Securing Equipment on Trailer

[Diamondpilot]

The reason its illegal and not safe to use one chain/strap on the front and the same on the rear is the chance of one coming loose or breaking. Lets say a rear one lets go and you do not notice it and then you have to do a panic stop, where is the tractor going to end up? Thats right, in the back of your head. With 4 separate chains/straps at 45 deg angles or so it not only gives you redundancy if one fails but will prevent the machine from either going forward/backward and left/right.

Trust Dargo. He had a tractor come loose and was man enough to tell us all about it and the mistakes he made that day. We have all learned from them which is a good thing.

Chris

 

[WantedWolf]

As long as the strapping is rated for the load I don't see how chain would be safer, guys have used just one chain on the front and one on the rear for ages.
....

Everybody stay safe and offer more solutions/ideas to this issue.

JB.

strap vs chain...
My inventory of straps did read 6pcs 20'x2'(10000#) straps. now it reads 5
I had a brand new strap snap in half, giving a tug to a car with my 4runner on level ground in the snow. A chain would have never broke.

 

[JB4310]

If you only use securing equipment equal to the weigh of your tractor, you are way under secured. You need to account for shock loads that will be more than the weight of your tractor. Using only the weight of your tractor as a guide to be equal to your binders will get you in big trouble eventually. That is not safe.

strap vs chain...
My inventory of straps did read 6pcs 20'x2'(10000#) straps. now it reads 5
I had a brand new strap snap in half, giving a tug to a car with my 4runner on level ground in the snow. A chain would have never broke.

I agree that's why I'm going with all four corners with 3/8 chain and binders, bought 2 new G70 chains and matching binders and already had 2 5400LB binders and unrated chain. so that's about a 6x safety factor using the weight of the tractor added to the 4x safety of the chains and binders, so that equals a 20x safety factor total, I am pretty sure this could withstand a roll over a cliff.

I will use my 2 ratcheting webs for implements, I have not had my Back hoe on in 2 years, but I do want to be able to move that as well, since it will be attached to the machine I would think just rest the bucket on the deck and thread a web strap thru and tie it side to side.

I've also got an extra new ratchet binder I bought from AWdirect, it's a tee handle 6600 pound rating that had a 6' 3/8 G7 chain already attached, I though it would be better to have chain attached but found it isn't, then I cut the chain in half and installed another hook cause I thought that might make it better, but I just decided to stay with the conventional binders. Can't return this one now since I cut it, turned into a $60.00 experiment, I may find a use for it, maybe with the back hoe or other separate implement not connected to the tractor like my forks etc.

 

[JMynes]

strap vs chain...
My inventory of straps did read 6pcs 20'x2'(10000#) straps. now it reads 5
I had a brand new strap snap in half, giving a tug to a car with my 4runner on level ground in the snow. A chain would have never broke.

No, maybe the chain wouldn't have broken, but one of the vehicles would have. Nylon straps are the best choice for coaxing a car out of the snow, but not necessarily half of a rachet tie-down. I have a purpose-designed tug strap, bought years ago, and it has pulled several cars, trucks, and even tractors out of a mess.
Nylon straps stretch a little, storing energy. When the stuck vehicle starts to move the strap returns to original length and adds a little oomph to the pull.
Chains don't stretch. A good hard tug puts sudden force on the attachment point, potentially breaking axles, ripping off bumpers, and causing all sorts of dismay.
But, that's a topic for another thread.

 

[JB4310]

Trust Dargo. He had a tractor come loose and was man enough to tell us all about it and the mistakes he made that day. We have all learned from them which is a good thing.

Chris

Anyone have a link to that thread?

 

[wkpoor]

Ok, in 5 minutes find a place on the internet that sells strapping with ends that can be secured on a trailer with a WLL of 5600 pounds or higher. My guess is the only place you will find is AW Direct and then you'll find basket slings. To get to the higher ratings, you'll spend many, many times the price of G70 chain. I'm yet to see anyone on here who uses straps who aren't using the 2" wide straps that say 10,000 rating real big on the straps. With those, positively, 1 on each end is inadequate. Being that most guys here don't want to spend the money for U.S. made chain over Chinese made chain, I doubt someone is going to spend 4X the cost of U.S. made chain for the appropriate sized straps. Even then, most every state in the union is going to require 4 attachments; one on each corner for loads weighing over 2000 pounds. No matter how you slice it, using 2 straps to secure a tractor is an accident waiting to happen.

I found on the net somewhere (been awhile) 4" ratchet straps. I use 4ea. of the 4" point to point to secure my tractor. They were $200.00 for the 4. These ratchet are strong enough to bend up my old trailer. Basically I could damage the trailer if I wasn't careful. You can easily flatten tires fully inflated.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Anyone have a link to that thread?

Here you go.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/53683-ratcheting-tie-downs-broke-transit.html

Chris

 

[Dargo]

Anyone have a link to that thread?

I admit that I really ate crow on that ordeal. I stupidly thought that 2 of the 10,000 pound rated (that's what it says all over the straps) 2" wide straps on the front and 2 on the rear of a Kubota L5030HSTC would be fine. After the incident, I felt like I needed "moron" tattooed on my forehead.

No strap was even close to a edge and the front weight bracket (with no weights on it) made for a great place to place the hooks on the front and the bottom of the hitch plate on the rear worked great there. I'd done the same thing for years without incident. It was only when I went to a friend's office who owns an engineering firm that he took the time to 'splain things to me. In his professional opinion the dip in the road caused my 7k trailer to flex, putting slack in the straps as the trailer actually moved up on both the front and rear and then snapped back in place. That shock load was, according to his calculations based on the construction materials used in my trailer and the weight of my load, enough to have easily snapped 3 of those straps on either end. He politely called me a lucky fool and, as you can read in the other thread, I promptly not only immediately purchased all grade 70 US made chain and binders, but bought a trailer with more than double the weight rating. I now only use those straps to hold down a finish mower or bush hog on the rear of my tractor to the trailer.

As an interesting point of interest, I did use half of one of the newer 2" 10k ratcheting straps to pull other ATVs out of the mud and snow. I don't know what a Suzuki 750 King Quad weighs, but it's nowhere near even the 3300 pound WLL of that strap. It maybe weighs, what, 600 pounds? Anyway, I snapped two of those straps with that Suzuki pulling other ATVs out of mud holes. If an ATV can relatively easy snap one of those straps, they definitely shouldn't be used to secure a tractor to a trailer unless you use like 20 of them!

And, yes, I admit that I'd have been a smart arse and argued that those straps would have been plenty fine, especially using 2 on each end. I count myself as very lucky that my ignorance on that matter didn't result in a life changing disaster. That's why I'm pretty adamant about telling guys what I know to be fact on securing tractors to trailers. Some think I'm nuts and act like I likely would have before I had that incident. As I stated before, if I can by chance save one guy from having a terrible accident, it's worth all the fussing. I can be disliked big time for my strong feelings on this issue, but if it helps someone, I'm okay with that.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

I have been formally trained by my employer to haul large excavators backhoes and dozers according to FEDERAL Regulations

How far did you have to travel?__How big of an employer?

I hauled through 21 states and hauled all different kinds of equipment, metal, pipe and ETC...

I was trained by the best flatbed division in the U.S.__T.M.C. and drove for 7 years.

Johndeere4300,
It is your combination of the front and rear chains. They are both pulling toward the rear.

It would be better to show a picture the way YOU bind one down.

I will continue to bind the way i do, because there is no problem with it.

We are talking about the picture in the avatar.
Chris

I know your talking about my Avatar.
You can't tell in my Avatar what is chained down.

We need to see a picture of the way you bind one down.

That's the main reason for this thread, was to have pictures and not talk about a boat.

 

[wkpoor]

I admit that I really ate crow on that ordeal. I stupidly thought that 2 of the 10,000 pound rated (that's what it says all over the straps) 2" wide straps on the front and 2 on the rear of a Kubota L5030HSTC would be fine. After the incident, I felt like I needed "moron" tattooed on my forehead.

No strap was even close to a edge and the front weight bracket (with no weights on it) made for a great place to place the hooks on the front and the bottom of the hitch plate on the rear worked great there. I'd done the same thing for years without incident. It was only when I went to a friend's office who owns an engineering firm that he took the time to 'splain things to me. In his professional opinion the dip in the road caused my 7k trailer to flex, putting slack in the straps as the trailer actually moved up on both the front and rear and then snapped back in place. That shock load was, according to his calculations based on the construction materials used in my trailer and the weight of my load, enough to have easily snapped 3 of those straps on either end. He politely called me a lucky fool and, as you can read in the other thread, I promptly not only immediately purchased all grade 70 US made chain and binders, but bought a trailer with more than double the weight rating. I now only use those straps to hold down a finish mower or bush hog on the rear of my tractor to the trailer.

As an interesting point of interest, I did use half of one of the newer 2" 10k ratcheting straps to pull other ATVs out of the mud and snow. I don't know what a Suzuki 750 King Quad weighs, but it's nowhere near even the 3300 pound WLL of that strap. It maybe weighs, what, 600 pounds? Anyway, I snapped two of those straps with that Suzuki pulling other ATVs out of mud holes. If an ATV can relatively easy snap one of those straps, they definitely shouldn't be used to secure a tractor to a trailer unless you use like 20 of them!

And, yes, I admit that I'd have been a smart arse and argued that those straps would have been plenty fine, especially using 2 on each end. I count myself as very lucky that my ignorance on that matter didn't result in a life changing disaster. That's why I'm pretty adamant about telling guys what I know to be fact on securing tractors to trailers. Some think I'm nuts and act like I likely would have before I had that incident. As I stated before, if I can by chance save one guy from having a terrible accident, it's worth all the fussing. I can be disliked big time for my strong feelings on this issue, but if it helps someone, I'm okay with that.

After reading what happened to you I actually thought that straps had the ability to absorb shock loads way better than chains. In fact some years ago ( no proof here of anything) I had a guy tell me that where he worked they did drop tests with weights secured by chains and straps. He said the straps held more than the chain due to their ability to stretch a little before breaking. I just wonder about the straps you were using. I've pulled hard on those straps loading vehicles onto my trailer pulling with a 12K MM winch and my new bridle is a strap. Never seen one ever break yet.