20' Tow Strap on sale

[Alloy]

Until I see it in use I can not tell how much stretch it will produce and how it will react.
I am just a little worried at this time, it probably has the 10% or less stretch to it. As far as a full size truck pulling another full size truck (1 ton) with gear, a cap or fully loaded I would not use it.


Da Frenchman

Label said polyester so 2% stretch.

 

[ricoisme26]

Well the final conclusion of the strap for under $10.oo is “buyer be ware”. Safety is very important! Is this the place that you want to cut corners? You buy it, you use it, You or someone gets hurt! Are you going to sue a unknown China company?

Da Frenchman

I can't believe that asking a question on a forum led to a certified trainer in 4wd recovery to review and test the product in question during a training session. Thank you very much for taking time to review this item and for sharing your knowledge both of recovery gear and on this particular item.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Any overhead lifting must be labeled on the product.

Overhead is more than having a label. The label attached has specific information relating to an accepted standard, in the United States that being ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) B30 series adopted as a ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard.

ANSI/ASTM standards are recognized nationally as binding legal documents under regulatory bodies when used for industrial overhead rigging, on ships, railroads and any other number of applications. It's not a matter of choice, there is liability or at least punitive consequences if you don't follow them in these situations.



We leverage these standards for vehicles to the extent that they provide guidance in design margin and testing but they aren't necessarily directly applicable. A polyester tow strap like this would fall under ASME B30.9 for lifting slings but how we're using them isn't really the same, so the limits are rather arbitrary. I don't honestly know if there's a sling/strap ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standard for rating recovery rigging used like this such as exists to grade transport chain or synthetic cargo tie-down webbing.

None-the-less, a B30.9 single ply polyester web sling 2" wide would carry various working load limits such as vertical hitch, which is essentially how we rig straps connecting an eye to each vehicle then straight pulling. Rigging straps might also be used in a basket or choke configuration, which have different ratings.

Per the standard a synthetic sling is required to carry a design factor of 5, which is the ratio of breaking to working strength, and be subject to a proof test of 2 x WLL. So an example 3,100 lbf WLL sling would be designed to break at 15,500 lbs and have been tested (and could be again at any time) to 6,200 lbf without damage.

Just a random 2", single ply sling example: https://boiserigging.com/product/2-eye-eye-sling-one-ply-ee1-902/

I suspect that's the very, very lose root of the numbers this Home Depot strap claims. IOW 15,000 lbs max load is the material breaking and 7,000 lbf would probably be (perhaps optimistically, I'd think) what they think is proof - the point it would tear stitching or start to stretch permanently.

What it says on the web page is “max 15,000 # max vehicle rating”. I believe that the wording is wrong. It contradicts itself.

“Easy to store in a trunk, job box or behind a tuck seat, each strap has a 7,000 lb. working load capacity with a 15,000 lb. max vehicle weight.”

As I said earlier I will need to see and experiment with this. I will be honest it is made in China and if they have contradicting information, what is it really. I think that the 15,000# is the max. load the strap can handle. I do not know if this has a safety margin in it or not?

What we came up with was this may work for light weight vehicles (vehicles weighing less the 4,000 #’s). With it being polyester.

I assume your 4,000 lbf guidance is therefore based on that line of reasoning? If so, why not 3,000 (design margin 5 x 3k = 15k) or 3,500 (proof 2 x 3.5k = 7k) instead?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Dave,

You are 100% correct! I just did not want to get into more details (I was just being lazy). I did not want to expand this into another direction. In a earlier post the use about lifting was mentioned. I did not want to have this construded as a lifting/overhead strap.

Da Frenchman

I'd hope it's clear that generally any strap or rope we use in vehicle recovery isn't for overhead use. Even if it does happen to carry proper labeling (some of my gear does, as does yours I'm sure) once you use it in the wild you can't really guarantee provenance with respect to OSHA et al without a log or recertification proofing.

So I suppose the basic question I was leading up to was then how you arrived at 4k? It's the wrong thread of course but it's become something of a discussion topic none-the-less.

My $0.02 is that we tend to assign maybe arbitrary WLLs, such as 4.75 tons on shackles, without any real reason in our specific use. So I just wonder if there's a recognized professional or legal standard you trainer guys are using to re-rate based on other standards.

 

[PetrolPiglet]

Disappointing to see threads like this gutted by deleting what were (from context) apparently knowledgeable comments.
There are people who use the search function and look back at older threads for info, you just don't hear from us much.

 

[Superduty]

Disappointing to see threads like this gutted by deleting what were (from context) apparently knowledgeable comments.
There are people who use the search function and look back at older threads for info, you just don't hear from us much.

What was deleted?

 

[PetrolPiglet]

Can't tell exactly what was deleted since it's gone but... It sure sounds useful to read

Your education and links were great. ... Maybe I should have put some additional education and resources in the initial post for folks who aren't so experienced. ... - the thread comments are great for people to do their research.

Thank you very much for the write up! ... I definetly learned a good bit from this and its evident its only the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to seeing how this strap does in your upcoming training classes!

Never would’ve expected to learn so much about recovery on a for sale post. Bravo everyone. Learned a lot.

I can't believe that asking a question on a forum led to a certified trainer in 4wd recovery to review and test the product in question during a training session. Thank you very much for taking time to review this item and for sharing your knowledge both of recovery gear and on this particular item.

Doesn't it?

 

[pith helmet]

Disappointing to see threads like this gutted by deleting what were (from context) apparently knowledgeable comments.
There are people who use the search function and look back at older threads for info, you just don't hear from us much.

As I recall Frenchie deleted most of his posts.

 

[syncrodoka]

This is a for sale ad in the classified section not a forum topic thread.

 

[vintageracer]

So what else is new???