Cut some 3/8" or thicker plate into a T shape and cut a hole in the end of the hang down. Insert them from the bottom threw the stake pocket. Have a friend that has been doing it this way for years.

 

That's the ultimate plan (like the ones in the pictures I posted), but I don't have access to any of my fab tools/welders and won't until after I move. I need to come up with something I can either buy quickly (amazon prime!) or piece together with shit from tractor supply/Norther Tool/Home Depot.


These would be perfect, but $$

 

These are exactly what I need....if I can find them locally.

 

Just grab some hooks and shackles from the hardware store, something beefy like 5/8" or better, put the shackle on the hook, hook the ratchet to the shackle and the hook to the stake pocket. If too short make a small chain loop, tie the ends together with the shackle and hook the loop with the strap ratchet.

 

I bought a pair of the PJ ones (second pic) and they work great. I could have made something like that for cheaper but it was a lot easier for me to click the button on the mouse then make one. When I get free time, which is rare for me, I'll probably look into a hook, shackle, small piece of chain and assemble some.

 

I ended up finding these that can get to me by Friday:

They fit the standard 2" ratchets and with a length of chain and a hook let you turn them in to this:

 

I like those.

 

10ea Chain Adapter F Chain Ratchet 2" Ratchet Tie Down Flatbed Wrecker Tow Truck | eBay

They were about $3.70 each when buying 10....I think they were like $20 for 4 in another auction. He also has ratchets with the chains and hooks already attached for ~$20. I'm keeping this as cheap as possible so I'll just make my own.

 

Paige's dad's deckover only has stake pockets. I run a chain and binder across the deck and then hook my straps to the chain. Probably not technically correct, but it works LOL

 

If you lived in an area with heavy enforcement they could probably find a problem with that since I think you could technically consider the chain a single attachment point, which if it were to fail you'd lose both tied downs on that particular end of the car.
Although as I type this I'm second guessing myself on the minimum numbers of attachments you're supposed of have on an auto transport....I was thinking it was 4.

I'm using these wheel straps. I rigged them up yesterday and so far I think I'll be pretty happy with them. I also have a nice pair of axle tied-downs that I'll probably just throw on for good measure....along with using my old straps to compress the frame down to the axles. :laughing:

 

I love the ratchets with the chains, they work perfectly for stake pockets! they are pretty expensive though so in the past when I've needed to do that I buy a chain "link" rated for what the chain is and just loop it through then run my ratchet straps through that. The flat hook style straps are also good. But any time you run a ratchet strap hook through a stake pocket (if you can fit it there, of course) you have the strap rubbing against what is probably a decent sharp edge at the top of the stake pocket. So its never preferred.

where did you buy those chain adapters? I have two nice ratchets that both have the short end pretty well fucked, those could bring em back to life....

 

10ea Chain Adapter F Chain Ratchet 2" Ratchet Tie Down Flatbed Wrecker Tow Truck | eBay

They were about $3.70 each when buying 10....I think they were like $20 for 4 in another auction. He also has ratchets with the chains and hooks already attached for ~$20. I'm keeping this as cheap as possible so I'll just make my own.

..

 

I use straps with a flat "sheet metal" type end in my stake pockets and they work fine. The hooks just don't work.

 

2" Short End Replacement Strap - Chain Anchor

I'm swapping my short ends for these. $10 each free shipping.
Blaise

 

Ive used a normal axle strap around the stake side with good results

 

I really like that PJ design. I just might copy that myself, my only hold up is having but a wee little 110v Lincoln mig. Their price reflects what they should cost in pairs.

 

If you have any flatbed trucking companys in your area stop in and see if they have any broken straps they'll sell, chances are they'll just give them to ya. I have a few buddys that drive truck and they throw these out all the time, just cut the rest of the strap off and your left with this.

 

Update:

Got the chain adapters in the mail today and they are going to work perfectly. It's about a 30 second operation to pull the bolt, remove the old hook or strap and drop the chain clevis in.

As a bonus I also figured out you can clip in an intermediate link and make come pretty handy multi-point attachments if the need arises.

 

These are the ratchets that came with the tire straps (the hook one in the back). I used one of my old 2" ratchets with the new tire strap trying to make something work. It holds but I wouldn't trust it on the highway.

Instead of wrapping around the outside of the tie rail and hooking the bottom of the rail like in your picture, drop the hook through the stake pocket, come up on the outside of the rail, and hook it on the top of the rail. It can't slip off, and the hook won't come undone, even when the strap is loose, like while you are messing with hooking the straps up. (no holding tension on the strap so the hook doesn't come loose while you tighten the ratchet) It also works to run the strap over the rail, and then go up through the stake pocket and hook on the top of the rail, inside the stake pocket. No special hardware is needed. The same setup also works with chains.

 

Those hooks don't fit through my stake pockets.


Not to mention I don't want the nylon strap riding against the sharp edge of the trailer for 1400+ miles.

 

Sounds like you have it figured out using the new brackets. Anyway, how about bending the hooks on the nylon straps closed more, so they hook around the stake pocket/rails more securely? Have a hammer and place to pound, or maybe a shop press to squeeze them?

 

I dropped hooks through my stake pockets and up around to the rub rail once like youre recommending. Drove 200 miles. Sliced through not one but BOTH straps. They were DOT rated 10k capacity straps, not some cheap crap.

I won't ever do that again, I was just extremely lucky to have had a few other tie downs on that load, otherwise I woulda killed a bus load of nuns. Now I don't ever run straps over the edge of my trailer unless there is no other option, and then I run a strap protector (local truck stop has em for cheap if you don't know where to find them) over my straps.

Dropping through the pocket and up to the rail is good for chains, but bad for straps.

 

I might need to rethink my strapping then. ive been using axle straps through stake pockets, hooked to ratchet straps for years now. no failures, no problems. and they have the chaff sleve on them, BUT...

I might wanna add a hard-mount point or get some chain...

 

I tried out the chain adapters on my wheel straps and they work perfectly. I didn't take pics up close, but I'm very happy with them.

I ended up picking up THIS 3/8" x 14' chain from HF for like $25. It came with 2 hooks and I picked up a few spare hooks for $2.25 each. I didn't measure, but I eyeballed that 12 links would be about the right length. It took about 45 minutes to cut the chains and assemble everything. I'm not a huge fan of using HF chain for anything critical, but I figure I'm only using these stuff at 1/3 of WLL so I'm not overly concerned.

It's easy enough to drop in longer pieces of chain the future if the need arises too.


Now the bad part is that I way underestimated the weight of my rig. With a couple hundred pounds in the bed of my truck, a half tank of gas and some junk in the bed of the rig I was about 14,620lbs. - which is about 180lbs short of my max GCVWR. If I gas up the Titan and throw my dog in the back seat, I'll be overweight. Not too mention I need to haul a bunch of other gear in the bad and I had intended on putting my jetski/trailer on the trailer for the trip as well.
So I scrapped the idea of hauling my rigs to VA and now I'm going to just pay to haul them and load the trailer with my jetskis, trailers and some other big junk for the move.

 

I have mac's axle strap with chain ends, best 100 bucks I've ever spent on straps. They work awesome on my goosenecks stake pockets

 

Trailer Stake Pocket D-Rings, Johnson Trailer Sales, Colfax Wisconsin

Removable D-Ring Assembly - Load Trail Trailer Parts

https://parts.pjtrailers.com/180080.html

 

I cut the hooks off my straps and replace them with 1/2" or larger shackles on the 10k straps. On your set up, for now, you could loop a short 3/8 chain on the outside and join the two ends on the pin of the shackle.

I like shackles because if the strap loosens up, you do not lose the strap, and with the strap attached, even loosely, you are less likely to lose the entire load. It might shift off to one side, but, would still be recoverable.

 

Yeah I keep a few small shackles near my trailer for that purpose, but the hooks on my straps are just big enough to run chain through, so I keep a few 2' sections of chain in my trailer box along with some of the double ended shackles. I don't know the proper name for them but my googling found this image, which is what I use:

 

Here are 2 more cool solutions to the same problem.
Here is a cool way to mount a strap winch in a stake pocket, which kinda one ups the ratchet strap idea.
Porta Winch for Stake Pockets - Inward Offset for Track-Mounted Tarps : Trailer Stake Pocket Winch

And the hide away chain mounts are particularly trick.
Floor Chain Tiedown - Chain Binder - Transport Chain

 

I never thought of doing a chain mount like that, I might have to try that myself

 

Yeah thats the first thing I thought when I saw them. The weld on ones are only $19 bucks though, and they have some cool weld on brackets. Pretty cool shit.

Floor Chain Tiedown - Grade 70 chain - Load Binder Chains

That site has some cool stuff, they also have 4" ratchet straps with a working load of 6,670 lbs... might finally be some ratchet straps I would trust to strap my truck down.

Available with chain ends, too:
BlackLine 4"x30' Ratchet Strap w/ Chain Extensions - 24K Webbing