Ok, so I moved from Harrisburg, PA to Marietta, GA this weekend. For the first time, I used and open trailer to put the furniture & my motorcycle on, covered it with a tarp, strapped it all down & off I went. 700 miles later....

I learned the following:

A) Tie down straps have a load/break rating that seems to have little basis in reality.
B) Tarps can not withstand highway speeds.
C) When your tarp starts to come apart, damage WILL be done.

Here's how I learned these lessons:

1) I'm currently short 3 of 4 ratchet straps and several bungee cords.
2) I'm currently short 2/3 of the original size of the tarp.....
3) I'm missing a dresser drawer, the drawer to my nightstand, my TV stand is toast, and there are 2 roughly quarter sized spots of paint missing from my bike.

So, it's off to the furniture store for a new bedroom set and I will never do this again!

 

And you owe me $243.42 for the two flat tires I got when I ran over your drawers. Oh- the dings on the bike are probably from the rocks I threw at you when I caught up to you....

 

You can tarp an open trailer for highway use, but, (and there's always a but...) you have to have a heavy tarp, not the light duty things home depot
sells, and it must be tied down with a number of criss-crossed ropes, to keep the wind from getting under it. Rope thru all grommets to frame, and at leaast a half dozen ciss-cross ties. If it billows in the wind, it will rip. With that being said, the enclosed trailers are real nice - and more secure to boot. JMHO.

 

Marietta, GA is a nice town, I think you will enjoy it. Did you know something like 2/3 of all houses there are rental houses?

 

Is the cost of living ridiculous down in Marietta...why can't you own your own home?

 

No! It's because 2/3rds of all the citizens in Marietta are Itinerants! Temporaries in an Aircraft industry town.

Now if you want to live in a nice quiet peacefull respectful town in Georgia where most of the homes are owned by the residents, move to Kennisaw.
Just a few minutes up I-75.

Very low crime rate there.

 

The reason why Kennesaw has such a low crime rate?

Gun ownership is MANDATORY in each household in the city. There is no penalty for not complying with the ordinance, but it makes the crooks think twice about breaking and entering.

 

Now all you have to do is learn to speak "Jawjun".

 

Hey, I'm not the only Yank down there now.

I tell ya what, if the two of us get together, they might think the Civil War is starting again.

Went to a Braves game a while back and all the folks, including myself, that I was with are from the North. Well, the wife has her Mets hat on and this guy in front of us turns around (good guy by the way) and asks where we're from. We all tell him. He goes, "No offense, but last time there were this many Yanks down here, y'all burned our city."

Hahahahaha!

 

Peach tree city is also nice, like everything around atlanta (expensive- compared 2 louisiana) but it is nice

 

Too bad I/we didn't hear of your intended method for transporting your property; I would have strongly warned you what was going to happen. Flapping tarps ruin furniture and painted surfaces. The damage cost makes an enclosed, lockable u-haul trailer rental look pretty cheap.

**Didn't you notice the tarp failing in your RV mirror?

 

Not sure as to how you had your bike strapped down..meaning how many straps....but I lost one transporting an atv on a 16' flat bed trailer because of the fact that the trailer "flexed" during transport.
I had two atv's on this trailer, the front one strapped to the front rail with two straps and the rear atv strapped with four straps. Due to the fact that the trailer flexed, both back straps on the rear atv came off. This trailer belonged to a friend that used it to haul autos on......a use that it was NOT intended for.

 

One year, towing a trailer down to school, I covered the trailer with a blue tarp, when I got to school, I had no tarp, but a huge blue birds nest

 

If only Uhaul would allow us to tow their trailers with our Explorers.....

As for the failing tarp, I didn't get on the road until 3, I saw the first strap fail and stopped immediately. The next time I stopped, which was after dark & with no other issues noted before dark, the other 2 straps as well as some of the bungees were gone & the part of the tarp that covered the back of the trailer was gone. I shifter stuff around & resecured it as best I could until I found a 24 hour Walmart & bought more straps. After that, no more problems, but by then the damage was done.

The paint that I lost on the bike was from furniture shifting.

 

Welcome to Marietta! I did a similar move 5 years ago from Reading, but had movers carry my stuff. If you're looking for a house try East Cobb lots of nice affordable homes here, and the taxes won't kill you