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Which rachet strap is the best? One of the almost daily questions I hear. My answer is NONE of them. Huh? When you are trying to secure your rig to a trailer, truck, toy hauler or whatever you need to think about a few things?
How many times have you seen a ratchet strap lying in the road? Have you looked at your straps after just a season? Notice a few popped stiches here and there? A bit of fraying on the hook attachment?
Next time you tie down your rig with a conventional rachet strap do this, get it where you like it and then sit on the rig, bounce a bit and watch the strap sage and flex and slam against the tension when you remove your weight. If you grab the hook while sitting on the rig I'll bet you can remove it from its anchor point. I hear guys talking about cinching down the suspension on their rigs good and tight. All I can say is YIKES! I even had a guy try and tell me that if you don't limit the travel of your rig while its on the trailer it will damage the suspension. ????? Put down the crack pipe pal. If you tighten down your suspension so that it only has a few inches of travel left anmd then hit a bump that causes the deck to rise more than the suspension has left to travel then it bottoms out ans that is very BAD. Suspensions are designed to flex, the more they flex the better. When you compress the suspension and then hit a bump you bottom out the suspension, that is where the damage occurs.
Having your UTV/ATV suspension go though its normal mid range will not wear out the shock at all and could not possibley damage the suspension. Highway bumps are nothing like offroad bumps. The travel range will be minimal except when you hit a real bump AKA pothole, expansion joint from hell etc. And when you do you WANT the suspension to work, not bottom out.
The primary problem with using regular ratchets is that when you are on the road and hit a bump, the whole assembly relaxes as the suspension compresses and then slams hard against the strap. It happens hundereds of times even on a short trip. This is why they fray near the hook most often. That is stress wear. It also causes stiching to pop and generally wears out the whole rachet mechanism and strap. Its why you see straps lying in the middle of the road, because that is where they broke or simply fell off during the flexing of the suspension. Ratchet straps compress your suspension and in short, compressing the suspension is BAD. BAD on the shocks, bad on the springs, bad on the strap, bad on the attach point of the ratchet.
So what is the answer? Lets take a clue from NASCAR. Ever see a high end race team using ratchet straps? I seriously doubt it. Thats because they generally use Tire Bonnets. Tire Bonnets are a web basket affair made of the same strap material as a typical ratchet strap but it secures the tire to the deck. With the Bonnets the strap is always under the same tension, never getting slammed hard. The only movment possible is the flex of the tire sidewall and when you tighten down the bonnet even that is limited. WIth the tire secure you don't have any risk of damaging a suspension component. Its doing exactly what it should and has no restriction to cause it to bottom out.
That is why bonnets are used by virtually every race car crew and thats why you should stop wasting your money on old fashioned straps and get Tire Bonnets.
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