limiting strap use and source

How much slack do you guys use for a center mount strap. Seems to me if you are climbing that you probably want little or no slack, to keep as much weight on the front wheels as possible. What about using an adjustable one so you could tighten it up before you attack a waterfall? I hear some competitors actually run a winch line down to suck the axle up while climbing, don't know if thats a common practice or not.

I guess it would have to be pretty easily adjusted, like a regular tie down.

I have used in a pinch a regular HF cheapie tiedown to keep the spring compressed while high lifting the rig up to reseat a bead. Just checked and those HF jobies are rated at 1200 lbs

Where would you get a heavy duty type tie down that might be rated in the 2000 lb category?


I kind of like the adjustable idea for changes in ride height etc, even if its not easilly adjustable.

Or is this a silly idea and I should just plop down the $27 plus shipping for a nonadjustable poly performance strap. Or is there a better deal out there?

Gary E said:

How much slack do you guys use for a center mount strap. Seems to me if you are climbing that you probably want little or no slack, to keep as much weight on the front wheels as possible. What about using an adjustable one so you could tighten it up before you attack a waterfall? I hear some competitors actually run a winch line down to suck the axle up while climbing, don't know if thats a common practice or not.

I guess it would have to be pretty easily adjusted, like a regular tie down.

I have used in a pinch a regular HF cheapie tiedown to keep the spring compressed while high lifting the rig up to reseat a bead. Just checked and those HF jobies are rated at 1200 lbs

Where would you get a heavy duty type tie down that might be rated in the 2000 lb category?


I kind of like the adjustable idea for changes in ride height etc, even if its not easilly adjustable.

Or is this a silly idea and I should just plop down the $27 plus shipping for a nonadjustable poly performance strap. Or is there a better deal out there?

Click to expand...

I've seen the winch line trick quite a few times, but never a regular adjustable limit strap. I wouldn't trust one of those Harbor Freight things... what if it snaps during that waterfall climb? I'll be buying one from Dave @ Poly, just cuz he's been awesome to work with during this long arm ordeal.
Billy

hmm found one $10 cheaper, its still not adjustable though

http://www.crowenterprizes.com/Crow Enterprizes/html/products_arm_helmet.html

Gary E said:

hmm found one $10 cheaper, its still not adjustable though

http://www.crowenterprizes.com/Crow Enterprizes/html/products_arm_helmet.html

Click to expand...

How about drilling through the floorboard and having Shannon just hold a rope?

"Tighten that line hon, this climb is really steep!"

CRASH

Mines between 3.5"-4" of slack & seems to work pretty well. I got mine sewn together using seat belt mounting brackets. The strap itself is the same stuff I use for my ratchet tie down straps. There's a guy here locally that sells the tie down ratchets & straps & will sew it all together. He's the one that sewed my strap together for me. I was having some tie downs restrapped & he did my center limiting strap for free.

Matt

I've considered the adjustable ratchet strap limiter also but I too am concerned about what would happen if the ratchet released at an inopportune moment.
The type of strap and ratchet I considered was the big mutha's you see on 18 wheeler flat trailers, usually hauling lumber or pipe. (more like a small come-a-long) Would something like this work ok or am I way out in left field? :nono:

Has anyone looked at Goat's set up?
He runs two straps (one from each "frame rail" to a center axle mount). They are pinned into the center mount with a removable pin. The straps can be removed for max flex or adjusted in length by twisting them around on another for an adjustable functional limit of droop.

It is on my "to do" list for the winter/spring projects.

Bones :skull1:

Currie used the air ram idea to tighten the front end limiting strap in the first year of rock crawling competitions.....they just barely missed a 1st place finish in the year long series. For some reason they didn't go back to it the next year.

Like Bones said, I use two straps (ready made Sway-A-Way's) with weld on tabs below each frame rail, then pinned together between two weld on tabs on the axle tube. My length is set up to allow full articulation, but no more. I determined the length by fully flexing it and measuring to the top of the center of the axle housing. It still came out just a little long, so I keep a twist in the two straps. I can easily shorten the straps for a steep climb by adding a couple more twists.

Damn, I'm giving away one of my secret weapons......

Goatman, do you have a link to some closeup pics of your setup? Sounds like the setup I've been looking for.

JEEPZZ said:

Goatman, do you have a link to some closeup pics of your setup? Sounds like the setup I've been looking for.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't have any pics of the limiting straps. Here's the best pic I have, but it doesn't show much. I have pics of the whole front end set up, but before I added the limiting straps.

What I ended up doing.

I found a strap place online and they made a couple of cam type straps. Here they are for comparison, 2in, 1.5 in, and the 1 inch HF strap. Aparently the 1.5 in strap is rated at 4500lbs, I am sure the 2 inch is rated higher so the strap is not the problem. However all the cam latches, according to the lady are rated at 500lbs which really does not make sense to me, since the 2 inch one is much beefier. I beleive there is quite a saftey margin in there, the strap lady, said they definatly take a lot more abuse than that.


I then trimmed the hook portion off of the ends, and just bolted the ring to my tabs. this worked okay for a little while till the rings opened up and slipped through For some reason I thought they would of been welded, but they were not. So I am not surprised they pulled through, since the force would of been pulling the ring apart. I welded them up and continued on with the testing. I jacked the axle up with the floorjack and put jackstands under the frame and then would compress the springs and then quickly release the jack, I did that 3 times and it held fine.

The straps do stretch some and it takes a little slack for the cam to lock into place. All the straps stretch that is why they offer the double webed ones to cut down on the stretch. without any weight on the strap the distance between the mounting points were 9.5 inches and with the strap holding all the weight it stretched to 11 inches. I did not at any time notice the strap slipping in the cam. It should also be noted that part of the stretch was the 1/8 to 1/4 that the top mounting point pulled down under weight.

I'll test it out on BOTW and see how it goes



In this picture the strap is holding the weight, I had the jackstands in place during testing to stop things if something failed in the strap