A pickup is the best personal vehicle for moving things—whether it’s small or large items, a pickup truck is a way to move it all in one go. However, moving large loads can be very dangerous and possibly damage the car or those driving it. That is why it is so important to know how to transport large items in your pickup truck. Try following this advice to get yourself what you need to be safe during these larger transports.
Ensure There Is Enough Room
The first thing you must do when moving any large load is ensure your pickup can handle it, both in size and weight. These large loads place a lot of strain on a pickup truck, and you do not want to have it fail halfway through the trip. You need to know the weight of whatever you are carrying before you load it on your truck. After you know the weight of the load, make sure it is not greater than what your truck can carry. Go with the recommended load numbers that you find in the manual.
The size of the load also matters; you need to be able to fit the whole thing into the cargo bed. Dangling or overflowing loads can fall off and cause damage. It can be beneficial to get a truck bed sliding tray, as they extend the back of your truck to accommodate larger loads and make it easier to load and unload your pickup bed. The sliding trays from M&M Extendobed can extend to over 110% of your current bed length, pas the taillights, and can handle heavy loads—even if they aren’t evenly distributed.
Lock It In
Once you determine that you can handle the large load, you need to make sure you can carry it safely. The best way to do this is to strap it down tightly. You will need to get some ratchet straps and some cargo nets to fully lock it in. The ratchet straps will hold down objects to the bed of your truck. Make sure you attach two ratchet straps in separate places per object you need to hold down. This will keep it from shifting during transport. A cargo net is also great for keeping everything tied down and catching anything that moves. However, a cargo net is not made to hold down larger loads—only ratchet straps will do that.
Now that you know the basics of how to transport large items in your pickup truck safely, we have a few more tips to share. Do not try to move a large load by yourself; it can be very dangerous to do so. Also, when you have finished the trip, do not stand in the way of any large items when you check on the truck bed. Make sure you are out of the way of any potential falling items or loads.