I was talking to a friend yesterday who still works at that ship diesel place I was telling you the 'funny' stories about..
He told me another good one yesterday.. and it's something everyone who uses ratchet straps should remember.
My friend had an '85 Mustang that he built up and then hurricane Isabelle made a tree fall on it. Well, he finally finished stripping it out completely last week. They used the forklift and put what was left of the body on the F-650 that's in this picture:
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intent was to go to the scrapyard. The person who decided to drivethe truck strapped down the junker and then instead of securing the leftoverportion of the strap with duct tape or via some other means, threw theleftover loosely inside the junk car. He tools off down the road and gets to a stoplight about halfway there (4 miles from the shop or so).... Everything was fine.. until he pulled off from the light. He heard a horrible screeching noise like someone drove up under the back... he kept moving and next thing he knew, the junk car was yanked off the bed sideways. dumb shit... The ratchet strap leftover had started to flap in the wind and eventually got wrapped around the driveshaft. The thing just wound up until finally it had no choice but to pull the car off the bed. There was a wrecker right there and the guy said he'd pick it up quickly before the cops got there for $75... fortunately, he didn't have $75. He got a ticket -- as he should have. This is the same dude I saw almost flip a forklift because he was hotrodding it.