[Shop-talk] which tie down best for car hauler

[Steve Hammatt Mount Vernon WA USA]

I have a couple of different types of cars (open wheel, horseless 
carriage, early '30s luxury and mid '60s rear-engine).  I also early 
on learned to dislike crawling under cars to wrap straps around 
axles, etc.  I also don't like stressing the cars by attempting to 
pull the axles off the cars.  Therefore I actually built my own 
version of the type that David mentions (below).  I have a number 
of D-rings installed in the floor and always tie down to D-rings close 
to the front and rear of each wheel.  If I loose one or more straps 
for some reason, the remaining strap(s) will hold the car in place.
Also, in the past with open trailers, when the ratchets got wet, there 
would be corrosion in the metal parts.  I cured that by buying only 
stainless steel ratcheting mechanisms.  I also purchased a huge roll 
of strapping and then built by own straps, to the length and strength 
that I wanted.  My upholster did the sewing.  The only change I'd make 
would be to switch to E-Track and to add E-Track horizontally to the 
trailer side walls (very helpful when returning from swap-meets).

Steve Hammatt
Mount Vernon WA USA
www.leatherplates.com


-----Original Message----- 
From: David Scheidt 

One thing that we used when I was driving a carrier was a system that
ran a strap from the middle of the bed to the end, on the inside of
towed vehicle's wheel.  We put a short axle strap (12 or 16 inches
long)  from the main strap in front of the wheel, to the main strap
behind the wheel.  The ratchet binder on the main strap pulled the
slack out of the main strap, and because the axle strap was short, it
forced the main strap to wrap around the vehicle's tire.  Took a bit
of fiddling sometimes, to keep the loop from popping off the top or
bottom of the wheel, but not bad.  Some thing like that requires that
you have a tie down point (or better, two, close to the wheels) in the
middle of the deck, and not just at the corners.  (that's useful for
lots of things, too.

Look at the web sites for tow truck suppliers.  There's a huge amount
of options available, whether you're in the "tie the wheels down" or
"tie the frame down" camp.