]

I haul pipe thru Texas every other day. Most pipe yards require pipe stakes that are 4' tall. These can be made of c-channel or 2 7/8" pipe that was cut to size and pressed closed at one end. These stakes are easily found in Houston especially at the pawn shop by the Pilot and Loves.
As for securing them to the trailer, I use a chain at the bottom only and I wrap around the pocket and the stake. (chain down thru rub rail, up at 45 degree to opposite side of pocket the wrap around the stake. Pull hook to link of chain going across trailer and repeat on the other side. Then use a binder to pull tight.)
There is no chain requirement at the top but I have seen really tall stakes where the driver used a 2" strap and binder to pull them together so that they were no over width.

2' tall stakes are used for pyramid loads only and only at certain pipe yards. Also remember to carry enough boards to stack load. TXDOT no long likes pyramid loads. I carry 9 3x4 boards and 3 4x4 hard wood boards for the bottom layer.