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Best tie down straps?

As a sailor, I am a fan of good old fashioned Nylon three strand or double braided line. The beauty of Nylon is that it stretches, absorbing shocks and load. I used 1/2" nylon double braided lines when I tied down outside. Tensile strength is probably triple what you are looking at. Relatively inexpensive from any marine supply outfit.

Tie a bowline knot for the ground hook and a standard aviation knot at the plane. Simple and quick with no steel to bang against your paint job on gusty days.

I have a 3/4" nylon line securing a 13,000# boat to a can and it survives in 50 knot blows. I use 1/2" lines to secure it to a dock with no issues.

Larry
 
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Strongly recommend that you avoid both products.

Stick with polyester rope or the marine kind with a high-tech core. Avoid polypropylene and nylon, which are too stretchy. They let an airplane start rocking and it's the dynamic overload that causes failures.

Avoid the classic tiedown knot or other devices which can slip - they do slip, when the plane is bouncing around in high winds. Use knots which are snug to the tiedown ring and firmly secure. And tie more than one of them!

Also avoid open hooks, as they too are a place where failures can occur in dynamic loadings. Besides possibly letting the hook disengage, they generally aren't as strong as devices or ropes that go completely around the tiedown ring.

I personally like some of the marine ropes (they call it "line" in boat-speak). I use 5/16" New England Regatta Braid for my Cessna 180. I like that it's always soft and easily knotted, yet easy to untie. It's got a good feel to the hand. If I were going to replace it, or buy some rope for the RV-3B I'm building, I'd use one of the ropes with a polyester cover and a Dyneema core. www.apsltd.com has been my go-to source ever since I had my sailboat. I'm a happy customer but have no other connection to them.

Dave
RV-3B, skinning the fuselage
 
Also make sure that your tiedown rope can't pull the stake out of the ground. I always have my tiedown ropes go out at a 45 degree angle, and the stakes into the ground at a 45 degree angle so that the rope is perpendicular to the stake.
 
I just have a couple of cheap ratchet straps that I purchased at a truck stop. They are a little heavy but work good.
 
I've been using the #2, Hook-n-Pull tiedowns for a few years.
I really like them for use when I travel. They hold well & are very well constructed.

I'd probably opt for something different if my RV was tied down 24/7.
 
For straps I use ratchet straps but replaced the hooks with high quality climbing carabiners.

For anchors, I switched to the largest Orange Screw . They seem to work fine for anything short of a tornado and are very light.
 
Chain and rope

For Ramp use......Polyester Rope as mentioned.
For field Use.......I use a tie-down the Cessna 150 club taught me about 15 years back.
Per Tie-Down outlet: Use (3) 1-foot lengths of chain hooked to a "Threaded Quick Link." Nail 1' tent stakes at the end of ea. chain outward on a 45 degree pointing away from each other. Tie a nylon rope to the Quick Link and attach to Tie-Down eyelet. The whole setup will cost less than $30.

It was good enough to hold my plane plus a cub that was mating with my 6A at Rain-N-Pain in 2011. The tornado broke both the wings on the cub and pulled loose every puck-style tie down the cub was attached to. Said Cub blew approx. 50 ft. backwards into my plane and subsequently ended up on my leading edge. The tie-down method I described held us both without pulling loose. After walking the grounds after the tornado, I noticed the Claw seemed to hold in almost every situation also.

Use that Orange Screw and chances are you will be renting tie-downs at OSH (if that is where you are going). The AirVenture web-site pertaining to Aircraft Camping Guidelines says "Dog Leash tie-downs are Prohibited."
 
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ExtraKatana said:
For Ramp use......Polyester Rope as mentioned.
For field Use.......I use a tie-down the Cessna 150 club taught me about 15 years back.
Per Tie-Down outlet: Use (3) 1-foot lengths of chain hooked to a "Threaded Quick Link." Nail 1' tent stakes at the end of ea. chain outward on a 45 degree pointing away from each other. Tie a nylon rope to the Quick Link and attach to Tie-Down eyelet. The whole setup will cost less than $30.

It was good enough to hold my plane plus a cub that was mating with my 6A at Rain-N-Pain in 2011. The tornado broke both the wings on the cub and pulled loose every puck-style tie down the cub was attached to. Said Cub blew approx. 50 ft. backwards into my plane and subsequently ended up on my leading edge. The tie-down method I described held us both without pulling loose. After walking the grounds after the tornado, I noticed the Claw seemed to hold in almost every situation also.

Use that Orange Screw and chances are you will be renting tie-downs at OSH (if that is where you are going). The AirVenture web-site pertaining to Aircraft Camping Guidelines says "Dog Leash tie-downs are Prohibited."
Click to expand...

I made several similar kits for our Team after the Sun-n-Fun tornado. I had a personal set which I used during the tornado and my plane only sustained a bit of damage from pieces of other airplanes blowing into it. Doggie screw-in tie downs failed miserably and a few Claw tie downs broke. The Claw dealer replaced broken tie downs free of charge. I don't make these any more but feel free to copy the design if you like. Ditto the comments about using good rope and knots and no slack in the tethers.

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az_gila said:
Neat...

How long are the nails? And what does the PVC tube do?
Click to expand...

The spikes are Coleman tent stakes from Walmart. About 10-inches long. The tube is a container for the stakes so they won't puncture the canvas travel bag.

By the way, I found a picture I took of one of the Claws that broke during the SnF tornado:

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Vintage Plans

The EAA article very much resembles the Puck design I saw fail in several instances at R-N-P. It uses metal as opposed to the Delrin puck. The spacing and insertion of the stakes looks almost identical however. Did not work in FL. ground in 2011 is all I know.

I think I will replace my chains with the cables. Thanks for the idea Ron! What about the Scotch Brite Pad???
 
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We use The Claw for serious overnight tie-down of our RV-7 and haven't had any issues in moderate wind conditions. Be sure to look at control locks too - I got the Ultimate Gust Lock from an advertiser here and while its kind of a pain to install, it works extremely well and folds nicely.

For day trips at airports with no chains/ropes, I always carry these Slidedowns in the airplane. They are quick to install, lightweight, and strong.
 
Ron, What's the purpose of the scotchbrite? Cleaning the nails before putting them in the bag?
 
ronschreck said:
I made several similar kits for our Team after the Sun-n-Fun tornado. I had a personal set which I used during the tornado and my plane only sustained a bit of damage from pieces of other airplanes blowing into it. Doggie screw-in tie downs failed miserably and a few Claw tie downs broke. The Claw dealer replaced broken tie downs free of charge. I don't make these any more but feel free to copy the design if you like. Ditto the comments about using good rope and knots and no slack in the tethers.

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Click to expand...

This is a really cool idea. I bet its lots lighter than the Claw. thanks for sharing.
 
If the airplane gets to bouncing, and in a hard blow it will, there's a possibility that the loops of the cables can pop off the nails. There ought to be some keeper device if the loops can't be made small enough to stay on.

Also, it's probably better to spread the pattern of stakes out a bit more, and pound them in at an angle closer to 45 degrees to the ground.

Dave
 
David Paule said:
If the airplane gets to bouncing, and in a hard blow it will, there's a possibility that the loops of the cables can pop off the nails. There ought to be some keeper device if the loops can't be made small enough to stay on.

Also, it's probably better to spread the pattern of stakes out a bit more, and pound them in at an angle closer to 45 degrees to the ground.

Dave
Click to expand...

I like this design, simple but elegant, need to build a set. However, to address the possibility of the cables slipping off the nails, I will weld some steel eyes under the heads of the spikes and swage the cables directly to the eyes.

The same thing could be accomplished without welding by swaging the cables to short lengths of 1/8" x 1" steel strap bent on a 45* angle that have a hole in the opposite end through which the spike could be inserted.
 
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