How to Use Ratchet Straps

It’s important to tie down the items you’re transporting to the back of your pickup truck – even if you’re only five minutes away. An unsecured load can become a dangerous projectile in an accident, tip out of the truck bed on a sharp turn, slide out under acceleration and become damaged – or cause damage to your truck. You can secure lighter things with rope (see our tutorial on tying a Tucker hitch). But for anything heavier than, say, a push mower, you should use ratchet straps.

While ratchet straps are the ubiquitous tie-down device, they’re not all created equal. Know your belts and their limits. The packaging of the ratchet straps should indicate both the payload weight they are rated for and the breaking strength of the strap. This information should also be printed on a label sewn into the band. If you don’t see this information, don’t buy the ratchet straps. And you can’t assume that all webbing of the same size has the same working load and breaking strength – the webbing and thickness of the webbing can vary. This 1 inch strap can have a working load as low as 300lbs or as high as 833lbs. Note that the safe working load for all ratchet straps is calculated by dividing the breaking strength by three.

You can commonly find ratchet straps in widths of 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 inches. The smaller 1 and 1.5 inch straps should be sufficient for most loads being transported on a pickup truck bed, while larger sizes may be required to secure vehicles and equipment being transported on trailers. Once you’ve chosen the straps for your cargo, it’s time to load, tie down, and set off. We have some guides on using these ratchet straps to securely fasten things.

Use anchor points

Most trucks have steep loops or hooks that can be used as anchor points when securing cargo. These are often located in the bottom corners inside the bed. Some trucks have rails along the bed with adjustable and sometimes plastic anchors. You can use these to tie down light items, but avoid using ratchet straps to secure heavy loads.

Do you know the ratchet parts

There are four main parts of a ratchet mechanism. These are the handle (1), pawl (2), windlass (3) and pawl (4). The handle is used as a lever to tighten the strap and has a cam to loosen the strap when fully open. The windlass is the spool that is spun around and takes up the tape. The pawl allows the handle to turn the windlass and wrap the strap around it. The pawl prevents the windlass from unwinding until you release it by fully opening the handle.

Use ratchet strap

When strapping something down, you’ll find it easiest to manage each strap as two parts: the long strap and the ratchet. Find your anchor point on the vehicle and hook the short ratchet end of the strap there. Next, find the spot to hook the strap on your load, then pull the strap toward the ratchet. With the ratchet fully open, thread the strap through the slot in the windlass from underneath, then push down between the windlass and handle. Pull out the slack on the free end of the strap, then crank the handle to tighten the ratchet. Finally, close the handle and lock the strap so it cannot be loosened. To disengage the pawl, pull the pawl up and fully open the handle.

How to tie yourself up with a harness

If you have something relatively light, like a snow blower or push mower, you can get away with a single strap. Using the two anchor points at the front of the truck bed, pull the load firmly against the front of the truck bed. The anchor points are usually deep in the corners, so make sure your strap goes up and around the back of the machine without rubbing against any sharp edges.

So tie yourself up with two straps

As with tying down with a strap, use the two front anchor points. Find a stable spot on your load to catch with your sling hooks. When equipped, a load-bearing part of the frame is ideal. The two straps should be evenly tightened and pull the load against the front of the truck bed. You can also use this method to secure cargo to the tailgate by attaching the ratchet straps to the two rearmost anchors.

So tie yourself up with four straps

Why did we skip using three straps? In general, if you need a strap on the back of your cargo, you should use two. It’s safer if one breaks or comes loose, and if that happens with just one on your back, the load can move.

For large and/or heavy loads, position them over the axle and secure at all four corners. Use a ratchet strap that goes to the anchor points on each corner of the bed. Hook the load at each corner by tightening either the front or back two first and then the remaining two. Keep the tension as even as possible.

Tie loose belt ends together

When using ratchet straps, there is almost always a piece of loose strap that gets caught once everything is tightened. You have to stop those ribbon tails from flying around. Belts hitting painted surfaces can damage the paintwork. But worst case scenario, they could bang out of bed and get stuck in your wheel.

If you have a short strap end, you can slip the end into the ratchet and crank with a few clicks.

If you have a long end of ribbon, wind it into a roll, thread a slack ribbon through the spool, twist that loop over the spool and pull tight.