[Image from Futisaba]
Earlier this week in Lilongwe, Malawi, some enterprising fellows loaded up a truck with rebar. Unfortunately, they did not properly assess the weight bearing capabilities of the roof of the lorry cab. They could have benefited from a bit of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis or FMEA after the mishap. There are important to understand forces at play here, tension and compression are two that seem to be relevant
[Image from Futisaba]
In loading the truck, they likely saw that putting the rebar flat on the bed would make it hang off the rear, bouncing with every bump and pothole. As loaded, you can see that it just barely fits on the vehicle. In order to make the bars less floppy, they bridged it between the bed and the cab. This could have worked out if they had a more stable structure at the cab end, designed to carry the heavy load of the bar. Here in the states, you see trucks with a back rack to facilitate just this kind of loading.
How do you carry incredibly heavy and awkward loads on your vehicle? Africa and the developing world do not have a corner on the market of stupid transportation tricks. It seems that at least a couple times a month I see a vehicle being driven down the road with either: 1. the driver holding a piece of plywood on the roof by hand, or 2. some crazy thing hanging way out of the vehicle, or 3. a mattress on the roof of a car with air bulging up the front of the bedding.
14 thoughts on “Finding the failure point”
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Oh, yeah. I had a brainiac last week in Milwaukee loose a dresser out of their pickup right in front of me. I shoulda reported the plate # for a unsecured load citation in the mail for the moron who was lucky they had an attentative motorist behind them.
Just type “overloaded” in to google image search.
there was a really nice one on failblog this week:
http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/fail-owned-tube-transport-fail.jpg
http://failblog.org/2009/05/08/safe-driving-fail/
“There are important to understand forces at play here, tension and compression are the two that seem to be most relevant”
That’s a really silly comment.
“they did not properly the weight bearing capabilities of the roof of the lorry ”
‘I accidentally your truck’? Or maybe a little proofreading there?
am i the only one to feel pity for these men? that must suck. incidentally, it seems from the pictures they may have continued loading the truck. the damage is done. the job isn’t. the truck looks drivable. just enough room for a driver. it is now a custom long rebar hauler. the “v” shape of the roof will keep it from rolling off the sides. life gives you lemons – make lemonade! ;)
While writing this, I was searching for this post by Mark showing an insanely overloaded truck in Los Angeles: http://madprofessor.net/2007/08/overladen-pickup-on-the-101-lo.html