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.

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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