It’s a well known fact that when we put ratchet buckle and tie down webbing together we get ratchet strap, by this logic the cam buckle strap is just the cam buckle with tie down strap, why I am not surprised? Most likely these cam buckle straps are used on pick up trucks or passenger cars for luggage tie down, and small cam buckle(1”) are more popular than big ones(2”). Unlike cam buckle, ratchet buckle are much stronger, and 2”,3” and 4” ratchet buckles are used in industrial grade applications, such as heavy duty transportation, with 3,333LBS, 5,400LBS working load and a design factor of 3:1, these ratchets have 10,000LBS and 16,2000LBS breaking strength respectively, which are pretty strong for most tie down applications.

Of course what we discussed above is mainly for flatbed trucks and some other kind of vehicles, there are another category of ratchet straps for semi trailers, ratchet e track strap , these tie down devices will be used with E Tracks installed inside the semi trailer. By estimation, there are almost 80% trucks on the road are box trucks, so these e track straps are supposed to the most popular ones by volume. And these straps are not as strong as the one we use on flatbed truck, the working load limit of typical e track straps is 1,000lbs, with minimum breaking strength of 3,000lbs. It’s easy to understand that why e track straps are not as strong as regular ratchet tie down straps, inside the box truck the loads already have strong support, at least there is no risk of falling off, all the e track straps will do is to fixate the loads more than tie them down. Coupled with e track cargo bar, rope tie off, e track hardware(such as D ring with E fitting), shoring beam, e track tie downs can be used to secure any kind of loads, and secure them reliably, but you still have to pay close attention to the safety of your load , easy to secure is not an excuse for careless tie down practice.

In first paragraph we talked about design factor of ratchet tie downs, which is 3:1, so the working load limit is 1/3 of maximum breaking strength for ratchet straps, while grade 70 chains which have a design factor of 4:1, that means the transport chains will work in more tough environment than tie down straps, which usually are chose for regular loads. The most common materials in making tie down webbing are nylon and polyester, which serve different tie down applications. Nylon webbing has better elongation than polyester, so for shock absorption wise nylon is ideal material while polyester usually is used to make tie downs for heavy equipment. When making the webbing, we have to take following characteristics in to consideration, the breaking strength, elongation, abrasion and the environment. There are mandated criteria for breaking strength and elongation of the tie down strap , while the abrasion and environment are mostly estimation and subjective sometimes, different area may have different requirements. Therefore the manufacturer may have to make these tie downs to different standards.

Technorati Tags: e track straps, e tracks, ratchet straps, tie down straps, tie down webbing

Truck winches and winch straps mostly have been seen on flatbeds, a big chunk of flatbeds sold with winches installed, when the drivers put the loads on the truck, they only need winch straps and winch bars to tie loads down. Truck winch comes in with a few different flavors and sizes, we have slide in winches, weld on winches and some other winches, usually the weld on winches are sold with the new flatbeds, and the sizes of the winches will be 2” or 4”, you will be able to use 2” or 4” winch straps with them respectively, of course you can put 3” winch straps in the 4” winches, but that’s not something you will see every day.

The concept of truck winches with winch straps are pretty straight forward, the component of both truck winch and ratchet that the tie down straps are inserted into for tightening the whole web tie down straps called mandrel, the mechanism to tighten the straps on truck winch is different than the self contained ratchets, you will need the help of winch bars to tighten the winch straps. The barrel across the winch body has holes at one end, a  gear at the other end, the part between the winch body is mandrel, you can insert the webbing into it, close the brake on the gear will allow you the tighten the straps over the load, since the gear is only allowed to go one direction, When unloading your flatbed, you can open the brake on the gear, loose the strap a bit, get the hook off and retract the winch strap by turning the winch barrel the other way, when you are at it you will find it’s so easy, even…can dot it. To turn your winch barrel you will definitely need a winch bar, no one can do it with bare hands, besides, it’s required by law to use a winch bar with truck winches.

There usually are 2 kind of standard winch bars, chromated one and black one, and two different combination winch bars, chromated and painted half yellow, you can find them online or locally. To get which kind of winch bar depends on one’s priority and preference, all winch bars will serve the same purpose, they are just steel sticks with some tweaks after all.

Technorati Tags: tie down straps, truck strap, truck tie down, winch bar, winch straps

Driving a pick up with a lot of stuff in the trunk requires proper load securement. Imagine you hit the brake and the stuff in the trunk just fly off your truck! Or something drops on the vehicles behind you! You need cargo net or bungee cords to secure your load on the pickup. If you have some big objects you can use bungee cords or ratchet straps to tie them down, but if you have a lot of small pieces you definitely need cargo net to hold them up.

For the safety of yourself and people around you, get cargo nets for your load on pickup is critical.

Technorati Tags: bungee cord, cargo net, load securement, pickup, tie down

Ratchet Tie Down means quite some different things to different people, we will talk about trailer tie downs, to make things simple, we will only talk about flat beds for the time being.

People can and will put all kinds of different loads on their flat beds, or they have no choice some times, they will need all kinds of different tie downs to get the job done .

Talking about flat bed trucks, quite some of the flat beds come with winches installed, or you can install by yourself at a later time, then you can use winch strap to do the job .

Truck Winch and winch straps are popular tie down devices for flat bed trucks, you probably see those big rigs on the highway with winches and winch straps.

Some flat beds come with winches installed, not all trailers have winches installed . When the flat bed have the winches installed, we can use winch straps to tie down loads on the flat bed , usually we tie down steel coils, concrete pipes, skids, anything that not too heavy for the 5400lbs safe load limit . Winch straps usually come with flat hooks, because we usually hook the straps on the edge of the trailer , of course the double J hook can be used too. We can find 2” and 4” winches and 2” and 4” winch straps , depends on different situation , the strap length can be 20′, 25′, 27′, 30′, 35′, 40′ or more than 50 feet.

Now let’s talk about ratchet straps , which are the most popular tie downs .

Ratchet strap is most used tie down equipment due to their capability , you can use them almost anywhere when it’s applicable. The ending comes with quite some varieties, flat hooks, wire hooks , chain anchor , snap hooks, endless and more. And it’s width can be 1” through 4”, length can be a few inches to more than 50 feet . On 18 wheelers ratchet tie downs are the best tie down devices for truckers , those flat bed trucks without winches installed will find ratchet straps pretty useful .

In order to buy these tie down straps, you have the choice between local stores and online , depends on your available options , sometimes get them in local store is a better choice , sometimes online deals are much more attractive if you can get free shipping, you will have to look harder to find the right deal for you especially you’re expecting free shipping and low price.

Technorati Tags: e track strap, ratchet straps, tarp straps, truck strap, truck tie down, winch strap

E Track tie down system usually has two parts, the E Tracks and the logistic straps or hardware connector, aka E Track straps or tie downs. The E Track will be installed inside the box trucks , the most used are 2 flavors , horizontal E Track and vertical E Track, most seen sizes are 5′ section and 10′ section. E Track tie downs have some varieties, there are e track cargo bars with e fittings at both ends, ratchet e track straps, cam buckle e track straps, rope tie offs, wood beam socket, they all have e fittings at the ends, and on the floor we have chocks for stop vehicles from moving. Of course all of these need to have E Tracks installed and secured on the trailers, let’s see how do we do that.

And how do we install E Track properly and safely?

When you mount the E Track you will have to look for the wall studs on the trailer, we will focus on doing it on the wall but the same principle applies to the floor as well. The wall stud is basically a big channel with a couple flat spots on top to attach the plywood to, we just have to do the same to the E Track and bridge two of them somehow, when you figure that out you can use screws to hold the E Track up, you will need deep threaded wood screws or tec screws to get the job done. Basically this is all about installing E Tracks on the wall, and you will have to make sure the E Track sit as flat as possible on the wood. Use deep threaded wood screws on these E Tracks is a good idea, and if it’s possible, you should put one screw in each hole on the track, and run the track as far as you can(spread the load), then you’re pretty safe as long as for regular loads. The outside wall is about 2 inches away, so make sure the screws are not longer than that.

When finish installing E Tracks, you will need to test it, just put an rope tie off into the E Track, drag it all you want, see if there are any weak spots, loose ends or whatever feels not well secured, if there are any problems fix them before you put the system into real use.

Technorati Tags: e fitting, e track, e track straps, truck tie down

Truck Chains and ratchet binders are tough truck tie downs, both chains and binders are made of carbon steel, the WLL of the chains and binders are higher than most comparable tie down straps , let’s look at 5/16” transport chain(WLL 4700lbs) vs. WLL 3333lbs 2” ratchet tie down straps ,  3/8” chain(WLL 6600lbs) to 4” tie downs(5400lbs) , you will see that compare to tie down straps, binder chains are much stronger, and chain binders are even stronger than same size chains, for instance, 5/16”-3/8” binder has WLL 5400lbs which is stronger than 4700lbs WLL of 5/16” grade 70 chain . If we examine the design factor of chains and tie down straps, we will see that chains and binders have 4:1 design factor while tie down straps have design factor 3:1, that’s another reason we consider chains and binders are heavy duty tie downs .

According to NACM recommendations, the carbon steel used in making grade 70 chains should meet following criteria: no more than 0.35% Carbon, 0.040% Phosphorous and 0.050% Sulfur . As long as the choice made by chain manufacturers meets the recommended criteria and the final products meet or exceeds DOT requirements(or CHP, California Highway Patrol, or some other mandated requirements), we can use these products for transportation purpose and don’t have to worry about inspections.

We use these heavy duty chains and binders to haul heavy equipment, for instance, backhoe, bulldozer, forklift, these big rigs are tough or straps, we have to use steel chains to tie them down , when we talk about backhoe, forklift, we need at least 3/8” grade 70 chains and binders to secure them, for something which has less weight we consider 5/16” chains are good fit, of course we still have 1/2” and up chains and binders, these chains will most likely be used to tie down something out of ordinary, such as battle tanks, or some other applications require super heavy duty chains.

As we stated above, transport chains, or say binder chains are used on a lot things except for overhead lifting. There are people who use these chains to tear trees, to tow mobile loading docks, a lot of forestry services use large quantity of these grade 70 chains.

Technorati Tags: chain binders, grade 70 chains, load binders, steel chain, tie down chains, transport chains

Technorati Tags: ratchet straps, tie down straps, truck tie downs

I have  a friend who lives in Hawaii, recently he bought some transport chains with free shipping, this shipping thing alone is pretty amazing, shipping from east coast to Hawaii for free! And the chain is 3/8″x25′ which weighs roughly 36lbs! Not some small packages weigh merely a couple of pounds.

But the most interesting thing is not the chain or the shipping, it’s the way he’s using it, look at the picture:

Transport Chain on Tree

That’s an interesting way to use the transport chain! And here is the chain with the bulldozer:

Transport Chain sits on Bulldozer

You can do whatever you want with the merchandize you’ve acquired, I suppose.

Technorati Tags: 3/8x25 chain, bulldozer, free shipping, transport chain, trees

Wherever I drive on the highway I always can see those billboards at the road side, all of them are ads for something, the art work usually is impressive, I guess that’s what it is, people will have to pay good money for the billboards out there, especially in populated area, sometime the publicity can make it or break it.

I never had the chance before to look at the back of the billboards, I only see those steel frames, then I believed they use some kind of steel tie down to hold the boards in position, since the boards look huge and needs some kind of strong devices to tie them down. Of course, the reality will always have some surprise for you.

Recently I had the chance to see how the billboards were installed. Most interesting is that what they used to tie the boards down, and that is something I never believe I would think of. They use 1” ratchet straps to tie the boards down! And to my surprise, the breaking strength on the strap is merely 2200 lbs. Of course this is  not the heavy load on the trailer which requires 10,000lbs or stronger straps, but 1” strap looks a little bit weak to me. I asked the question and the people installed the boards told me that 10 such kind of straps will hold more than 10,000lbs stuff under strong wind.

It seems to me that we have to look deeper than we thought to find interesting truth.

Technorati Tags: 1'' ratchet straps, billboard tie down, tie downs

Cargo being transported on the highway should be secured, or we could suffer the consequences:

• Loss of life
• Loss of load
• Damage to the cargo
• Damage to the vehicle
• A crash
• Issuance of citations/fines to driver/carrier
• The vehicle being placed Out-of-Service
• Lost business/time

And maybe more unexpected stuff will happen.  I really hate to imagine that any of those bad things happen to anyone, that will be a nightmare.

If you want to have fun in your life and you want all others enjoy their lives as well, we have the reason and obligation to keep the load safe.

Of all the tie downs, ratchet straps maybe one of the most popular tie down devices, the ratchet straps can be used to tie down all kinds of load, and their size can range from 1” to 4” wide, a few feet to 40-50 feet long, breaking strength from a few hundred pounds to more than 15,000lbs. And winch straps, truck winches, cam buckle straps, transport chains, load binders, steel and lumber tarps, etc. are all popular tie down devices. You can pick up them at your local store or buy them online.

Technorati Tags: cam buckle strap, load binder, ratchet strap, transport chain, winch strap