A flap about mudflaps

[IA Leo]

This may be one of those onerous regulations the biz wiz's complain about: dump trucks with dual wheels needing mud flaps.
1. Saw a county truck with half of the flap missing.
2. Saw several commercial dump trucks with one or more missing flaps.
3. Saw NO state highway trucks with missing flaps.
4. Saw every one of the local asphalt contractor dump trucks with no flaps. Not all the co. trucks, just a half dozen in line to jobs.
5. I get very uncomfortable finding myself behind those duals, waiting for a fist sized rock or road debris to come at me. I try to drop back (which they like anyway) or pass them.
6. I understand the certainty of never being able to identify or sue them with my windshield being smashed, my sweetheart or me being killed because they never advertise their company or phone number on the back dump gate.
7. The driver would never know that they were leaving a scene of a serious accident that their vehicle caused.
8. Bet my insurance company wouldn't call it a road hazard and pay up.

So how can so many trucks operate without a ticket? I can get sitations with one headlight out or speeding or not having a little updating sticker on the license plate.

I can see flaps being hard to anchor on a tilted up asphalt truck box, what with backing and forwarding around pavers and having sticky tires, but their duals are a menace to unsuspecting, innocent, church going, taxpaying, hardworking, honest, barely making it folks.
I cannot recall seeing any semi trailer without working mud flaps and I see many of them daily.

Do dump trucks have a dispensation from flaps?

Hope you and I never have an object from between the duals hurt anyone you love......Leo

 

[snoop-nc]

Call the DOT/cops/super troopers, etc. and tell them you saw X number of ABC Paving Trucks out on Rt. 49 at 11:15AM that did NOT have flaps, etc. By giving them time, place, etc. you are putting a bit more pressure on them to do their jobs. Just because it is a local paving company, does NOT exempt the trucks from complying with the law.

Rick...a retired truck driver

 

[Anonymous-0]

My brother-inlaw got stopped a few weeks back in Mo. for no flap on a dump trailer. Trucking base is out of Ia. Funny thing is he told his boss before he left about it and he said go ahead. Company pays fine, but is recorded against driver. There is a way some use to tie them up before dumping.

 

[oldironman]

Snoop, good luck with that. You got to get them out of the donut shop first.

 

[showcrop]

In my two years of being a dump truck owner operator flaps were a constant problem. You learned quickly that you could not get far missing one without getting a ticket(not cheap). You learn not to back up onto a pile or you will pull them off. You learn to cut about six inches off in order to reduce the likelihood of pulling them off. So from the operators perspective it seems like there is plenty of enforcement. With respect to the rocks between tires, there is no $ available for replacing tires before the tread is worn off, and dump trucks go through tires faster than most. Rocks between tires cut into sidewalls quickly so drivers will stop and pull them out with bar or chain quickly if they know about them. So by all means let a driver know if you see a rock between the tires.

 

[504]

If he is stopped enough times the Feds can and will fine the day lights out of the driver. The way the law is now every ticket is points to the driver, I will not leave with a burnt out marker light. I just found the rule book, C.S.A., Compliance,Safety and Accountability. Our government at work

 

[Anonymous-0]

well then DO NOT come to WI. we DO NOT need mud flaps on dump trucks. been driving mine for 40 years and have never had a truck with them on

 

[old]

Back when I was still driving dump trucks here in Missouri if you got caught with out a mud flap you got a ticket no questions asked but you did some times have a day or 2 to make it right, plus you did not haul till it was fixed. But some states do not enforce things as well as others do.

 

[fixerupper]

Tractor is right. The points go against the driver when he's stopped for a missing mudflap.

Last winter my son drove his truck in the shop and put on a couple of new flaps, complete with new brackets. He drove out of the shop, went across the road to the machine shed and ripped both of them off in the snow while backing into the shed. He was one very unhappy dude! He said he knew about the snow but was too tired to get out and shovel it out of the way. His language could have melted the snow. Jim

 

[Anonymous-0]

If I refused to drive a company truck every time it had a safety defect, I'd be unemployed. So long as the brakes somewhat work and there is evidence that the tires once HAD tread, I'll climb in and go. I drive well under the posted speed limit and hope for the best. If this job doesn't work I'll have to go on disability because this is the only company that will employ me with my health. When they sent me in for a DOT physical I flunked with flying colors so they sent me to another dr. that would pass me. The real problem is the big dogs in the company recieve bonuses based on end of year profits so they won't spend one cent that isn't necessary. This is just the cold hard facts of life.

 

[kswillie]

In June near Manhattan Kansas I had an American Tire Distributors truck take the windshield out of my pick-up from what looked like half of a brick. I was behind the truck at 65mph when out come what looked like a 90 mph curve ball. Hit so hard my rear view fell on the floor. I caught up to the truck in a work zone and could see the other half of what hit me still between the duels. No mud flap on that side. I called American Tire Distributors home office out of Charlotte N.C. talked to (Beth) the insurance Lady. I explained what had happened and I felt they should pay for my windshield due to the truck missing the mud flap. She went into dental about how the were DOT inspected and would never have a truck without a mud flap. I give her the trailer number, time, location. Asked her to just check it out and if the trailer was missing the mud flap they fix my truck. She called after a long time to tell me that the truck was out of Lincoln, Nebraska and it was just tuff luck on my part that they did not intend to repair my truck even though they were wrong. And I should carry full coverage on my 93 pickup. If you live around Charlotte please stop at American tire and slap Beth for me. Just venting.

 

[KCTractors]

The mud-flaps will not work on a truck getting pushed by an asphalt-paver. The paver pushes on the rear tires of the truck. What are you doing so close to the truck anyway? Trucker's get enough static from the DOT without somebody that does not know anything about trucking tries to make more static! Maybe, you should go buy one and see all the money you can make! JUST MY TWO CENTS!

 

[Anonymous-0]

do you have a mudflaps on your car or pickup? how about all the winshields i have had to replace from stuff coming off the road from cars an pickups. i never had to replace one from a truck but i have had to replace several from cars. what is good for the goose is good for the gander. why not complain about all the things on the road.

 

[RodinNS]

Flaps are somewhat difficult to keep on a tandem, particularly if there's a real dolt sitting in the seat.
Best thing that can be done is to shorten them to near the legal limit and move them back away from the wheels as far as possible.

Beyond that... the only windsheild I've ever had broken came at the hands of a 3/4 ton Dodge with all terrain tires... with less flap than required on a tandem.
You want to go enforcing rules, you better enforce some on pickups too.

Rod

 

[DownSouth]

regularposter namewitheld,

Reading your post honestly scared me thinking "man oh man I hope I don't end up behind this guy someday"............
And then I remembered I live just 10 miles from the Mexico border and day after day I find my self behind a truck with Mexico license plates. Then I realized, "maybe I would be safer behind that other guy!"

Congrats on keeping yourself gainfully employed, no matter what it takes!!!

 

[PJH]

I worked road construction for 33 years and flaps are definately required in Illinois. I only remember two instances of objects being thrown from between the duals with missing mudflaps. One instance resulted in a broken windshield in a pickup that I was riding in as a passenger. The driver/owner of the pickup caught the truck driver at the next stop sign, and a fight ensued. After a few minutes of good licks being traded, the truck driver pulled out a wallet and handed over two 100 dollar bills for the windshield damage, and the fight was over. I was NOT involved in the fight, and figured there'd be gunplay before it was settled. I'm glad I was wrong. The other instance involved a truck hauling concrete rubble from our jobsite, and was resolved with a simple phone call, and no bloodshed.

Asphalt trucks occasionally lose a flap, but generally they back into the rollers on the front of the paver and as the paver pushes them forward, the flaps roll up and onto the top of the tire, just like the action of a wringer on an old washing machine. When the truck is empty, they leapfrog out of the way, raise the bed up, clean the gate pins, pull the flaps back in position, drop the bed and go for another load. If the flap doesn't go to the top of the tire, it can instead get behind the paver roller and get pulled loose. A good dump man will see it and pull it out before it's torn loose. It's more apt to happen on the right side of the truck, away from the dump man's field of vision. Some trucks have hooks to hang the end of the flap from, but they are rarely used or needed on an asphalt spread.

The trucks that more prone to lose the flaps are the ones that are backing into piles. The flap gets trapped against the pile and tears loose from the bracket. The dangerous ones are the rubble haulers. Hauling rubble gives lots of opportunity to lose a flap, and also lodge a piece of concrete between the duals. A fist sized chunk of concrete can do a lot of damage at highway speed.

You don't see many missing flaps in this area.

Dropping back from a truck with a missing flap is a wise idea.

By the way - my single wheel 3/4 ton flatbed pickup is required to have mudflaps in Illinois.

 

[Anonymous-0]

(quoted from post at 20:55:18 09/28/11) regularposter namewitheld,

Reading your post honestly scared me thinking "man oh man I hope I don't end up behind this guy someday"............
And then I remembered I live just 10 miles from the Mexico border and day after day I find my self behind a truck with Mexico license plates. Then I realized, "maybe I would be safer behind that other guy!"

Congrats on keeping yourself gainfully employed, no matter what it takes!!!

Over here, if something comes off your vehicle (car, truck, MC, tractor, etc). You are responsible for any damage... And, if you were doing something stupid when it happened (not using appropriate safety equipment?), your insurance may not pay the bill.......
Don't clean all the snow/ice off a vehicle before driving down the road and see what that costs you. There are also morons that just drive around with damaged vehicles/windshields looking for someone to take a license number down and call the law to get their vehicle paid for......
Also, the DRIVER is responsible. Company can tell em to drive something outta the junkpile but "doing what I was told" is no excuse.....
If someone KNOWINGLY puts an unsafe vehicle on the road and causes an accident, they should be charged accordingly....

 

[Bob]

You are certainly LUCKY you don't live in our county where "the powers that be" have decided pit-run dirt and HUGE rocks are an acceptable substitute for gravel!

It is only a matter of time 'til someone is maimed or killed by one of those rocks being spun into someone's windshield, mudflaps or not.

 

[dhermesc]

If the object that hits your car is picked up from the road the other driver is not responsible, if it falls off their load and hits your car the other driver can be held responsible.

 

[tlak]

I had an idea for removal mud flaps when I ripped some off backing into a rock pile. Put a pipe with a slot cut in it where the mud flap goes and one on the side of the truck. The mud flap would have a smaller diameter pipe on it that would slide in.

 

[Mike M]

I knew of a fellow who hauled asphalt and he rigged up an air cylinder and cables so that at the flip of a switch his flaps would raise up so as not to get torn off by the paver. Most other guys had to get out of the truck and hang them up on hooks.

 

[hin191]

1) In this state (NC) there is no legal requirement that vehicles be equipped with mud flaps. In fact, every windshield I have had damaged was by a vehicle that was equipped with flaps, and every windshield that was damaged by a vehicle I was operating, myvehicle had flaps. Flaps are no guarantee damage will not occur.

2)I think that there is no federal requirement that vehicles be equipped with flaps either. (all of you who insist I don't know what I'm talking about, the only authority is the law, in print)