Category → Tie Downs

Put The Matching Tire Chains On Your Vehicle’s Tires

16 December, 22:49, by admin Tags: , , , ,
27 comments

HOW TO FIND OUT TIRE SIZE

You will be able to find numbers and characters on the side of the tires. You will see on most modern tires the size shown like this: P265/50R15, by reading this number we can conclude that the tire width is 265mm, aspect ratio is 50% and is mounted on a wheel which has a diameter of 15 inches. By deciphering these numbers you can find the exact tire chains for your needs.

THE EXACT TIRES TO CHAIN UP

Usually you should choose the drive tires to chain up with tire chain. On vehicles with front-wheel drive this would be the two front tires, on vehicles with rear wheel drive this would be the rear tires. If you’re not sure which type of drive system you have, then check the vehicle owner’s manual. Now if your vehicle is all wheel or four wheel drive, and you only intend to chain up two tires, don’t forget to consult the vehicle owner’s manual for details about what axle to chain up. If you’re not feeling comfortable with chaining up only 2 tires on your 4WD vehicle, put tire chains on all four tires.

Under normal driving conditions, the traction on all wheels are about the same, making you feel normal when asserting brake, acceleration and cornering. If you’re driving on the snow and ice you won’t find the balance under normal condition. If only front tires get chained up, the rear of the vehicle can swing during braking and driving. If you only put snow chains on rear tires, the steering ability of the vehicle is limited. To balance the force, you should put snow chains on all tires, driving or not. In most cases the snow chains on the market are sold in pairs, if all tires need to have snow chains on, you must purchase two pairs. Don’t forget there are truck tire chains and passenger car tire chains , the truck tire chains usually are stronger and more expensive than car tire chains.

When You Have Reflective Tie Downs You Will Love Them

16 December, 00:22, by admin Tags: , , ,
30 comments

In the world of webbing tie downs for trailers , the ratchet strap and winch strap are playing a big role in cargo securement , cargo strap can be used inside the box trucks and on the flat beds , while winch straps usually are used with flat bed trucks with winches installed . And truck tie downs are much more than just ratchet straps and winch straps , for instance there are grade 70 chains , chain tensioners, logistic strap, and more .

There is a special kind of tie downs which have reflective strips on the webbing , in low light the reflective strips can be seen from far away , this looks like a safety feature, is it? When it comes to safety, even a tiny bit of improve on safety should be worth buying the reflective straps. Due the reflective tie downs are relatively new on the market, we don’t have much proof of safety benefits, All we need to know is that if you can see the reflection on the straps half mile away, it’s not likely we will hit the target due to bad sight.

Now compare the price of regular tie down to reflective tie down, get online you will find a lot of interesting information, a simple search tells us that the reflectives are a bit more expensive than regular ones, but not much, you will be able to buy a piece for around 10 something dollars, reflectives will increase the price by $1 to $2 , IMHO it should be more expensive, say you buy 10 straps the price difference is about $20, since these straps can be used for quite some time, the conservative estimation will be at lease 6 months, it’s only about $3 a month to have the added security of reflectives! Its definitely worthwhile to get the reflective tie downs!

Total Truck Tie Downs: Chains and Binders

15 December, 23:39, by admin Tags: , ,
21 comments

Grade 70 transport chain and ratchet chain binder are heavy duty tie down equipment , all these tie downs are made from 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. 2” tie downs(typical WLL 3333lbs) ,  3/8” chain(WLL around 6600lbs) to 4” tie downs(5400lbs max.) , 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 working load limit of 5/16” system 7 chain . Another reason chains and binders are considered heavy duty, is their design factor is 4:1 while webbing tie downs have 3:1 typical design factor, see “Design Factor” for reference .

These chains and binders are mostly used to haul big, heavy equipment, such as backhoe, bulldozer, these things are hard on straps, only carbon steel chains can sustain that kind of abuse , when we talk about backhoe, forklift, we need at least 3/8” system 7 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, grade 70 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 system 7 steel chains and binders .

Why It Is a Better Choice With Reflective Tie Downs?

21 November, 09:50, by admin Tags: , , , , , ,
18 comments

When we talk about safe tie downs for trucks , the ratchet strap and winch strap are playing an important role in tying down load , ratchet strap can be used almost anywhere, such as on the trailer or in the box truck , on the other hand winch straps almost in all cases are being deployed with flat bed trucks with winches installed . As we all know there are other truck tie downs , for instance there are grade 70 chains , chain binders, e track strap, and more .

Here we will discuss about the reflective tie downs which have two reflective strips on the strap , in dark environment the reflective strips can be seen from afar , this seems like a safety feature, I believe it is. When it comes to safety, even a tiny bit of improve on safety will make the reflective tie downs worthwhile. We don’t have enough data to prove the safety benefits of reflective tie downs yet, but common sense tells us that if people can easily see the straps on the truck in low light, the probability of collision will be reduced.

Now compare the price of regular tie down to reflective tie down, usually you can figure this out by checking online retailers, a simple search tells us that the reflectives are a bit more expensive than regular ones, but not much, you will be able to buy a piece for around 10 something dollars, reflectives will increase the price by $1 to $2 , it doesn’t sound too expensive to me, say you buy 10 straps the price difference is about $20, since these straps can be used for quite some time, the conservative estimation will be at lease 6 months, it’s only about $3 a month to have the added security of reflectives! I say it’s definitely worth it, not only it’s safer but also it looks nice, people will always like stuff with high quality and aesthetic value.

What We Have to Know About Ratchet Straps

06 October, 10:50, by admin Tags: , , , ,
27 comments

The ratchet straps are just the assemblies of ratchet buckle and tie down webbing, by this logic the cam buckle strap is just the cam buckle with tie down strap, why I am not surprised? Cam buckle tie downs are only for light duty use, and 2” cam buckles are the biggest size we will see in the real world use, and it’s still light duty. 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, they have working load limit of 3,333lbs, 5,400lbs and 5,400lbs respectively, these assemblies have design factor of 3:1, thus the minimum breaking strength is 10,000lbs, 16,200lbs and 16,200lbs respectively.

Up until now what we talked about is the tie downs for flatbed or similar commercial vehicles, in reality semi trailers are much more than flatbeds in numbers, since they are box trucks the tie down needs are different, you will see most box trucks have E Track installed and use logistic straps. In fact semi trailer has much bigger share than flatbed truck, the percentage maybe around 80%, of course this is only estimation but you get the idea, and the conclusion is that e tack straps are by far the most popular tie downs. The e track straps usually have working load limit of 1000lbs, which is only 30% of the 2” flatbed tie downs, and the breaking strength is only 3,000lbs based on design factor 3:1. 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. You also have e track cargo bar, decking beam, rope tie off, etc. at your disposal, with e track ratchet straps you will be able to secure any kind of cargo , make the trucking experience much more enjoyable , but keep in mind that no matter what you can’t be more careful than it should be when it comes to your important cargo and truck , make sure your load are secured properly by appropriate tie downs.

As we described in the first paragraph, the design factor of ratchet assembly is 3:1, that means the working load limit is 1/3 of the minimum breaking strength, for comparison purpose we know that the binder chain has a design factor of 4:1, which basically says that for the chains the working load limit will be 1/4 of their breaking strength, which indicates that tie down chains are designed for tougher environment than tie down straps are in. Nylon and polyester webbing are used in making tie down webbing, for different applications people  will choose different material accordingly. Polyester webbing is almost perfect for tying down logs while nylon webbing is for small and light cargo. Elongation, tensile strength, abrasion and environment, these have to be taken into consideration when making tie down strap. 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.