People are idiots

[Kingcreek]

My wife has been selling surplus office equipment as we get the building ready for selling.
I am amazed at the dimished capacity of people to understand basics.
She sold an Amish-made oak desk. She gave the dimensions and said it is heavy and the top can not be removed. She had several messages with the buyer and told him bring 2 strong people and a trailer instead of trying to lift it up into a truck.
Little old man showed up with one helper and a truck and didn’t know how they were going to move it.
I had an appliance cart and moving blankets and I had to do too much lifting.
Today, she sold a 6’ tall oak bookshelf. 42” wide and 12” deep.
They showed up in a midsize Chevy suv.
Sold 6 4-drawer file cabinets and a 60 year old female showed up in a borrowed truck. I loaded them. Asked if she had ratchet straps. She produced 1 cheap tangled strap and didn’t know how to use it.
As a geriatric farm boy that delivered furniture and appliances in college and later hauled antique cars and farm equipment, maybe I have more experience.
You tell people how big, how heavy, and what they need and they bring nothing.

[WLJ]

As I was leaving Sears in the mid 90s after working my shift the warehouse guys were wheeling out a big projection TV (remember those) in the pickup area and called out a name and a woman standing next to a Miata called out that's me. TV was about as big as the car. 

[Kingcreek]

This is not a new problem. When I was in college working g at a big home improvement center, before Lowe’s, Menard’s, etc. the store charged for delivery and we also ran the loading dock.
I saw things loaded on cars.
Like a giant lethargic boy recliner opened up and tied on top of a ford maverick with twine. I still wonder how far they got.
I always think of the time I had a tractor with loader and ballast on a flatbed behind my F250 superduty and before pulling on the highway I stopped to check and tension my chains.
Almost right away a state trooper pulled over with lights and asked if I was having trouble. I said “No, I just want to double check everything before I go to highway speeds.”
He laughed and thanked me and told me he wished more haulers were like me.
I know it’s no great revelation here. People are idiots and always have been.
Except us, of course.

[Frank Castle]

I seen a refrigerator fall out of the truck bed and then it bounced down the road. 

[WLJ]

I seen a refrigerator fall out of the truck bed and then it bounced down the road. 

Got passed by a washing machine sliding down the highway while I was doing ~50-55 about to hit the off ramp. Looked ahead and there's a pickup doing maybe 80-90, my guess is it flew out of the truck bed. It was still going down the highway as I was getting off the highway.

[BobR]

I pulled up at a stop light the other day and noticed this guys tie down system for his box spring. I moved over a couple of lanes as soon as I could.



bob

[castle key]

Three Punjabis attempting to squeeze a full size cast iron bathtub into the back seat of a mid 90's Crown Vic.

I would say God is my witness on this horror, but Mike I. also saw the nightmare.

[Hawkmoon]

You tell people how big, how heavy, and what they need and they bring nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTQ7__NNDI

[dogmush]

I think I've mentioned this here before in passing:

In the early 2000's I worked part time at Home Depot, in Lumber and building materials. My first month or so i tried to help people making mistakes while loading vehicles.  I got cussed at, things thrown at me, and the manager called a couple times.  Finally, one of the older guys took pity on me and explained the reason for the stack of liability releases  kept on the fork lifts.

Two pallets of shingles in the back of that Grand Caravan? Yes ma'am I do see you sprung for the Stow and Go seating. Sign here and I'll load them up.

65 pieces 4x10x5/8 sheets of drywall in that Ram1500?  Yes sir, I see that it's 4x4, sign here, I'll slide them right between the wheel wells.

And so on.

Kingcreek, get the cash, put the furniture on the sidewalk, and wish them the best. If they gotta leave and go get help, straps, or another vehicle, that's their problem.  Your back is your problem.

[K Frame]

Three Punjabis attempting to squeeze a full size cast iron bathtub into the back seat of a mid 90's Crown Vic.

I would say God is my witness on this horror, but Mike I. also saw the nightmare.

Nightmare?

That was pure comedy gold! I still laugh about it!

[Declaration Day]

Back when I had my lawn and landscaping business, I'd occasionally (about a dozen times over the course of 20 years) pull up to a current customer's house to discover that they had had a privacy fence installed, without consulting me on the width of the entry gate. Only one customer had the gate modified. The others had to find a new service, but a few actually expected me to buy and haul around an additional smaller mower to accommodate them. That did not happen.

[HankB]

 I remember seeing a Pontiac Astre station wagon (the Pontiac version of the Chevy Vega) with the back absolutely LOADED with treated 4x4 lumber, parked in, IIRC, the Menards parking lot. Even with the rear seat folded down, the lumber of course was sticking out the back. The rear suspension was completely collapsed, and the tires didn't look so good either. The top of the tires were firmly in contact with the wheel wells. I don't think they got too far.

I remember two women buying a BIG boxed item from a furniture store and really laying into the workers trying to load it in the back of their compact's hatchback. When the width of an item exceeds the diagonal of the opening - you have a problem. They were really nasty . . . I made a point of telling the store manager he ought to at least buy his dock workers a cup of coffee for their EXTREME patience and unfailing courtesy with those nasty harridans.

And then when I was buying a set of patio furniture from Monkey Wards the dock workers couldn't fit the set in my SUV. I told them it WOULD fit. The more senior got nasty and mouthed off saying HE was the EXPERT and it was IMPOSSIBLE. I went ahead and started packing myself while this lazy schmuck watched with a grin on his face. By the time I was 2/3 of the way done his grin was gone, and by the time I finished, HE had disappeared. Everything fit with room to spare. (Weight wasn't an issue.) The other guy said "That other guy is pissed" . . . I said I need to talk to the store manager. I did . . .and I was NOT complementary about the lousy dock worker's attitude or ability. Manager was very apologetic. I like to think the lousy dock worker was suitably chastised . . . 

[HeroHog]

Told this here before and not quite the same but the same foresight:

They were doing work on the railroad tracks at Hearne and Midway and changing those iron plates that hold the rails to the cross-ties. Well, this fellow in an old (70s) Ford LTD had driven down alongside the tracks and was taking all those heavy plates and throwing them in the trunk of his car presumably to sell as scrap iron. Well, that model Ford has a HUGE trunk and he had FILLED it with heavy iron plates. The springs were COMPLETELY collapsed and the bumper was dragging the ground! He apparently tried to drive off with his haul but the weight of the load broke the rear axle in half! He abandoned the car there and we didn't see who hauled it off or how.

[Brad Johnson]

When I was selling off furniture for the Got Married house combining, one piece was a very large entertainment center - 7ft tall and 9ft long. Single unit with no breakdown or module removal provisions. I was very up front that it would take a trailer and at least two stout bodies to load, and that my body was not part of the equation.

The guy shows up in a shortbed pickup, his arm in a sling and no help other than a very pregnant wife. His tie down supplies were a roll of twine and a couple of light-duty bungees. I sighed a big sigh and did most of the work wrestling into the back of his truck. I bid him goodbye and quickly closed the garage door as he was "securing" it. Out of sight, out of mind... and out of the equation when the inevitable occurred. Watched from a side window to make sure the teetering disaster at least made it out of the driveway before self-destructing.

Brad

[Bogie]

I used to be at a store that was next to a Home Depot... I have Seen Things...
 
Half-ton trucks with several tons of whatever. Saw one guy loaded his truck with a bunch of LONG 2x4s... At least he had a shop towel on the back... But he pulled out of the yard onto the road, and goosed it, and... His truck folded upwards just behind the cab. And it wasn't an old beater...
 
Had a Sprinter for a while - with the stock suspension and drive shaft, bad things could happen - if you were at a stop facing uphill, and goosed it, the drive shaft would corkscrew. We also put a heavier rear end - we could stick several tall pallets in the back, max of 3500 pounds... And with the tall center of gravity, it could get squirrely on exit ramps...
 
I saw a car getting towed on a trailer once, and the tie-downs were 1" straps... Yeech. Saw a mattress go airborne off the top of a car - twine on that one.

[Kingcreek]

I passed a pickup and goose neck trailer with a junker dodge truck on it and NO straps or chains. I passed him on a state highway because I didn’t feel safe behind him.
I called the county sheriff dept and reported it but he probably made it to the scrap yard before they found him.
The dispatcher seemed confused as to why I was calling if the truck hadn’t fallen off yet.

[WLJ]

https://x.com/GigaBasedDad/status/1865073085612782048

[grampster]

My kids have always laughed at me and called me The Ropemaster because of how securely tie down stuff in my utility trailer or my pickup when had one.

[Kingcreek]

https://x.com/GigaBasedDad/status/1865073085612782048

Probably that last bag that did it.

[MechAg94]

Years ago in college, I could move all my stuff in 3 trips with an S-10 pickup.  I had one length of rope to tie things down.  It doesn't take much to secure a load, but it takes something.  Better tie down straps or better knowledge of knots is preferred.

[RocketMan]

I keep a five gallon zip lock bag behind the driver's seat of my truck.  It's full of proper tie down straps and bungee cords.  Nothing frosts my butt more than seeing someone driving down the highway with an unsecured load.

[Regolith]

Saw an old Ford Ranger with a bunch of old window-mounted AC units in the bed the other day. It was dragging ass like a dog with worms. Rear tailgate was open and it didn't look like anything was secured.

[WLJ]

Does this belong here?

https://x.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1865057033881329760

[K Frame]

Does this belong here?

https://x.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1865057033881329760

I know that area very well. I grew up not very far from there and traveled it regularly.

There have been some interesting accidents there over the years, including a gasoline tanker that crashed into and burned under a flyover for the one interstate. That made for quite the traffic mess for a couple of years.

[HeroHog]

Saw an old Ford Ranger with a bunch of old window-mounted AC units in the bed the other day. It was dragging ass like a dog with worms.

GREAT description!