In another life, I worked as a truck driver. I drove different types of trucks– dump trucks, “straight jobs”, and even pick-up trucks– delivering all manner of cargo. Today, my deliveries are made using an SUV. If I have to haul something, it’s usually on the luggage rack on top or inside. If I have anything bigger to haul, I’ll call a friend with a pick-up truck.
There’s one thread common in hauling anything, and that is that you have to secure it to keep it from moving around. For hauling anything on top of my SUV, I keep some rope in my emergency box as well as several bungee cords of different lengths. The rope is a real pain-in-the-butt, as it is either too long or I have to cut it into pieces and then replace it down the road. More often than not, I forget to replace a length of rope until I actually need it. How many times has that happened to you? Bungee cords are a very useful thing to have around. The only problem is they never seem to fit anything without wrapping them around your cargo several times, and I’ve broken more than my share of bungee cords trying to stretch them too far. The weather takes a toll on them, too.
Several years ago, I sold my two motorcycles because of my bad back; I just can’t ride any more. However, back when I was riding I would often strap something to the rear seat or someplace on the bikes, and that stuff would shift around. I used bungee cords for attaching things to my bikes. It was a decent solution, but not a good one, to be sure.
Titan Straps , sold by Lawson-USA are made in the USA, and are headquartered out of Bozeman, Montana. I received several different color Titan Straps– bright orange, light gray, and tan. Their website shows blue straps, too. I’ll be honest in that I just tossed the plastic bag with the straps in it on my filing cabinet until close to time for me to test them. I always have a long que of products awaiting to be tested. I thought, just by glancing at the straps in the plastic bag, that they were cheap– real cheap plastic straps with plastic buckles. WRONG!
I like to give products I write about a good test. Sometimes products are tested for days, weeks, and months at a time. Some products can be tested right away. So, I figured I’d get around to testing the Titan Straps shortly before their turn in the queue came up. Okay, I was wrong, wrong, wrong! The Titan Straps are NOT manufactured out of cheap plastic with cheap plastic buckles! Don’t you hate it, when you’re wrong?
Titan Straps are made out of polyurethane injected with a UV protectant for an extra long lifespan. The buckles are aircraft grade aluminum, heat treated with polished edges, so they don’t cut into you when you tightening down a load. On the end of the Titan Straps are a very aggressive pull tab, that you can easily pull to tighten a load with gloves on in cold temperature. Each Titan Strap is 25 inches long, and you can attach two or more together, if you need longer lengths. Each strap has 24 holes in it, so you can get the straps nice and tight on any load, too.
I didn’t have anything to haul. So I simply put my 6-foot aluminum ladder on the roof-top luggage rack of my SUV and tied it down with several of the Titan Straps. Then, I drove up the mountain to my usual shooting spot. This was a good enough reason to do some shooting while I was up there. Part of the road is paved and part is gravel. The county recently laid down some more gravel, and they put it down much too thick. It was a total washboard– rough enough to loosen a bad filling in a tooth, if you had one. The ladder stayed firmly attached to the roof rack up and down the gravel road.
Some of the benefits of the Titan Straps are that they are very supple in cold temps, non-marring, cut and tear resistant, chemical resistant, and won’t absorb water. There are hundreds of uses for them, too. If you need to haul anything on your SUV’s luggage rack, tie something down in your pick-up truck, or bind a load, you really should have some Titan Straps handy.
After my incorrect initial, first glance opinion of the plastic bagged Titan Straps, I’m happy to report that these straps are an outstanding product. Get some and keep them in the emergency box in your rig or under the seat of your pick-up truck. You’ll be amazed at how handy this simply invention is, and it makes your job of securing things a lot easier and much faster, too. They have a break strength of over 200-lbs, so you can strap down cargo without fear of it breaking the straps.
The Titan Straps website shows them, in different colors, for $7.99 each. I suggest getting at least four or more of them. You’ll wonder how you ever got along without them. Keep in mind, these are NOT a cheap plastic strap with a plastic buckle. These are heavy-duty, American-made products, well-designed and manufactured out of first-class materials. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio