Ropes illegal to tie a load

To think, I used to cart bags of cement, fertiliser, horse and dog food, flour, sugar, etc, etc on a road train throughout Central and northern Qld, over mostly gravel (if you were lucky) or blacksoil tracks, through creekbeds and up and down jumpups, with nothing but a few ropes (not even nylon) and a tarp holding them on!
Biggest problem as I see it, is the huge number of so-called truck drivers out there who got their licence at so-called testing facilities, jump into a 600 HP Kenworth and hit the highways with their shiny chrome and dazzling led lights. When the inevitable happens and it all turns to poo, the first thing that pops out of their mouth is "the load shifted, Officer!" Equally young and inexperienced copper puts that in his report, and later on some desk-polisher puts out a report on the vast number of heavy vehicle accidents involving "shifting loads". Recommendation - we need a Load Restraint Guide. End result - we have a guide, now we can enforce compliance! After hassling truckies for a few years, some bright young thing realized what a huge revenue raiser there could be in checking car trailers and utes at the tip on Saturday morning.

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Mmmm does this mean ropes on Tarps have to be rated:p
I like many others prefer ropes over rachet tie downs . Mainly the type for cars or trailers are just crap you can tie a rope tighter than most of those crap rachets.
I have been driving heavy trucks for a lot longer than most of these so called know it all politicians and have never ever lost a load using ropes

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Originally Posted by joel0407

Well I had a little, not a lot but a little bit of a read of some of the links provided by the ABC page.

I followed through a little and one of the things I browsed was the "Load Restraint Guide". It says the restraint needs to secure the load in the following conditions (or something like that).

0.8 g deceleration in a forward direction,
0.5 g deceleration in a rearward direction,
0.5 g acceleration in a lateral direction, and to
0.2 g acceleration relative to the load in a vertical direction.

So 0.8g is 80% of the weight of the item. If something weighs 100kg, the securing rope needs to secure it to 80kg. Telstra rope has a SWL of 200kg. So 2 lengths of Telstra rope holding an item to a head board has a SWL of 400kg (straight line). The requirement is for only 0.5g rearward. So 1 length of Telstra rope is enough to hold 800kg to a head board. Then you'd need to same laterally and it's going to be way over kill for the length you have over the top, holding it down.

I can tell you now if I was securing something 800kg, I would be using more than 3 lengths of Telstra rope.

So to put this into perspective. I could use 1 peice of Telstra rope from the front of a car trailer to a single tie point of a Suzuki Swift and back to the front of the trailer, do the same on the rear and that would be legal.

I don't think too many people need to get there knickers in a not over this. I suspect most of us use overkill when it comes to securing stuff.

Happy Days

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Dont forget a knot in a rope will lower its SWL a bit - how much depends on the knot

Bollocks :o

I've rarely had a rope come undone on a load, but many times rat **** straps have broken or released themselves.

As others have said tying the correct knot is not difficult. The old firies adage comes to mind "if you can't tie knots, tie lots"

As far as I know, any form of restraint when carrying a load, has always needed to be rated and rated to the load you're carrying.

I would imagine they are just reminding people of this fact, mainly to try and stop joe blow from tying down his 6 lengths of 4 x 2 planks with 6mm nylon rope and bungie straps.

Baz.

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Originally Posted by EastFreo

That is ridiculous. Learning a simple half hitch and a truckie's hitch isn't hard and I reckon easier than using some of the strap contraptions around.

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Wanna bet, James?

I've never been able to tie knots, even the most simple. They always come undone.
When I was in the VRA on Norfolk Island (which mainly trained for cliff rescue) they'd never let me near a rope!

Edit: if I want a knot to stay tight, I glue it. Seriously.

How do rope cargo nets comply or do you have to strap down every thing under ?
Have also been told overcentre chain dogs are not legal need to be ratchet type A twitch of wire thru a link and around the handle never had a problem:confused:

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Originally Posted by joel0407

I use Telstra rope for near everthing since being a Telstra Subie for over 9 years. I hear all sorts of rubbish how I cant use it to secure a load. Well it is actually rated rope. The only problem would be if I tied somthing down that exceeded it's rating.

Happy Days

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Yes it is rated,,
and its only legally to be used once!
(thats why OZ is full of it)

I would think the manufacturer would laugh you out of court trying that on with used stuff.... ;)

Yep I was told you have to use a cargo net on a trailer. Also the holes in the net have to be too small to fit a fist through or we will be fined. So I bought a net with small holes plus I use ratchet straps.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Yep I was told you have to use a cargo net on a trailer. Also the holes in the net have to be too small to fit a fist through or we will be fined. So I bought a net with small holes plus I use ratchet straps.

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Just making the point most nets are rope and also have yet to see one with mesh that small