Please check my safe tie down

[duckman903]

What you call softeners, we call chaffing I use pieces of old fire hose the type that has a rubber coating on the inside, I've actually used chain going thru the hose pieces on finished edges and never marred them.

[whateg0]

What you call softeners, we call chaffing I use pieces of old fire hose the type that has a rubber coating on the inside, I've actually used chain going thru the hose pieces on finished edges and never marred them.

The softeners prevent chafing.

Dave

[pete]

Actally chafing under transport is a bit less of a problem than the slings getting cut when run over sharp or even semi sharp edges. Something as simple as hitting a decent sized pothole in the road can be enough to add what's needed to cut straps. I've low bedded a fair amout of equipment as well as run deck trucks. Plus have done at least a few thousand lifts up to 50 ton in the mines. By luck I've not had a problem so far, but have seen a few dropped loads and the results are never pretty or cheap. One I can think of cost over 200k simply because the operator wasn't paying full attention to what he was doing. It's almost universal that the older the guy is doing the lift the less they trust those new fangled straps and most of those older guy's prefer chains and boomers for low bedding or open deck loads and cables for lifting. I'm not even sure straps are allowed while low bedding earth moving equipment since I've always seen those chains and boomers used. I've also seen more than a few machine tool lifts on Youtube and far too many don't seem to fully understand just how easy those straps can get cut without softening the edges. The one main thing to remember is you may get lucky with one or even 100 lifts or load transport. But get unlucky just once and you'll never forget that you never took the time to do the job right. And once a strap starts to get cut you'll never get the load stopped or safe on the ground in time. It can take split seconds to shear a heavy duty strap that's more than ample for the load. Carboard, carpet,wood, rubber belting etc is always a good idea unless there's already a large radius. I do the same even with steel braided slings because I've seen them cut through at well under the rated load limit.

Those straps also have a bad habit of vibrating with the wind while running down the highway. One old truckers trick is to put a half turn on the strap on each side of the load. That will stop the vibration and that wind caused vibration can and will start chaffing the straps. For road transport you always want at least one strap in each direction securing the load from moving forwards or backwards. It's seldom enforced for private non commercial transport, but it's still not impossible to get tagged by DOT for an improperly secured load if you don't have those fore and aft straps. DOT isn't known for having a sense of humor.

[seal killer]

pete—

I’m going to remember this one.

—Bill

[John Hasler]

pete writes:
I'm not even sure straps are allowed while low bedding earth moving equipment since
I've always seen those chains and boomers used.

I believe most states require chains for any sort of wheeled load.

[pete]

I think your right John, up here in Canaduh as well. Most of my low bedding has been tracked machines and it's always chains, so those rules are most likely for tracked machines as well.