Does anyone have a source for the reflective orange vinyl such as is used in construction road signs? I would like to find a source that would supply it in precut nonpunched 1 foot wide. My local supplier could only purchase full rolls in one size that doesn't work out, and it is horribly expensive. $500/roll???
It is to be used for corner strips for transporting 16 foot wide mobile homes and modular housing. NY in their infinite wisdom again has specified only this material be used, so people don't run into the corners of a house going down the road. Now why the plain old reflective isn't allowed, nobody knows. Especially as these loads are not even allowed on the road during non- daylight hours!
The vinyl is applied to aluminum and then it is bent in half vertically. A 6 foot long strip is nailed to each corner of the house before it is transported down the highway, and then at the end of the trip the trucker removes it, lashes it to his truck somewhere, and saves it for the next one. They do take an awful beating.
I'm also looking for the same material in one foot wide, unpunched, highway yellow. It is the stuff that's covered with little hexagon shapes. The relection at night can be incredible!
Thanks!
Posted by Rick Chavez (Member # 2146) on :
I do not know the exact requirement in NY but I would check if the Spec has an ATSM spec requirement, this usually means that 3M Retroreflective Vinyl is the only one that can meet that requirement. If that's the case you will have to get it converted...which is a lot more than 500 bucks.
Posted by Jon Aston (Member # 1725) on :
Bill:
How many 16-foot mobile home and modular housing units does your customer ship over the course of a year...and what are they worth?
The full cost of the required-by-law material (in whatever minimum quantity, including conversion costs) may prove to be insignificant or inconsequential to your customer by comparison.
I would suggest working the cost of all of the material into your pricing - and deposit - and would go so far as to suggest that they do the same...an extra couple of hundred bucks on top of their unit pricing isn't likely to affect their ability to sell - particularly when all of their competitors will be faced with the same regulatory requirements and supply/incremental cost issues.
You might even want to look at this as an opportunity to conduct a little market research to find other companies in the same business (facing the same issues) and proactively market your solution.
Posted by Bill Foshay (Member # 4526) on :
Jon: The manufacturers ship hundreds of them. However, they hire truckers who must supply their own lighting and safety items to get the unit down the road. We are talking manufacturers who routinely will call drivers to ship units permitted for one size but that are actually a larger and more expensive size. (For example, my driver and I both deadheaded hundreds of miles to a PA manufacturer to pick up a unit that was said to be 13' 6" high, but actually was several inches over 14 feet high. After waiting hours for them to adjust the items thay had stacked on the roof the best they could do was 4 inches overheight, at which point they stated, "oh we have an agreement with your company to haul houses at that height". Never mind that getting caught with an overheight unit will cost the driver hundreds of dollars, and delay the unit a week or two until proper permits are issued. Needless to say, both of us returned home for no money. Others would have taken the run and taken their chances, but we knew the route we had to go had unavoidable DOT checking and the resultant fines.
This is the mindset we have to deal with, and unfortunately there have been way too many folks transporting that were willing to cheat on measurements, premits, and routes, so the mfgrs.take as much advantage of it as they can.It is like a whole industry made of cheapskates. Welcome to trucking!.....
The drivers would be purchasing the corner reflector units, and probably the average driver moves two of them a month. That is why price is an unavoidable issue.
NO ASTM specs are given in the rulebook I have used. I will further search out a specific law and report if I find any.
Posted by Jillbeans (Member # 1912) on :
Heck, I couldn't even pronounce that if I needed to order it! Sounds as confusing as unrhymed iambic pentameter. Love....Jill
Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
Hiya Bill, It sounds like a material that's used for construction signs or something quite close. Try a traffic safety company or similar. They should be able to help you out. Maybe you can buy those "fabric" construction signs and butcher them up to be cheap
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
yup. they had it.. $6.50 a square foot, minimum 300 square feet purchase. OUCH!
Guess we will be happy with the ones other folks sell for big bucks. Unless I can find someone willing to purchase a bunch of leftover it isn't practical.
Thanks for trying, guys!
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
Why not grap a couple construction signs off the road in a rural area and uhhh... modify them to fit?
Even if you get caught doing it, the fee's gotta be cheaper than sourcing the material out. Posted by Bob Kistler (Member # 4049) on :
I believe it can be gotten through FDC vinyls here in South Bend, buuuut it is terribly expensive and no one that I know of sells anything but full rolls. I'm working on a project and my customer will have to buy 900 pieces at a time to use the roll. Engineering grades are not powerful enough. You need either diamond grade or high intensity grade stock. Even 3M says the engineer grade is for slower moving traffic use. This is the ultra bright stuff that you see on highway signs now, tremendously more powerfull reflection at greater angles
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
I think you should call in a formal complaint to your local "News On Your Side" or another consumer watchdog group. Tell them about the manufacturers and their illegal practices. Draw some attention to them and lets see if they bitch about the price of legality then. Everyone else is expected to comply so should they.
Send me the names of the culprits. I'll make the calls and get the ball rolling. I want to stir up some crap just to see what happens
Posted by Jon Aston (Member # 1725) on :
Bob's right!
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
How about taking it up with the NY state offices and showing them how outrageous the new standard is for the majority of the small business who''l ahve to pay for their infinite wisdom?
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