ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area AWOL materials

At the end of a really long day, left my tool belt and drill case on my (open) tail gate and left the site. Had no idea til I got home. Belt, hand tools, drill charger, drill case, battery, etc, all bye bye. Bummer in the Summer! That was about a $650 whoops. My bad day was somebody elses good day I guess.

I'll not fib ... I've had stuff fall off my truck, and I've driven off with an open tool bin. TG my losses have been minor, and that no one has been harmed.

And that's the point ... something I've appreciated since that day, in 1993, when a man was killed on the freeway, as the result of a lost ladder. Ironically, this good Samaritan was attempting to remove the fallen ladder from the traffic lane when he was struck by a passing car.

In my place, I've had a truckload of cabinets, and a full-size door, both fall from vehicles directly in front of me.

I really can't stress this enough ... dropped loads can be deadly.

That's one problem I have with our world these days; in far too many instances, stuff is transported in unsafe ways, on trucks that really aren't set up to carry them. How many times do you see ladders being hauled by trucks without ladder racks?

This is the opposite thing, but...

If any of you guys have ever lost stuff in NJ, thank you for donating to my tool bag! My father's found 8foot fiberglass ladders intact in ditches, having flew off a truck at a curve in the road. Not to mention a lot of hand tools in the middle of the road. (Two lane county roads at night.)

And there was one time, me and my mother were going somewhere, and were waiting for the left turn signal to get on Business Route One. (Four lane highway that used to be Route One until it was bypassed.) There was a HVAC truck in the through lane. The back door to his van was open, and two tool boxes were about to fall out. If the light didn't turn green just then I probably would have gotten out and knock on his window to warn him or something. Thankfully the guy behind him in a '67 Chevy had some common sense, and didn't move! The HVAC truck got to the middle on the intersection, and tools everywhere. He stopped 100 feet later, walked back and picked up the tools, traffic permitting.

Ian A.

I drove off with my Motorola Portable Terminal on my roof one day (1986 granddaddy of a Blackberry/Palm)
It laid in the intersection of SR 884 and Metro Parkway all rush hour and got run over several times. The thing still worked when I finally found it a couple hours later but it was pretty beat up.

I used to have a 10', 5" piece of pvc on my roof rack. Had a male end and a cap. I would forget to put the cap back on and loose grnd rods, emt, and pvc all the time.

Try losing a bundle of 5000' of 1/2" EMT taking off from a stoplight (50 bundles of 100 banded together).. This was back when I worked at a suppler, I was young and stupid, and our biggest delivery vehicle was an Isuzu pickup!

A.D

How did you manage to get it in the truck without killing it?

i had the back doors of my utility van wide open and driving about 45MPH until someone tracked me down but so far haven't lost anything yet. but i have found 10' ladder, (2) 6' ladders, tools.

I picked up a piece of 1" x 10" x 10' steel at the local steel yard and had it loaded by forklift and sling into my truck. As soon as I got on the road, I hit a bump while accelerating and drove out from under the bar that was floating in the air. I thought I might be able to load it but I couldn't even stand it up on edge. I had to get one of the guys at the steel yard to drive the forklift 1/8 mile down the road to load me again.

A guy working for me dumped 40 pieces of 1-1/2" PVC. He came to a stop while turning left across a divided roadway. The PVC all slid off his ladder rack in one perfect pile and landed in the median. I happened to be driving the other way and saw it happen just in time to swerve onto the median and help him pick up the pipe.

I see a lot of guys on the road using bungee cords to fasten down materials, ladders, etc.

They're NOT intended for the primary hold down, in fact, some of them state so quite clearly, embossed right in the rubber.


I've got a cable run through the ladders, through the rack and padlocked. I use bungee cords just for holding them in place.