When it comes to tie down , you have to bear in your mind that there are totally different things, there are different kind of trucks, box truck, pickup truck, flatbeds, etc., they use similar or different tie downs, even for same kind of trucks, people probably will use totally different tie downs, say e track straps or plain ratchet straps for box trucks, so try to talk about generic tie downs is not a good idea, to make things simple, I’m sure you’ve already seen flatbed tie downs on the road, we will only talk about flat beds for the time being.
When the jobs come your way, odds are you won’t be able to decide what kind of stuff will be put on your truck, the only thing you can do is to prepare for all the possibilities , most of the time you don’t get to choose what you like or want to do. We are going to introduce truck tie down straps only, since the are popular tie down devices on flatbeds, and it should be the most popular tie downs on all trucks as well. .
For most flat bed trucks, truck winch and winch straps are what we usually use to tie down stuff, some trailers come with winches installed you only have to get winch strap . When you work with truck winches and winch straps, there is one thing you can’t live without: winch bars, these steel bars are essential for your job, so get one if you don’t already have one.
Usually most flatbeds will be sold with winches installed, there are still some of them come without winches though, in this case the drivers may use ratchet straps or binder chains as alternative. When the flat bed have the winches installed, we can use winch tie down straps to tie down articles on the trailer , usually we tie down steel coils, concrete pipes, skids, anything that not too heavy for the 5400lbs working load limit. Both flat hooks and wire hooks may be used on 2”, 3” and 4” winch straps, but flat hooks are more popular than wire hooks, you may see flat hooks on all size winch straps while wire hooks mostly on 2” straps. We can find 2” and 4” winches and 2” and 4” winch straps , depends on different applications , the length of strap can be 20′, 25′, 27′, 30′, 35′, 40′ or more than 50 feet.
OK, now let’s talk about ratchet strap which is the most popular tie down devices for all kinds of trucks or hauling businesses. What we call ratchet straps are actually assemblies, the ratchet buckles with short straps, one foot or longer, and the long straps, 6 feet or longer.
The ratchet strap earned it’s popularity by being the most flexible, adaptable and capable tie down devices , from passenger cars to eighteen wheelers , you can see ratchet straps anywhere cargo needs to be secured. With flat hooks, wire hooks, cloth loops, chain anchors, even endless, ratchets just can’t have enough variety, how can we don’t love these ratchets? The smallest width for ratchets is 1”, 4” is the widest, while the length of ratchets may be anything from inches to more than 60 feet. On commercial trucks ratchet tie downs are the best tie down devices for shippers , those trailers without winches installed will figure that ratchet straps are pretty important.
Before you go out or go online to buy these tie down straps , you will have to know how to get most out of them with less spending , top priority is the quality of the straps, most likely you will know the quality of local store stuff, when talking about online stores you should evaluate them by reading other people’s the reviews, trucking blogs, such as trucker’s deal , online feed backs, or by some other venues to make sure if the products and service are good or not.
So far truck winches and winch straps are only being used with flatbeds, I don’t know the exact percentage but a big portion of flatbeds sold with winches installed, this is a big plus for most drivers since they only need to get winch straps and winch bars(assume they don’t have them) to get started, and the plastic corner protectors maybe required or optional depends on what kind of loads on the truck. A few different kinds of truck winches are available, most seen ones are slide in winches and weld on winches, to use slide in winches the flatbeds have to have rails installed at one side of the truck bed, 2” and 4” are most popular sizes of truck winches, and of course we can say that 2” & 4” winch straps are the most popular ones, 3” winch straps are not that popular but you still can see them from time to time.
The way the truck winch and strap system works is pretty simple, the mandrel, the part into which you can insert the tie down strap, can be used to tighten the winch straps easily, thus tie the loads down pretty much by just put winch bar into the winch side hole then turn as many rounds as needed until the loads are secured properly. The winch structure is pretty simple, there is a barrel goes through the winch body, one side has a though hole and the other side has a gear with a brake, in between lies the mandrel, just put the straps 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 you untie the strap, open the brake, turn the barrel the opposite direction to pull the strap off the load. You are required to use a winch bar with the truck winch, you can use something like a wood stick or wood beam with, it’s not safe and not legal as well.
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. Sometimes people get confused with all the different winch bars, they are only used with truck winches after all, why all the different styles? It all comes down to personal preferences and specific needs, for instance, with combination winch bar you can use something else with it, say using a standard winch bar with a combination winch bar under some special circumstances.
Make no mistake, I will never buy those low price low quality stuff for my dog, which is my family member. Cheap price doesn’t equal to bad product , if you spend money, even a little , on shady products you’re just wasting your hard earned cash . What the affordable says here is that you don’t have to spend an arm and leg to get the high quality leashes and collars, better yet, you probably can pay much less get much more, let’s look at this 5/8”x60” nylon reflective dog leash, which is sturdy and designed to take on medium to big dogs,a set of 6 with different colors only sells for $9.99, you get black, blue, orange, pink and blue, with less than $1.50 a piece I would say it’s well worth the money and you get much more with a few dollars!
Here is another example of nice product, it’s a 1”x60” reflective dog leash, which has a nice handle with trash bag and travel bowl stored in it, the color is red, blue, black,dark green and orange, with features like big handle, trash bag and travel bowl storage and reflective leash, you only have to pay $7.00 with free shipping! The look and feel of this product is great, and the little known secret is that you will get an extra travel bowl when you order online. And there are 5 different colors available for you to choose, including black, blue, dark green, red and orange. With the easy to carry trash bag and travel bowl, this leash is ideal for you to walk your dog in the park or play in the wild.
Going outdoor without tie out stake and cable will be a mistake, you will have to watch your dog all the time! Play with your dogs at park Obviously you have to make sure it’s safe for the dog and the people around you, you need to tie the dog down with tie out cable and stake, together the tie out cable and stake its a mobile tie down post. Made from high quality aircraft cable and coated with vinyl, the tie out cable is strong enough and safe for your dogs, and is better than straps. The tie out stakes have quite some varieties, such as 9mmx18′, 9mmx17”, 8 mmx16” and 8mmx18”, and the tie out cable is 5mm in diameter and commonly has a few different lengths: 10′, 15′, 20′ and 30′, you can choose from all available sizes according to your needs.
The popular tie down system on semi trailers are E track tie down system, which consists of E Tracks and e track tie downs, E tracks come in with a few different length, such as 2′, 5′ and 10′, and there are two different variations , horizontal and vertical. The E Track tie downs have quite a few varieties, such as rope tie off, D ring with E fitting, cam buckle straps with E Fitting, ratchet straps with E Fitting, wood beam socket, wheel chocks which usually seen with E Tracks installed on the truck floor for bike or vehicle tie down and there e track cargo bars with e fittings at both ends. But any E Track tie downs need E Track to be installed to work, so the most important thing is to install the E Track properly.
Here we will discuss E Track setup and safety tips .
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 of 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. The key to safety is to use screws with deep threads, and put a screw into every hole if it is possible, and run the E track as far as possible (length wise), this helps to spread the load out as far and even as possible. But keep in mind that the outside wall is 2 inches away, make sure the screws won’t go too far!
When finish installing E Tracks, you will need to put it to test , just insert 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 you will have to fix them before you put the system into real use.
We had a tree stump in the front , it’s diameter is about a little bit more than 4 feet, it had bothered us for a few years, we’ve tried chainsaw on it but nothing can go through it, lately we bought a cable puller with 4 ton capacity , together with my truck pulled the stump out without major effort!
Actually cable pullers are heavy duty pulling tools and can be used to do a lot of things, sometimes you even can use it in pace of ATV Winch to save money. The rated capacity of cable puller usually comes in from 1 ton to 4 ton(2200lbs to 8800lbs), the reach of the pullers is usually 6 feet to 12 feet, the higher the capacity, the shorter the reach, 1 ton puller can have 12′ reach while 4 ton puller will only have 6′ reach, but some extra heavy duty 4 ton ones can have 11′ or more. We usually call cable puller “Come Along”, by definition, a come along is a hand operated ratchet lever winch, so cable puller can be called come along, along with chain puller, chain hoist, hand winch, trailer winch. The difference between cable puller and other come alongs is that cable pullers are considered heavy duty tools, pull capacity can be 4 ton(8800lbs), while regular hand winch has 400-4000lbs capacity and mostly used to pull boat out of or lower boat into water from trailer, sometimes also called boat trailer winch.
You have to do your homework before you go out to buy a cable puller, get to know it’s features. A regular cable puller will have a cable guide , which keeps 2 wraps of cable on ratchet wheel, and you can release loads one notch at a time, so you can lower a vehicle or tree safely, ratchet wheel made of laminated steel, plated steel for rust resistance, drop forged steel safety hooks, 4 ton model will feature 5/16” galvanized aircraft cable, and all the cable pullers will have to meet OSHA and ASME specs. The cable pullers usually come with two slip hooks with safety latch, and some extra heavy duty ones have 3 safety hooks for enhanced protection.
For stretching, pulling, lifting and lowering, cable pullers are the best choice. To pull vehicles onto the trailer or release the vehicle off the trailer, to pull or tear down trees, to lift or lower heavy stuff in your house, pull the tree stumps out of somewhere, compare to electric powered winch, such as electric winch , cable pullers are inexpensive handy tools.
