Hauling Long Material

[bimmer1980]

I thought I would post how I hauled home a few long pieces of steel with my BMW and little trailer.

The pieces of steel are about 18' long. My trailer is only 8' long. The steel was free out of the company scrap bin, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. So after work, I headed down there and drug a few pieces out. Then I cut a section of angle to go across the back of my trailer. I then rachet strapped it to the back of the trailer. Then I could lay the remaining pieces across the front and back and strap to the trailer.

I then ratchet strapped everything down nice and tight.

With the long overhang, I needed a red flag. So I cut out a piece of red printed vinyl and strapped to the end.

This rode about 15 miles thru city traffic and a small expressway with no problem. I was actually surprised and how well the whole thing handled down the road.

 

[e-tek]

Youz a crazy mo fo!!

 

[Mike83]

Ha ha my first thought is "these 18' long steel bars will fit perfectly in that small gap under all the other junk leaning against the garage wall."

Although you may have an intended purpose for getting the steel, I am a sucker for free stuff and would inevitably end up trying to get rid of it somehow since I could never use it anyway!

 

[Jack Olsen]

That looks pretty secure, actually.

 

[kbs2244]

My uncle had a small utility trailer that he used once a year to take Boy Scouts to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

All the camping stuff went into the trailer and the canoes went onto a rack over the top of the trailer.
The problem was the length of the canoes.

He made a tongue extension about 8 feet long.
It had a hitch ball about 2 feet from the back end that fit into the regular hitch ball socket.
Two U-bolts went behind that, between the trailer body and the regular ball socket to attach it to the trailer.
What he ended up with the having the trailer with a extra 6 feet of tongue.

It worked great on trips from central Illinois.

BTW, If you check out the way the power companies get a pole to a site you will see a hitch strapped to the front end of the pole and a set of wheels with the pole strapped to them at the mid point.
They use the pole itself as the trailer/tongue.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Man, with todays idiot drivers and law suits, I'd be very leery of doing that.

 

[kornjulio]

I'm not impressed. You unnecessarily increased the risk of injury to your fellow motorists.

 

[Gary S]

I just tie long materials like that to the axles under my pickup. My pickup is a couple of inches under 20' long so I can easily haul 20-22' pieces with no problem.