When it’s time to loosen the straps and unload, the job’s not done until the ratchets and straps are put away well, ready to go to work the next time duty calls! This is the best way we’ve found to keep your straps and ratchets neatly stowed and easy to put to work.
Ratchet straps are a necessity for the active homeowner or outdoor enthusiast. These hard-working devices, when properly used, are dependable tools to secure loads and assure that property is delivered safely to its destination.
When the transport is done, the job isn’t - until the ratchet straps are put away well, untangled, and ready to go to work again when duty calls.
Whether you store your ratchet straps in a bucket, stow bag, hang on a railing, or under the seat, having each set put together, and wrapped well, will really reduce frustration and wasted time when you need the straps again.
Here is DirtFarmer Jay’s favorite method for quickly and simply wrapping up each ratchet strap set so that they can be put in that favorite storage location, but not be tangled with other sets, or have the hooks exposed so they catch on everything.
This method is simple, memorable, effective, and uses only the strap set itself. It only takes a few moments to commit it to memory, and you’ll thank yourself for using this method every time it comes time to secure a load.
Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com.
We've done a lot of episodes on ratchet straps,
and it seems to be a lot of people have got some great techniques.
But one of the things that really bothers people is how do you store these things?
Well, stay tuned, and I'll show you a great way to keep them safe,
ready to go to work the next time they're called into duty.
Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com.
We love having ratchet straps.
But one of the greatest challenges can be is when you reach into
wherever you store them, and that's not what this video is about.
We're not going to tell you to put them under the seat or in a bag or a case
or whatever, but wherever you store them, putting them in a way
that they're easy to grab and ready to go to work the next time you get them.
So what would you rather do?
You reach into your stow bag.
And would you rather reach in and grab out that
and try to get ready to go to work with that?
Or would you rather reach in and grab this?
Well, let me show you how we do this without any extra gear
and gets these ready to go to work the next time you need to strap something down.
All right.
You have now just finished transporting a load.
You've gotten the strap off of your trailer or truck,
and now you've got the two sides.
You've got the ratchet's head with the hook here, and you've got the working
end of this strap here that's going to go into this.
But you've got these two.
Now, you can be lazy and just take this all and throw it in that.
But the later you is going to hate the earlier you.
So why not just take a few moments using only these two items,
nothing extra, and get them ready to go to work again?
Here's how you do it.
What you're going to do is the first thing is just pull this out like this.
Let's move that out of the way so you can see it.
We're just going to close this up.
Now, you have a choice here depending on how long this is right here.
But simply take this and go around
and figure out which way it'll lay a hook down.
And that looks like this will work that way.
Your particular model of ratchet strap, you may have to go the other way.
And if you do, then that would simply look like this.
There's the strap this way.
And you're just going to take it around and just follow around.
But as you can see that in this particular model doesn't lay down flat
because of where this is.
So we're just going to start over again.
I'm just going to take it around.
And if you want, you can just pick it up and just do it that way.
It falls in between the sides of the ratchet hub.
And then we're going to take that and lay that like this.
Now that's one half of it.
Ready to go.
Now you're going to take your other part of your strap,
get the twist out of it.
And what I do is I just lay them where this one nests inside of that one.
Don't pull them tight because you can see it's not going to lay flat,
but just lay them like that.
Depending on the strap configuration,
you may actually get this to nest around here
and these kind of intertwine with each other.
But I just simply lay them like this, hold them together
and then start winding the strap flat like this all the way around.
And as you can see on that end towards you, there's actually
kind of a channel right there just keeps laying it in there.
So we're just going to go like this.
You can see as I'm going, I'm pulling twist out of it as well.
So that's a better way to keep your straps conditioned as well.
And then I kind of pull it a little bit as we go to snug it up.
Not a lot of pressure, but it's all it takes to just kind of get this
to wind up around the whole assembly.
Now, when you get to about right here, 24 to 32 inches,
I just come around and watch this little thing right here.
Take your thumb here and then turn, go to a corner, pinch it down.
Let me do that again.
I'm going to take my thumb, turn and then pinch it down.
Now I've got cordage that's going sideways.
And at that point, now you can simply cinch this a little bit, go around.
And when you get to the last turn, just loosen it up a little bit
and then snake that under like this.
And when you do, you can simply cinch it down.
And now your strap is all there together, ready to roll.
What a way to work with.
If you'd like to learn some more great tips about how to use these great devices,
check out this video over here where we'll show you other ways
to make these work harder for you.
And while you're at it, check out this other video that we produce for you
that we think is perfect for your interests.
Until the next time, this is Dirt Farmer Jay from DirtFarmerJay.com.
