Zip Ties

[Salonika]

Had someone tell me my truck was held together with zip ties.

I mean, compared to newer cars, yeah I have a lot of them. They work. I’ve got a dozen under the hood, on connectors where the clips broke off. So what. They are in other places too.......I’m not alone, right? Race cars use zip ties. I’d drive across the country in this rig and never think twice.

 

[lev]

Zip ties, (blue) electrical tape, 100mph tape, helicoil, RTV, and Indian head. Content by weight increases proportionally with age of vehicle.

 

[krick3tt]

Emergency holders for broken bumper bolts to hold it on till home from the trail. Great little things.
Lots of other uses too.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

Evee look at the wiring on an aircraft, race car, or off shore boat.... All zip tied together...haha.

 

[NatersXJ6]

Lots of zip ties here. I go one further and heat the end after cutting off so it melts into a smooth blob and doesn’t create a sharp edge to nip me when I’m not expecting it. Even the UV resistant ones need a 3-4 year refresh in the California sun, but can’t beat the holding power and versatility for the price point.

The basic zip tie color-coding:

Multi-color : Novice
White / Translucent : Amateur
Black : Professional
Stainless Steel : Over-achiever

 

[Salonika]

I’d bet money there are already a few zip ties on Mars.

 

[jeepers29]

My guess is that the person that told you that does not wrench on his own car but pays someone else to do his maintenance.

 

[Salonika]

My guess is that the person that told you that does not wrench on his own car but pays someone else to do his maintenance.

Unfortunately it was the owner of a car repair facility.

 

[Buddha.]

I’m mildly obsessed with zip ties.
I used to install engines in buses. I used about 100 zip ties an install. I kept getting complaints from quality control that I wasn’t using enough so I’d add a couple here or there. Still got complaints.
Out of frustration I used about 500 on one install. It was zip ties on top of zip ties. My boss came over for a close inspection(having no idea how many zip ties were appropriate, just heard I wasn’t using enough) I thought he would complain about wasting zip ties. After a long pause he said it could use a few more.

I was using so many zip ties I took my side cutters to a bench grinder so the zip tie tail would cut flush and not scar up your arms when you reach into the engine bay. Years later I see they sell them that way now as a speciality tool.

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

Zip ties - the new cigarette butt.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[PacS14]

Use them all the time when I need to keep/hold something in place, even after using wire loom, the plastic clip is usually done for, so I use zip ties. Sounds like he wanted to sound like they do things "the right way" lol so he will over charge you at some point to replace them.

 

[old_CWO]

Zip ties are for emergency repairs. The Patrician choice for wire and cable management is waxed nylon lacing cord.

 

[Michael Brown]

Factories use zip ties to secure components already. Gen 3 has reusable ones with a release for holding wires.
Besides, if Velcro is good enough for NASA, zip ties are good enough for us.
I now recommend using the Velcro(Hook and Loop) cable tie material where possible. They come in various widths with similar/greater holding power when wrapped correctly.
They also don't cut every inch of my arms when I'm working.

Just don't use any of them for structural connection. ?

 

[ITTOG]

Unfortunately it was the owner of a car repair facility.

Not a surprise because he wants to replace all those broken connectors for you. You are taking money out of his pockets by coming up with your own solution.

 

[toddz69]

If you're a zip-tie snob like me, you'll only use T&B Ty-Raps - black ones with the little stainless tabs in them . You can use the proletariat all plastic ones in a pinch if you need to.

We use them all over the place on high-$$ off road racing rigs and we use them on spacecraft that costs billions of dollars so they're just fine for my Bronco! Someone mentioned zip-ties on Mars - I'm pretty sure the Mars lander we sent there in the late '90s with our hardware on it has plenty of green T&B Ty-Raps on it.

Todd Z.