Cargo & Freight · Driver Training VideoSteel Coil Securement

A steel coil isn't cargo that shifts a little and settles. It's a cylinder that wants to roll, and once it starts rolling, nothing on the trailer stops it on its own.

Two things matter before you touch a strap: orientation and blocking.

Eyes crosswise — the coil lying like a wheel, eye facing left and right — wants to roll forward or backward, straight at the headboard.

Eyes lengthwise — eye facing forward and back — wants to roll off the side. Eyes vertical — standing on end — wants to tip. Each takes its own blocking and tiedown pattern. Don't treat them the same way just because they're all "a coil."

The rule doesn't let you eyeball tiedowns. The federal coil rule spells out the pattern for each orientation, and the combined working load limit of everything holding it down has to add up to at least half the coil's weight.

Where a strap or chain touches the coil's edge, protect it. Bare steel against webbing cuts a strap open, sometimes before you've left the yard, sometimes at highway speed when it matters most. Edge protectors go on every contact point, no exceptions.

Your company standard: chock or cradle every coil before the first tiedown goes on. Confirm eyes crosswise, lengthwise or vertical, and block for that specific orientation.

Steel coils don't forgive shortcuts

They don't shift a few inches and stop — they come all the way, and everything in the path pays for it. Do the blocking, do the count, do the recheck.