Come to think of tie downs , you have to remember 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, 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 now.
So many different loads can be put on trailers , the choice of tie downs will be really complicated, they will need quite some different tie down devices to get the job done, such as e track straps for box truck . When it comes to flatbeds , the first thing comes up will be the truck winches, you can see those flatbeds with truck winches at one side on the highway all the time, with those winches it’s easy for the driver to tie down loads with just winch straps with the help of winch bar .
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 . There is one thing essential for truck winch and winch strap tie down combination, winch bar, which is the tool to help you control 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 .
Of course we just can’t leave out the most used tie down equipment for transportation businesses, ratchet straps. In reality the ratchet straps are just the assembly of ratchet buckles and tie down webbing, which can be nylon or polyester, the combination of different ratchet buckles and different straps gives us many choices.
The ratchet strap 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. The ratchet straps may have flat hooks, double J hooks, chain anchors, cloth loops or just plain straps at both ends, probably some special made ratchets have some other funny ends, say, D ring? 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. The reason we say that ratchet straps are most popular tie down devices for most trucks can be found in this paragraph, even for flatbeds which use winch straps massively may find ratchet straps attractive if there are no winches installed on the truck.
Before you go out or get online to buy these tie down straps , you should learn how to get more out of it while spend less , most important thing is the quality of the straps, probably you know local store well enough, but for online stores you need to find out by reading other people’s the reviews, trucking blogs, such as trucker blogs , online feed backs, or by some other venues in order to determine whether the products and services are worth it.