Sling Control

E Track tie down system usually has two parts, the E Tracks and the logistic straps or hardware connector, aka E Track straps or tie downs. The E Track will be installed inside the box trucks , the most used are 2 flavors , horizontal E Track and vertical E Track, most seen sizes are 5 feet and10 feet section. 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 sockets, 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.

When it comes to the setup of E Tracks, the safety is our top   priority.

Now we’re going to mount the E Track onto the trailer wall, first thing we do is to find the wall studs, this is same for the floor installation. The wall studs are a big channel with a few flat spots to put the plywood on, we will do the same to the E Track and bridge the stud and the E Track, now we need to use screw to hold the E Track in the place, the trick is the same as any other handy jobs. For Safety reason, you’d better use deep threaded screws, put one screw into each hole on the e track, and run the track as possibly far as you can, the will spread the load across long distance and it’s safer. Remember that the there are only about 2 inch to outside wall, so don’t over assert the screws.

Before you call it a day, you will have to test your installation out a bit , just insert a 2”x16′ ratchet e track strap in the e track, use your hand or some other stuff to drag it hard to see if there are any loose spots or soft wall mount , if you do find problems please fix them before hauling away.

Truck tie down means a lot different things to different people, we will focus on 18 wheeler tie downs in this post , specifically, we are going to talk about flat bed truck this time.

People can and will put all kinds of different loads on their flat beds, or they have no choice some times, they will need all kinds of different tie downs to get the job done .

We will introduce truck tie down straps solely .

For most flat bed trucks, truck winch and winch straps are what we need, some trailers come with winches installed you have to get winch strap.

Some flat beds come with winches installed, not all trailers have winches installed . 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 working load limit . Winch straps usually come with flat hooks, since we usually hook the straps on the edge of the trailer , of course the wire hook can be used too. There are 2” and 4” truck winches and 2” and 4” winch tie downs, depends on different applications , the length of strap can be 20′, 25′, 27′, 30′, 35′, 40′ or more than 50′ .

Then there are most used tie downs: ratchet strap .

Ratchet Tie Down is most used tie down equipment due to their flexibility , you can use them almost anywhere when it’s applicable. The ending comes with quite some varieties, flat hooks, wire hooks , chain anchor , snap hooks, endless and more. And it’s width can be 1” through 4”, length can be a few feet to more than 50′ . On 18 wheelers ratchet tie downs are the most used tie down devices for truckers , those flat bed trucks without winches installed will figure that ratchet straps are pretty important .

Before you go out or go online to get these tie down straps, you will have to know how to get most out of them with less spending, first thing to consider is the quality of the straps, maybe you know the local store stuff quality, but for online stores you need to find out by read other people’s the reviews, trucking blogs, customer feed backs, or some other venues to determine if the products and service are good or not.

Truck Chains and ratchet binders are heavy duty truck tie downs, both chains and binders are made of carbon steel, the WLL of the chains and binders are higher than most comparable tie down straps , say we compare grade 70 size 5/16” binder chain(which has 4700lbs WLL) to 2 inch tie down straps with WLL 3333lbs ,  6600lbs 3/8” transport chains vs. 5400lbs 4” tie down straps , 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 WLL of 5/16” grade 70 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 .

The material recommended by National Association of Chain Manufacturer to make grade 70 chains is carbon steel, the criteria for base steel is Carbon 0.35% max; Phosphorous 0.040% max and Sulfur 0.050% max. As long as the choice made by chain manufacturers meets the recommended criteria and the final products meet or exceeds DOT requirements(or CHP, California Highway Patrol, or some other mandated requirements), we can use these products for transportation purpose and don’t have to worry about inspections.

We use these heavy duty chains and binders to haul heavy equipment, for instance, backhoe, bulldozer, forklift, these big rigs are tough or straps, we have to use steel chains to tie them down , when we talk about backhoe, forklift, we need at least 3/8” grade 70 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.

Grade 70 tie down chains can be used on anything but overhead lifting, you need at least grade 80 alloy chains for overhead lifting. We see people use transport chains to drag the trees, tow the docks, and to tie down the logs out of the the trees, you can go around to find more creative uses of these chains and binders.

Ratchet straps are assemblies of ratchet buckles with all kinds of straps with or without hooks, endless or not. The straps part of the assemblies can be made of nylon or polyester webbing , and the working load limit can range from less than 100lbs to more than 1000lbs , the strap width can range from 1” to 4” , usually we can see hooks, loops or chain extension at both ends of the assembly .

The material people use to make ratchet buckle is steel, specifically carbon steel, but the ratchet handle can be aluminum or plastic coated, or just the steel . Following link is the diagram of long wide handle ratchet : Ratchet Drawing .

According to WSTDA, tie down straps are made of nylon or polyester webbing, people choose different ratchet straps for different applications, nylon webbing has better elongation than polyester one, so it’s used when shock absorption is critical, such as motorcycle tie down, when low elongation and  low creep are required, polyester will be the choice, tie down heavy equipment will require polyester webbing ratchet straps .

Coated with suitable material, we can impact the characteristics of the webbing , we can make more abrasion resistant, seal the straps to prevent corrosion, increase ultra-violet light resistance, increase or decrease coefficient of friction and more .

And the quality of the straps is the most important characteristic, to use these straps properly and safely is a must . Now how to find these straps with quality and low price? Usually your local dealer will have quite some varieties of straps, and the quality probably is OK but the price will be somewhat high . Online tie down stores actually is a better choice if not  most of the time, you can search all around the country even the world to find the deal just for you, when you search “ratchet straps free shipping” you will find the best deal ever for your money .