A Life With and Without Trucking Tarps

Posted on July 18, 2011 by daniela

truck tarpsWhen I was a boy, my daddy left us. I never knew where he went and I didn’t care. I hated him. Momma told me he was a highwayman, and she fell in love with him because he was good to her and she thought she could change him. But people don’t change.

So I guess I filled my daddy’s shoes when I got into trucking. Something about being on the open road and making deliveries with nobody but me, the cargo and a blue tarpaulin to hold it down. I figured it was natural, running around this big ol’ country without a set home.

Then one day I was in a truck stop eatin’ some lunch after checkin’ my load underneath my long blue trucking tarps, and a beautiful woman was waitin’ on me. Now I could tell we had what you call a connection, a fact supported by the phone number she left for me on the back of the check. Heck I wasn’t gonna leave town without talkin’ to her outside of work. I was makin such good time on my route I was able to wait around town till the end of her shift. We went out and had a grand time and when I hit the road I said I’d be back.

Now we live together and a baby’s on the way. Got a job without slanging truck tarps and doin’ what my daddy never could.

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Playin’ It Safe With Trucking Tarps

Posted on July 11, 2011 by daniela

tarpaulin Trucking tarps are a great way to play it safe. The sound of a blue tarp flapping in the sixty mile an hour wind means that whatever lies underneath that tarp has little chance of escaping onto the highway. I always wonder when I see stuff on the highway, boxes, pieces of rubber, which I guess come off naturally. Truck tires are supposed to have like double insulation so that the rubber that falls off won’t damage the wheel. Or maybe that’s just trucker lore. But I know that truckers have all kinds of other uses for their truck tarps.

They make good insulation, not as good as fiberglass, which is supposed to be terribly itchy because the little shards get in your skin so I’ve always stayed away from it, but pretty good anyway; it is plastic, after all. And if I were a trucker and my rig (how cool would it be to have a rig?) broke down in the tundra of Saskatchewan I sure as heck would wrap myself in that tarpaulin for protection against the cold. Then I’d flag another trucker down, but not just any trucker–a trustworthy one, who covers his rig with trucking tarps–and we’d ride to the nearest gas station where I’d send out a crew to help me with my rig. Then I’d make sure the trucking tarp was tied down safely, and head on my way.

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A Heavy Duty Tarp Changes the Game

Posted on July 4, 2011 by daniela

tarpaulinA tarpaulin is a very useful object. Originally the tarp was used on ships, and its etymology derives from the tarred canvas pall used to cover objects on board in storms and other inclement weather.

Today, tarps are used for many different purposes. One of the coolest, is covering a baseball infield. Those tarps are large, and when rolled up they must weigh a lot, since they are about 8100 square feet. It takes like four guys to unroll them and they’re groundskeepers, strong, virile men. Yes, the tarpaulin has saved many a baseball game from being too muddy, and many a baseball players from a slip and fall.

It’s important to have a tarpaulin in every household–it’s like duct tape. There are so many uses for it that you may not even realize how difficult your life is without one.  But once you take the plunge and invest in a heavy duty tarp you’ll soon realize that you can do things like camp in the rain, cover large construction materials in your front yard, and leave things in the flatbed of your pickup.

You can become a true handy man with a heavy duty tarp–there’s so much to cover, and so little time.

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Timber Trucking With Truck Tarps

Posted on June 27, 2011 by daniela

truck tarpsWhen I’m truckin’ around the United States I need to wrap my cargo more often than not. And that’s why I use truck tarps. Because when wood is wet, it has to be dried, and once it’s cut, it’s more likely to start rotting, because after I drop it off, it doesn’t go directly to become paper, it may take another few weeks for it to get to the mill.

Plus, it’s safety regulation that we cover our cargo with truck tarps. That way there isn’t bark and pine needles and wood chips flying all over the place, leaving a trail behind us.

Blue tarps work well at covering the timber so that it stays safe. I’ve heard of boys who don’t wrap their logs well enough and debris flying off the truck and into the windshield of a car and cracking it and them having to pay out of pocket for that joker’s new windshield, after they were reported to the company. Who knows, the joker could have cracked it himself and blamed the trucker, but I’m not here to speculate…

All I know is that when I’m shipping heavy timber, I take it seriously. I wrap it in blue tarps.

 

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Camping With a Tarpaulin

Posted on June 20, 2011 by daniela

tarpaulinWhenever we go camping we always bring our heavy tarps. We lay one down to build camp on so that way we can take our shoes off on it instead of tracking in dirt to our tents. We walk around in socks and slide sometimes on the heavy tarps and all of the shoes are in a corner of the tarpaulin, which is admittedly dirtier than the rest of the tarp.

The other tarp we keep folded in the back of the truck in case it rains. In the past we’ve draped it over the strings we hang from nearby trees so that we can cook and play as though it were dry. In these cases, there’s a warm blue glare reflected on most of the kitchen utensils.

There’s something delicious about camping in the rain. It’s like the enjoyment of a normal rainy day is multiplied. You can’t get in a car and go to the mall or the movies – you have to entertain yourself the way they used to on the prairie, in the American wilderness.

But you can bet that the heavy tarps we have today are a lot more waterproof than the canvas ones they used back in the day.

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The Tarpaulin Protected the Back of the House

Posted on June 13, 2011 by daniela

tarpaulinThe back of our house had to be redone. There was leakage around the windows and during the rainy season it took a beating since we lived on the side of the hill.

It was a large job. Six men worked on the back of the house for many weeks during the summer and they couldn’t work when it was hotter than ninety degrees or when it was raining, and who could blame them? If they took a spill from the top of the scaffolding it was a thirty foot drop to the deck, and if the wind were blowing, it was sixty feet from the tippy top to the very bottom.

After they finished working they put up a heavy duty tarp over the back of the house. It covered the windows and the view so that all you could see was the fuzzy blue light bouncing into the living room and the kitchen. But I was glad to have that heavy duty tarp when it started raining.

The thunder was strong and the rain hard. It fell in sheets, it drizzled, and sheeted again. The tarpaulin kept the inside of the house dry. And weeks later, when the men finally removed the heavy duty tarp for good, we had a new back of our house.

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Blue Tarps for Stripping House Siding

Posted on June 6, 2011 by daniela

BLUE TARPS“Alright, hold it, hold it right there. Ahhh. Yeah, there we go.”

“Dad, why  do this yourself when you can just as easily hire someone?”

“Son, don’t you know the value of a dollar yet? I know how to strip the siding off a house. And these blue tarps make cleanup a cinch. Hard work never hurt a man. Fact, it only makes him stronger.”

“Yeah but it’s like a hundred degrees. I can feel these heavy tarps melting in the sun.”

“Stop being a baby and hand me that hammer. When I was your age I used to run around the country looking for work like this. Learned how to do a number of different trades. And now that I’m older, I can put them all to use. Now watch here so that when you have a house of your own you’ll know what to do…”

Son watches. Father hammers.

“And these blue tarps don’t melt. They’re meant to withstand some serious conditions. Now be a good boy and go get the other one from the back of the truck, I wanna show you how to do it so you can start on the other side.”

“Okay…”

(Under his breath) “I got a fine son, I do.”

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Poly Tarps Aren’t the Only Way to Keep Safe

Posted on May 23, 2011 by ChristineM

When you work in construction you may find that you’ve got a lot of poly tarps lying around, ready for use. Whether you are using them to cover the materials your trucks are carrying back and forth, or to cover unfinished areas of a building to keep safe in the weather, heavy tarps are a must.

But The Tarps Wholesaler has more than just the kind of tarps you need to withstand the work you do. They also sell other safety necessities, like  rubber tie downs to make sure those tarps are firmly in place. The last thing you need is a tarp to fly off and hurt someone. Rubber tie downs are a way to ensure that even with the strongest gust of wind, your poly tarps will stay in place.

Debris safety netting is another option you can buy through them. If you are working on a scaffolding, you need safety netting to ensure no debris flies off and hits anyone passing by, as well as your workers on lower levels. You have to do everything you can to ensure a safe construction environment and The Tarps Wholesaler has the products to help you do just that.

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Poly Tarps and Painting

Posted on May 16, 2011 by ChristineM

My dad has extra tarps from his construction job. They use poly tarps there to cover dirt and other materials they don’t want to get wet in the rain and for the trucks hauling their materials. The other day he decided to repaint my brother’s old room. He moved out 2 years ago and we had been thinking of making it a guest room for the longest time, but never did. So we decided to finally paint it a brighter color than the muted gray he had, to make it more welcoming.

Dad went to the car and pull out one of his poly tarps. It was such a great idea. Cover the beautiful wood floor with the tarp so we didn’t have to worry about paint dripping on it. It was a brilliant move and we kept the old, classic floor clean. It can be really tough to get paint off a wooden floor and the floor we have is years and years old. My dad didn’t want to have to replace it.

Poly tarps are so versatile in even every day needs like painting a room. That’s why every home should have one available.

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How a Heavy Duty Tarp Saved My Camping Trip

Posted on May 9, 2011 by ChristineM

Since my last camping trip, I will always carry a heavy duty tarp in the car. It stays in the trunk, all the time, ready to go when I need it. Because I was traumatized by my last camping experience. Absolutely traumatized. Until my friend luckily had one in her car and saved our entire trip.

We thought the weekend was going to be beautiful, forecast said 75 and sunny both Saturday and Sunday. We had no idea that last minute the weather forecast changed on Saturday night to a thunderstorm. A really windy, crazy thunderstorm. Being woken at 2 am in the pitch dark to the sounds of thunder and cracks of lightening in the middle of the woods was like something out of a horror movie. Our tent was being WRECKED.

But then my friend had a wonderful idea. The heavy duty tarp that was sitting in her car could be used as extra protection. We ran down the path to the car before the actually rain started and set the tarp up. And then it began to pour. And the tarp stayed put and held up and we stayed dry.

The rest of the night was kind of scary, but morning gave way to sun and blue skies. And from then on, I’ve had poly tarps with me, always.

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