Chain Binders

Lost a chain binder and needed a couple more anyway so went shopping. Two farm stores and two hardware stores and all made in China.

Do I trust these things with my life and your life when I'm on the highways loaded with machinery?

Is there a place to buy real American made binders that are actually tested for strength?

Tarpstop.com and Tri County tarp, both can get you the binders you want in both over center or ratchet your choice.
Tarp stop has more than one store. One is in the Toledo OH area and the other is in Lake Station IN
Tri County Tarp is in Bradner OH just north of the junction of US-6 and US-23.
Tri County Tarp 800-874-8277. Tri County will ship to your door. Good folks to work with too.

http://www.1st-chainsupply.com/siteindex.htm

My question is how do you loose a binder?? Do you not tie yours closed when loaded or did it just fall off when you where not loaded because you forgot it was laying on the trailer or something. I always tie my binders to the chain so they can not pop open, ya one of those things I learned many years ago from an older truck then my self

Old, you loose them because someone steals them. Now I lock the binder to the chain and the chain to the trailer. It slows them down a bit.

I needed some ratchet binders and looked everywhere for made in USA. No luck, so I bought two of the orange made in China. Second time I used them, I was tightening one down and the threads started jumping, even though I was not putting that much force on it. I tried the second one and it jumped also. I took both of them back, and of course the store claimed that no one had ever had that problem before. I exchanged them, but I don't trust the new ones. Even though they look to be heavy duty and well built, they are a total waste of money.

Umm. Yeah. I left it lay on the trailer and it fell off. Retraced my route the two miles I'd traveled and it was no where to be found.

Made me a little upset as I'd had them about 20 years and just know I'll have trouble finding good quality replacements.
The one I lost even had the open loop on the end of the handle to run a wire or padlock thru. My older binders just have a knob on the end of the handle and are bent from long cheaters.

Try a number of local truck stops most of the time they have GOOD binders but ya now days that is getting harder to come by no matter where you look

I'd check around at heavy machinery or implement dealers, I'm sure they would have decent stuff there. Do you have a Cator Case IH dealer nearby? I wouldn't trust Chinese steel & forgings. They can make anything you want over there if they have a blueprint, but they don't know or understand where the stuff gets used. The product might look just like it's supposed to, but who knows if it will withstand the repeated fatigue? It may take the rated load for a few uses, but will it last for, say a 100 uses? What if you put a pipe on it to get it over center, do they take that into account when they test it?

I've found 3 chain binders on the road over the years, that I assume have fallen off logging trucks- They hang them in a row on a piece of angle iron welded to the headache rack, and they bounce off. Pretty easy to forget where you laid it (pickup bumper, trailer, etc.) and drive off, too.

Sorry, missed a space, should read Cat or Case IH dealer.

Chains, chain binders and crow bars; keep them out of sight or locked up.
There are a lot of people who would like to have them for the rare occasion when they might need them.
Some of those people don"t want to spend the money for that "occasional" use.
So.....yours wind up getting "lost"!!

All of my binders, both the over center type, and the ratchet type, are made in China, because that is all I could find, even at the truck stops I visited. I've never had one fail or even offer to fail, and more often than not those binders are cinched down with the use of a 4 foot cheater. I'm not sticking up for "made in China" stuff because I don't like it either, but when that is all there is, you make the best of it.

If there is such a thing as "made in U.S.A." load binders, the manufacturer really does need to put up a website so the rest of us can find them.

Northern Tool has USA made load binders, both lever and ratchet type. They are about twice the price of china crap but well worth it.
USA load binders.

Ratchet type binders.
Ratchet type

I bought the blue Peerless 3/8" ratchet binders at about $50 each from Fleet Farm. They have the correct certification, but are made in China. There seemed to be some pin holing in the sleeve castings. I am not impressed with the quality which now goes with the Peerless name.

The tie down rules are now quite involved. They relate to the weight of the item to be secured and then how much of that weight must be equalled by the rated strength of the chain. The formula is different for the strength needed to keep the load from moving forward, lesser needed to keep the load from moving backwards, and again some percentage of load's weight to keep it from going sideways. It seemed to me that all situations (for what I do and haul) would be covered by cutting the 2 20 ft chains in half so that I end up with 4 10 ft chains (correct rated hooks are necessary). Because I occasionally haul a 12,000 lb Bobcat or one of our big tractors at 14,000 lbs, one long chain set up in a "V" at the rear of the machine would not meet the formula. But 2 short chains just doubled the tie down strength. I am using the certified T 70 3/8" chain, gold color.

A recent accident nearby was a big hydrahoe being carried on a lowboy with 3 axles, being pulled by a good looking 4 axle Peterbilt. Some lady with a cell phone in hand pulled directly out in front of the loaded truck. The truck driver tried to avoid killing the woman by steering to the right and dynamiting the brakes. Unfortunately the front of the truck hit a huge tree and was seriously damaged, and so was the woman's car, but as he steered away from a direct broadside, she lived with little human body damage (her car was totalled). The most amazing thing was the hydrahoe did not come loose from the lowboy. Its chains held and saved the woman's life. If the chains had broke loose, the hoe would have fallen off the left side of the lowboy and completely crushed her car resulting in a fatality.

So when I am POed about the new tie down rules (which seem to be excessive!!), I think of that accident. I could have been that truck driver, and that woman driver could have been your wife, sister, or daughter.

Paul in MN