I just got a new pick up truck and I wanted to move a lot things around with it. Most stuff I have are things in cardboard boxes, luggage bags, shoe boxes, small chairs, fishing gears, bikes, some toys without boxes, in a word, it’s a mess, I tried to load them up in an ordered fashion but it was proved that my effort was futile. When the trunk is full I just stared at the mess I created, said to myself, I just did that? OK, I actually did that. Then it occurred to me that I couldn’t get on my way like this, if I did there would be possible consequences like these: either the stockpile fell apart on the road, may or may not hit someone else or cause accidents, or I got stopped by police officer before anything could happen and got ticket and points. Either way I would screw up, that wasn’t something I wanted, I believe no one would want that.
Now I have at lease two choices, I can start over and try to tidy them up or find something to hold them together, OK, even I start over I still will have to find something to secure the load, these choices actually bound to one thing, I need some cargo control stuff for my pick up. Of course in this case we don’t need big tie downs like 10,000lb ratchet straps or grade 70 binder chains, I just need something a few hundred pounds strength to hold some luggage and boxes together, nothing qualifies for serious cargo tie downs. Since I already stack everything up, no cargo bars needed, those cargo bars for pickup are just for boxes or bags support or something similar, not for holding things together.Finally, I decided to do some research, mostly online.
I dived into the tie down world for something can be used with my pick up and the tie downs may not to overkill for my situation, first I came across 1” ratchet straps, 6 or 9 feet, but with 2000 or 3000lb strength they were overkill in a sense, even they were not too expensive, cam buckle straps were in the same shoes, what I found was too heavy duty yet not good enough for my purpose, what a piece of 1” ratchet strap could do with the huge pile such as the stuff on my truck? Besides, 1” ratchet straps won’t be able to hold a lot small pieces together at all. Then I ran into this gem: cargo net for pick ups, the size is 48”x60” which is ideal for my truck, just put the cargo net on top the pile then tie it down, you’re all set. With cargo nets come bungee cords, the bungee cords are just perfect for tying down cargo net, in fact the cargo net is made of interconnected bungee cords! In a nutshell, the small cargo nets and bungee cords are light duty tie downs made just for the purpose of holding together and tying down small but irregular loads such as the pickup truck mess in my case. And you can put these light duty tie downs to some creative use as you see fit, they are just perfect for passenger cars and small trucks.
The ratchet straps are just the assemblies of ratchet buckle and tie down webbing, but if we use cam buckle in place of ratchet buckle in the assembly we have cam buckle tie down, it’s as simple as that. 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, the typical working load limit for 2” tie downs is 3,333lbs, for 3” and 4” which is 5,400lbs, since these tie downs have design factor of 3:1, the minimum breaking strength is 10,000lbs and 16,200lbs.
Of course what we discussed above is mainly for flatbed trucks and some other kind of 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 tie downs . It is estimated that 80% trucks are box trucks, and the e track tie down system is just for semi trailers , so e track straps are most popular tie down straps. 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. 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, shoring beam, e track tie off, etc. at your disposal, with e track tie down straps you will be able to secure any kind of cargo , make the transportation experience as it should be , but remember that you can never be more careful when it comes to your precious truck and load , make sure your cargo are tied down properly all the time.
We already discussed the design factor of ratchet straps, it is 3:1 and for the record all this says is that safe load limit of tie down straps is 1/3 of it’s breaking strength, while grade 70 transport chains which have a design factor of 4:1, that means the transport chains will work in more tough environment than tie down straps, which usually are chose for regular loads. The standard material of which tie down webbing is made is nylon webbing or polyester webbing, depends on different tie down applications. Nylon webbing has better elongation than polyester, so for shock absorption wise nylon is ideal material while polyester usually is used to make tie downs for heavy equipment. 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.
Just to be clear, I am not talking about cheap quality leashes and collars, I don’t want those flimsy, shady stuff for my dog. Affordable doesn’t mean low quality, if you spend money, even not much, on cheesy products you’re just throwing good money away, here what I mean affordable is that the quality is good even great while you don’t have to pay too much on the products, believe it or not, you may get the nice leashes and collars with really great price, take this 3/8” leash collar set as an example, this set is ideal for small dogs in the city, it’s collar is adjustable from 9”-14”, and the leash is 48′ long’, and only sell for $2.25 a piece, which is a very good price for a nice product.
Now let’s look at another example, it’s a reflective leash with trash bag and travel bowl, it has a nice handle with trash bag and travel bowl in it, the leash is blue, reflective, 60” long, 1” wide, this patented product is only for $7.00 with free shipping! The look and feel of this product is great, and the little know secret is that you will get an extra travel bowl when you order online. And you can choose from 5different colors, black, blue, dark green, red and orange. This leash is ideal for walk your dog in the park, with the trash bag and travel bowl you can take care of your dog easily.
For out door play the tie out cable and tie out stake are essential. Take you dog to picnic you will need to make sure it’s safe for the dog and the people around you, you need to tie the dog down with tie out cable and stake, together the tie out cable and stake are a mobile tie down post. The tie out cable is made from aircraft cable,it’s strong, reliable, and is vinyl coated to prevent your dog from scratching with the steel cable. The tie out stakes have quite some varieties, such as 9mmx18′, 9mmx17”, 8 mmx16” and 8mmx18”, and the tie out cable is 5mm in diameter and usually has 4 different lengths: 10′, 15′, 20′ and 30′, you can choose from all available sizes according to your needs.
