SideXSide Action - November 2007 - (Page 70) SecuringYourToys! It never fails that we spend more and more money on our toys, but when it comes to tying them down, we may not spend all the time or money needed to do the job right. As a kid I can remember my dad always stressing the importance of doing things right. To give you an example, we were at the lake for a weekend and on our way to the boat slip, we noticed a bunch of commotion on the dock not too far from our slip. Come to find out that when the storm came through the night before it had flooded a 21’ jet boat. The night before on our way up to the parking lot from the boat, we had all commented on what a sweet boat it was. It was evident that the boat 70 www.sidexsideaction.com was fairly new because of the shape that it was in. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t stay that way for long. The owner had tied the boat in the slip using ski rope. When the storm came in it poured tons of water into the boat causing the boat to put a load on the ropes. Ultimately the ropes failed and the boat sank with just the tip of the nose sticking out of the water because of an air bubble that was stuck in it. Had the guy spent a little extra time and money on ropes and done it right from the beginning, he would still have that sweet boat that we all admired the night before. Thinking back on this story made me realize that securing your boat while in the slip is just as important as securing your toys when in transit. We have put together some useful information to help you select the best option for tying down your toys and making sure it’s done right. Before we go into all of the details, let’s go over a couple of important terms. The first is RATED CAPACITY, also known as "assembly capacity" or "break strength." It is the maximum load a complete assembly can withstand before failure in a laboratory pull test when the product is NEW. The second term is WORKING LOAD LIMIT. This is the maximum load weight a tie-down should be subjected to during normal use. To assist in making the proper tie-down choice, the Federal D.O.T. requires the W.L.L. to be 1/3 of the Rated Capacity. By Mike Lasher http://www.sidexsideaction.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.