Flat Bed Tie Down Devices: Straps and Winches
When it comes to truck tie down , you have to keep in your mind that there are totally different things, there are different kind of trucks, for instance 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, more precisely, we will talk about flat beds only, probably you’ve already seen them on the highway or truck stop.
it’s almost always not for you to decide what stuff will be on your truck }. We’ll examine winch straps and truck winches, lots of flat beds have winches installed or you can install winches later, then you’ll be able to use winch straps with truck winches, it has to be a straight forward choice .
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 with D ring . There is one thing essential for truck winch and winch strap tie down combination, winch bar, which is the tool to help you secure the cargo on the flatbed, since you can only tighten the winch straps through turning winch barrel, this only can be done by utilizing winch bar .
If your flatbeds come with winches installed, you only need to get some winch straps for most of your work, of course you still need to keep some chains, binders and ratchet straps handy. When the flat bed have the winches installed, we can use winch straps to tie down articles on the flat bed , usually we tie down steel coils, concrete pipes, skids, anything that not too heavy for the 5400lbs safe load limit . Usually we see flat hooks at one end of the winch straps, the use of flat hook sometimes is by convention, sometimes by choice, because the flat hook is easy on flatbeds, and wire hooks can be used as well, mostly seen on 2” winch straps. For most flatbeds there are 2” and 4” truck winches , but winch straps have width of 2”, 3” and 4”, it’s obvious you can put 3” winch straps in 4” winches, when we look at the length of the winch strap, the range is pretty wide for regular use, from around 20 feet to more than 60 feet, 27′ and 30′ being the most common length available.
Of course there are most popular tie downs: ratchets straps . 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 tie down earned it’s popularity by being the most flexible, adaptable and capable tie down devices , from passenger cars to commercial trucks , 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. When you have winches installed on your truck you probably still need to keep some ratchet straps handy, imagine following scnario, you lose a winch while you’re on a tight schedule, and it’s midnight and it’s impossible to find a new or used winch, then ratchet straps come to your rescue!
To get high quality yet low price ratchet straps is both easy and difficult , depends on what you need and your budget. Depends on your available options , sometimes purchase them locally is more appropriate , sometimes online deals are much better. Nowadays there are a lot of forums, blogs and online opinion sites out there, you just need to read some reviews, customer feed backs to figure out the product and service quality of the vendors, there is no need to take chances.