How to secure cargo on wheels?
From luxury sports cars, to trucks to heavy machinery
Over the years we have assisted many customers around the globe helping them to safely secure their “rolling cargos”. From luxury sports cars, to extreme machinery and everything in between. Looking back at pictures I took during those years, they all have their own story to tell.
- a super exclusive car that needs to be delivered to its future driver on the other side of the world
- a truck on its way to its “second life” in another country
- army trucks needed in a certain part of the world to transport goods
- a prototype car on its way to a tradeshow somewhere in the world to be introduced to the public for the first time
- fire trucks to provide additional support
Our ultimate goal is to make sure these vehicles arrive at their final destination in the same condition in which they left.
What is “Dynamic” Cargo?
As you know, one of the meanings of Dynamic is active. Placed in context with cargo securing, we are talking about cargo on wheels, or static cargo that behaves dynamic in transit. Examples of static cargo that behaves dynamically are parts of large machinery that are not supported, such as a crane boom.
Dynamic loads, or dynamic behaving loads, provide an additional challenge compared with static cargo. When securing this type of cargo it is key to reduce or prevent the risks of movement, and therefore damage.
How to prevent or reduce the risk of movement?
Below are some examples of different ways of how our customers secured and transported their cars.
The first example shows, at least in my opinion, how it should not be done. As you can see, the car is secured by hanging it of the top d-rings in a container with re-usable ratchet systems and lashing straps. The goal of the shipper is to load 4 or 5 cars inside a 40” container this way. However the pressure on the top d-rings becomes very high and there is a risk they will break, resulting in the car falling on top of the car below.
The team at Volkswagen created a better solution shipping their cars from Belgium to other parts of the world.
They took the tires of the rims to save on height. Then, they loaded the cars on wooden frames which enabled them to load 3 cars inside a 40ft container.
The yellow Porsch is first loaded on a platform and then loaded inside a container where the platform is secured in the container making sure this beauty arrives at its destination without a scratch.
The black Porsche is secured in a more traditional way. One beam is placed against the back side of the tires and one beam at the front side of the tire. This will prevent forward and backward movement of the car. Next, 2 lashing straps are applied to each wheel, making sure this car also arrives at its final destination without a scratch.
The following images demonstrate that heavy vehicles also need to and can be secured. The lashing company securing these fire trucks did an awesome job! The trucks are secured on flat racks and from the floor the chassis is completely blocked turning this dynamic cargo into a static cargo?
This truck is secured using Cordlash in combination with Cordstrap’s Dynablock®. Dynablock is a patented invention from Cordstrap that will prevent any slip from happening in the buckle, which can happen due to intensive vibration during the cargo’s journey. Before this truck left the yard, wheel chocks would be placed in front and behind of the wheels.
Securing Dynamic Cargo on board of vessels
These final pictures show heavy machinery on wheels that is safely secured directly onto a vessel. To prevent cargo movement these pieces of machinery are secured with Cordlash in combination with the Dynablock dynamic load buckle.
Learn more
Get in touch for free expert advice
As you can see there is a huge diversity in dynamic loads and there are many ways to secure them.
If you like to learn more about how our cargo lashing systems can help you, here are some great pages on our website. The content on these pages will explain about our products, which product is best use for what application and offers plenty more images and also instruction videos.
Cordstrap Cordlash Heavy Duty Lashing
Cargo Lashing Systems for Containers
Cargo Lashing for Rail Freight
Of course we are happy to provide you with free expert advice or meet you for a site consultation. Just give us a call at 07 3491 8209 today!
