Hi All,
This is from todays inspection. The house was built in 1982. Notice the mending plates that are not attached to anything? I am no “seasoned inspector”, but I have never seen this before. Any ideas on why these would be on the trusses not functioning for anything?? They don’t appear to have ever been attached to any lumber at all (no wood debris on them).Everything else seemed to look fine, but I can’t figure why these would be here?
Your help/opinions are eppreciated!
regards,
Pic 4957 almost looks like a splice in the wood. There is a line going across in the center of the plate.
It is engineered that way to join two pieces that make up the (or part of the) top cord. It’s fine. 
Larry,
Do they do this at times instead of using longer 2x’s?
Yes, I imagine it is more cost effective.
It looks like the engineers were having a competition of “How can we design a truss to be structurally adequate, while looking as weak as possible?”
Jim King
Truss Designs are very intriguing, they utilize lumber that is most economical and placement of the joint splices are strategically located in an Engineering way.
Splice as such of the picture shows that it is closer to the compression member than the tension member. The two work together.
Truss designs are fascinating, and those splice plates, absolutely nothing wrong.
Marcel 
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Looks that way to me too. Doesn’t appear to be any signs of missing members, movement, separation, etc. from the pics.
The top member (or chord) is in compression, so it’s easier to splice those members … and it’s usually close to a joint so there is not a lot of bending from snow/roof loads at that point.
JMO
looks like they used a splice plate for a 2x6 instead of a 2x4. i don’t see anything wrong. perhaps, for economy,that truss mnfctr only uses one size truss plate.