How Strong are Twisted Ratchet Straps?

[Music] welcome back everybody today we're going to be having some fun because i'm going to be breaking some ratchet straps i'm going to be testing the myth that putting a twist in the ratchet strap decreases its load capacity everything from one twist multiple twists and even knots and we're going to find out how this affects the strap i have found that the strap being twisted doesn't flap or vibrate as you're traveling down the road and basically singing you a song it also helps with keeping the wear and tear off the straps as it's vibrating or protects the object that you're strapping down from the vibration which could cause some cosmetic damage to the load so in the last video i put a twist in the ratchet strap and when i did that i was flooded with comments saying that i had reduced the ratchet strap's capacity up to 50 percent so i want to take it upon myself to do some testing and find out some answers and i hope you guys will join under normal conditions a twisted strap probably isn't going to do much harm but when a load shifts when you hit a big pothole or get in a car accident that could put the strap in a lot more stress causing it to break here's my plan to create a controlled car accident i'll start with a heavy duty surface from there i'm going to need two secure points to mount the ratchet strap to to simulate the load shifting i need to push on the strap hard enough until it breaks instead of destroying my trailer we're gonna use this big giant piece of plate steel here's what we're gonna be using to test with the standard two inch ratchet strap these straps are rated at 3 33 pounds of working limit and a 10 000 pound breaking strength so we're going to be stretching this thing to roughly 10 000 pounds and in here is our air jack which is going to be the load and this will give us the added force we need to be able to snap the strap so i could operate this jack with this handle but this is going to potentially put me in harm's way when the strap breaks so i'm going to use the air over hydraulic feature and i can operate it from a safe distance and not get slapped at the face with the ratchet strap i have to figure out some way to get this mounted in the center of the table so if i bolt this down to a block i can tack weld this to the table i can bolt this to the top there that'll work good one problem that i see with this jack is obviously i don't want to be putting the ratchet strap straight over the ram right there because it'll just poke a hole right through it so i need to make something smooth that makes a nice smooth transition over the top so the strap doesn't break i was going to weld this piece of metal directly to the ram but i decided against it just in case i have to replace the ram during the test and this leaves my options open a little bit later to be able to use the ram for another project down the road so a bolt-in connection seemed like the best thing to do i'll probably never use this component again so i'm just using some scrap from around the shop to make it this component is probably going to take quite a bit of force i'm doing it the fireball fashion and building this a little bit overkill the hydraulic ram i'm using is capable of producing 8 tons of force that's almost double what the capacity of the ratchet strap can hold i'm expecting this ram to generate some pretty big explosions oh yeah that's better so as the tension in the strap may be greater to one side or the other this can compensate and keep the ram straight i'm gonna weld the d-rings down this is probably the most important part these cannot come off so i'm gonna weld them good and strong so we have our anchors ready to go on each side of the trailer that should be strong enough to hold the strap i hope this is the tool we're gonna use to read the forces involved and this is just a meter and we're going to strap one end to the shackle and the other end to the ratchet strap we're going to pull away and then we're going to be able to read what's going on on the scale and find out if this myth is true or not now let's put the strap on and break something the first thing we want to do is just do a control test that we're going to base every measurement off of straight up break the strap with no twist in it oh man i cannot get any more clicks than that this is 655 kilograms which is 1461 pounds of pull strength and that's the most i could do with just the handle listen to that boom so i think we're ready to for the first test i have to admit i'm pretty scared this is extremely dangerous and don't do this at home so i'm expecting a huge explosion off of these things so let's take about 20 steps back and i have a remote switch back there so let's get to a safe distance and break something i'm hiding behind the forklift in three two one go 1500 kilo 2500 4000 [Music] fly holy crap that was a huge concussion when that strap blew up i could feel it in my chest when that thing exploded let's check out the strap look at that it broke right here at the spindle where it wraps around the joint and it's like it friction welded itself to each other quite impressive here's where the other end of the strap landed oh wow that is incredible where it went over the top it's like melted that's pretty crazy there's the other end it's warm [Laughter] that's pretty interesting and we're about 20 feet away from the rig that thing has some serious explosive power behind it that strap is moving so fast i want to see it in slow motion [Music] so let's check the meter to see where this broke at and that will be our target for the other straps four thousand two hundred and seventy nine kilograms that's nine thousand four hundred and thirty three pounds of force that it took to break that flat strap with zero twist in it i wanna test the ratchet straps when they get wet so i'm going to submerge these in water this is going to simulate driving in rainy conditions or if they get soaked and then at the end of the test we can test them all out okay we'll let that soak there for a bit the next strap going to test is the half twist and this is what i like to do to keep the wind from wreaking havoc on the strap and the load just like that so i can see the strap wanting to twist right there with a full twist in it when it's super tight let's see if that's a stress concentration all right let's see what happens three two one here we go fifteen hundred three thousand kilograms coming up on four thousand wow oh geez that looked like it was exactly the same strength to me as the control it might even be stronger so let's take a look at where it broke broke in the same exact spot as the flat strap right there at the spool let's see where the other side landed oh look it landed all the way over here again it's hot it there is warmth to the strap that's pretty incredible where it was twisted on itself it did get hot there [Music] that ended up being 4 375 kilograms that's 9645 pounds with the twist in the strap that didn't diminish the load rating at all which is quite surprising how many twists does it take to reduce the strap by 50 we're gonna find out let's do four see what happens what's interesting is it wants to curl over on itself at the load up here i think it looks good okay let's test the four twist ratchet strap here we go 1500 four thousand kilograms oh jeez holy moly noticing a pattern look at that it got so hot right there it melted itself together that is impressive this is extreme [Music] that got up to like 4 200 kilograms which is right where the control was and that had four twists in it that's 9270 pounds that's barely a reduction from the control so this myth is not looking very promising for the twists in your straps that is a serious result i want to test putting as many twists in the strap as physically possible if that's 10 or 15 i don't know we're going to count there's one two three four five there's ten yes so each side has ten twists in it this is ridiculous we're just gonna roll it up who cares ten twist strap test here we go three two one fifteen hundred three thousand kilograms thirty five hundred man that has some force i jump every time when that happens it looked like to me it was like 3 500 kilograms which is pretty amazing with 10 twists in there let's see where it failed yep right there where every other one has failed 10 twists in the strap gave us a number of 3492 kilograms which is 7 698 pounds which is a pretty good reduction from their control but it's still pretty high with 10 twists in there so still not even close to the 50 percent that the internet says it is this is still a good result i want to continue testing until we see that result of the 50 reduction so i want to try a knot first that looks like a good knot these are like impossible to get out too if you have after looking at that that is a pretty high concentration having all the the strap come to that near narrow point right there not test in three two one go 1000 kilograms oh hearing noises oh that was a result whew that only got to maybe 1700 kilograms of force that's what i wanted to see look at that broke right at the knot and it's melted oh that's so cool hundred and thirty kilograms three thousand five hundred and ninety three pounds with a nod in it one knot has reduced the capacity by over fifty percent knots are bad so now i wanna test the strap that's been soaking in the water bucket for a few hours so let's test that anytime explosions are involved things are fun three two one go [Music] wow that was pretty intense that looked about the same around 4 000 kilograms but let's take a look at what broke yep right here at the ratchet strap and it's even warm to the touch man that's incredible what i just noticed this 4 000 pound piece of steel sitting on the stand has moved it is literally twisted and shifted that's how much force these straps are applying to this table when that releases all its tension learn something new every day pretty amazing let's check the footage so that landed us at 4013 kilograms with a wet strap which is 8 847 so a slight reduction in performance from the wet strap to the dry strap but not enough to worry about pretty good results there look at all the straps that we broke it's got a strap graveyard man seeing a twist in a ratchet strap i'm not really too concerned about its load rating being decreased but i definitely can't recommend you guys putting twists in the straps even though i'm probably still going to do it just to keep the wind vibration down but i'm definitely not going to put knots in my straps and even in wet conditions i'm not worried about the strap losing any of its capacity which i find extremely valuable so i hope you guys found all this information useful too and i'll see you guys on the next one photo time freeze frame

Channel: Fireball Tool

Views: 818,770

Rating: 4.9627705 out of 5

Keywords: fireball, tool, Fireball tool, Welding, Ratchet straps, SLO mo, Slow motion, Twisted strap, Strap breaks, Mythbusting, Mythbuster, Adam savage, Myth busted, Twisting strap, Wind strap, Vibrating strap, Strap slap, Exploding ratchet strap, Slow motion strap, Stronger strap, Internet myth, How strong ratchet strap, Shop science, Science project, Slow mo guys, Wet strap, Twisted in strap

Id: ifyJjQXOttE

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/SaveFailsafe]

Buncha morons who think they know better in the comments.

Anyone who has ever hauled cargo knows you're supposed to put a twist in the strap, to keep it from vibrating in the wind.

That's not a life hack that's the intended design function.

If you don't put a twist in it you're literally doing it wrong and if the completely marginal and designed-for reduction in tensile strength from the twist concerns you, your real concern should be that you aren't using the proper amount of straps for the load.

[u/yaosio]

He should do a test in a wind tunnel to see if the strap vibrating reduces its strength.

[u/Sgt_Meowmers]

Full workshop, remote trigger, 3d model of plan, actual slow mo cam, helpful on screen stats, this dude doesn't fuck around at all. Only thing missing is stoic mustached straight man with a beret.

[u/HerpToxic]

tl;dr: 1 twist makes it stronger. 4+ twists makes it weaker

[u/chandris]

Look. Just do the twist. It’s stops the flap. As another comment said, if you that close to the margin you’re not doing it right anyway.

[u/floorjockey]

Does a twist cause the strap to wear down faster over time? Each time he twisted he mentioned the strap was hot where the twist was. Does the added friction weaken the strap over time? My guess is yes but negligibly.

[u/zenazure]

what are the steps of nonsense you take to get to the conclusion that it would be weakened by twisting it?

the knot i could see causing problems, but a single twist?

[u/ferrrnando]

Anybody else squint their eyes when he was putting pressure on the straps? Felt like it was gonna pop and hit me

[u/spannermouse]

ok cool but he really should have tested old crappy straps cause who has those sexy new ones?