The biggest loads I’ve ever carried in one of my personal vehicles have been an entire Willys Jeep frame and an entire car. Ok, that second one is stretching the definition of “car” (it was a Changli), but that thing weighed over 700 pounds! Here’s how I typically tie down my cargo in my pickup trucks, and I’d love to hear how you tie down yours.
I recently wrote a story about how pickup trucks here in LA often drive around with sketchily-secured loads. It’s honestly frightening sometimes, and hugely different from how things are in Australia (where the rules on securing loads are strict).
Anyway, today I started moving from my condo to my new house in the LA ‘burbs, and to prepare my 1989 Chevy K1500, I bought a dual-layer net and some eye-bolts/washers/nuts. The truck is set up pretty much exactly the same way as my Jeep J10 (shown below) in that it’s got eye bolts fastened to the truck bed stake pockets.
Here’s a look:
I’ve basically got the elastic two-layer netting hooked to an eye bolt on each corner of the bed, plus I’ve got the netting secured in the middle at both the front and rear (a bungie cord is holding the front-middle to a zip-tie threaded through two already existing holes at the front of the box):
For large, heavy loads, I’d still want to add some ratchet straps since this netting isn’t really going to handle lots of force, but for just general stuff that I have piled up in the bed, it should be fine.
I’m curious what your tie-down strategy is. Do you secure loads in your SUV/sedan as well, or only in your open truck bed? What tips do you have to share?
I generally use cam buckle straps instead of ratchet. The reason is that when I bought my first kayak they warned that ratchet straps can put so much force on something that it will actually do damage. I’ve never found cam straps to be insufficient, so although I own a few ratchet straps I’ve never actually used them for cargo.
One thing I had to learn the hard way was geometry. It doesn’t do you any good to strap down a load really well if it can shift and cause your straps to become loose. This happened when I tried to mount a kayak off-center leaning on the back of my truck cab. A little slide to the side and suddenly the straps were no longer tight because the triangle they were forming had a smaller perimeter than before. Luckily nothing got away in that instance, but it was not a pleasant experience.
I plead the 5th.
I prefer load-swallowing cars (and women)
https://www.theautopian.com/im-ashamed-of-how-juvenile-i-can-be-cold-start/
I over think my securement, blame it on my job(heavy haul equipment mover) so i tend to make sure everything can’t move, ill make sure there down pressure or if needed, downward pulling at a angle to prevent movement, i use rachets straps unless its vehicles then if i can, ill use chain and binders
Remember when trucks had tie-down cleats attached to the body? My old Datsun 720 and ’64 F100 both had three per side. With those, a few good lengths of 3/8 nylon rope, and a tiny bit of knot knowledge*, you could secure just about anything.
*There’s tons of great rope and knot tutorials online. Learn to tie a half-hitch, a trucker’s hitch, and a cleat hitch and you’re all set.
If you can’t tie a knot, tie a lot!
Handcuffs and a ball gag is usually enough.
I’ve owned three pickups since 1992. All of them had bed caps on them.
I have hooks in my stake hole covers, so ratchet straps for things like furniture and kayaks. For smaller stuff like broken-down cardboard I have my spare tire/wheel in the back so I use that for a weight. I also have a net like pictured above but haven’t needed to use it many times.