Ratchet buckles??

[TFC Rick]

I looked in the search for this, but couldn't find it. Sorry for the re-do.

I remember seeing on here somewhere advising against using the actual ratchet in your suspension and only using the straps.

Could someone quell my curiosity as to why? Is it the load? Stress? Slippage?

I understand weight may be a factor, but for my purposes it's not an issue.


Rick

[Pitch]

I've hung from them with no problems... they are not designed (safety wise) to hold a person - but it should work just fine...

On that note - Don't hang higher than you are perfectly willing to fall and furthermore don't hang over anything you're not perfectly willing to fall on.

I think the issue is WEIGHT more than anything - those things are massive

[Jsaults]

A Ratchet Buckle uses a spool and a lever to tighten the webbing. They have a ratchet wheel and a dog that locks the spool after each move of the lever.

A Cam Buckle uses a spring loaded cam, usually with teeth or ridges to pinch the webbing. Much lighter and simpler than a ratchet.

I have hung from high quality cam buckles (Northwest River Supplies and StrapWorks) with no problems. And I am a Certified Big Guy. Personally, I would not trust the cheapies one finds in big box stores or other such locations. I have cam buckle straps because I car-top canoes, and I want the best quality straps available. Saving a couple of bucks on a strap and losing a boat to the slipstream is false economy.

Same with hitting the ground due to a cheap strap.

My 2 cents.

Jim

[Roadtorque]

I use ratchet straps at home for my ENO doublenst. As long as you go with a system rated high enough I wouldn't worry about any failure. However, like it was said before, dont hang higher than you are willing to fall with any suspension. I believe the biggest (possibly the only) reason to only use the strap and not take the ratcheting wheel is to save weight in your pack.

[TFC Rick]

Cool. Thanks for the feed back guys. I was having a heck of a time figuring out which way to go suspension wise. This will give me an option for the moment while I figure a permanent solution.


Rick

[Tendertoe]

I am currently using webbing from a box store. They were sold as tow straps; a 4 pack of 12 foot orange and a 2 pack of 15 foot blue. My friend and I bought two 2 packs and a 4 pack (that's 8 pieces of webbing for those of you counting). They are weight rated at 900 lbs. I weigh 260 and have had no problems (knocking on wood).

They were 7 dollars for the 2 pack and 16 dollars for the 4 pack. We could have just gotten four 2 packs but we wanted to color coordinate our head and foot ends for ease of setup. They already have a sewn loop in one end which is unfortunately attached to a black metal hook. I rented a pair of bolt cutters from my local hardware store for 7 dollars and cut all the hooks, ditched the ratchet buckles which aren't actually attached to the main piece of webbing, and now had 8 pieces of webbing with a sewn loop in the end. Throw a carabiner in the sewn loop and throw it around a tree and snap onto itself and you have 8 pieces of polyester webbing for 30 dollars. That's 78 feet of webbing at 38 cents a foot.

I know the thread is about ratchet buckles. My argument is that you can get a cheap pair of tow straps, ditch the ratchet buckles, and have a true permanent suspension solution.

[Pitch]

I rented a pair of bolt cutters from my local hardware store for 7 dollars and cut all the hooks

Ahhh home depot has a hydraulic pump bolt cutter in their hardware section to cut the cable and chains there... they also have bolt cutters for the same purpose. When you bring something into the store from the outside just show it to the "guard" or customer service and they give you a sticker so you can leave with it again :-)

Once in there, just use their bolt cutter... I doubt they would mind.

Next time, gadget! Next time!!

p.s. I'm not cheap... I'm just frugal