Mar 31 2011
Critical Ratchet Tie Down Information for Cargo Securement
The widely known fact is that the assembly of tie down webbing and ratchet buckle usually called ratchet tie down, when the ratchet buckle is replaced by cam buckle then you get the cam buckle straps. 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”). Ratchet buckles are different, there are 1” to 4” ratchets, and they can be quite heavy duty and can stand all kinds of abuse, the most commonly used on commercial trucks are 2”, 3” and 4” ratchet tie downs, 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.
So far we discussed about tie down devices for flatbed trucks 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 semi trailers have E Track installed and use logistic strap. 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. the low working load limit of e track straps stems from box truck wall provides support for the loads inside the truck, come to think of it, the loads won’t fall off the bed, not going to roll over, it’s much safer than the loads out there on the flatbeds, therefore low strength tie downs can be used to secure the loads.
As we discussed 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, in the mean time the design factor of grade 70 tie down chains is 4:1, so the chains can support heavier load, and are more resistance to abuse, such as high/low temperature, moisture, while tie down straps usually only work well under normal condition. The most common materials in making tie down webbing are nylon and polyester, which serve different tie down applications. 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. Breaking strength has to reach the recommendation level no matter what, and elongation has to meet the requirement, abrasion and environment sometimes are not that clear cut, when designing tie downs we may have to consider the most extreme conditions these tie down straps may be in, or we may just consider the normal transportation environment.


These so called movers are trained on how to handle the things that has to be moved. They are trained on how to help move your things. But there are still things that have to be concerned about. First is about the trust on the personnel that via 









Write a little something about the author of this website here. You might also want to link to the