Strap Winders

[BluHeeler]

Anyone have an opinion or a recommendation on strap winders?

Thanks

don

[Rawlco]

I bought one of those $30something ones from the Bosselmans/pilot in Des Moines IA in January of 2007 and it is still going strong. It comes with some assembly required and there are 4 rods that you insert that the strap winds around. It works better with just 2 of those rods. With 4 rods you get a very loose core to the strap and it makes a mess.

Currently the home depot trailers require the strap to be wound up on the winch, so I use my cordless drill to wind them up. I bought a $0.97 pack of allen wrenches at Wal Mart and use the largest one.

[BluHeeler]

Thanks Rawlco,

I've found a few on-line but it always helps to hear from someone who has used them.

[INKTOXICATED]

Yea on our flatbeds there wound around the winch. The cordless drill is the best way to go.sometimes the straps dont come up perfect and u have to untwist it but it beats doing it manually. Doing it by hand gives the wrist a heavy workout.

[rank]

I bought a $0.97 pack of allen wrenches at Wal Mart and use the largest one.
OK help me out here. How do you use an allen wrench to wind up straps?

[Windwalker]

OK help me out here. How do you use an allen wrench to wind up straps?
The long shank of it goes into the chuck of the drill, the short one goes through the hole in the winch, and the angle puts it into the hole. You don't have a hex to use it with, but hook it in one of the holes for the cheater bar and start cranking.:D

[Windwalker]

Anyone have an opinion or a recommendation on strap winders?

Thanks

don
When I pulled flats, I had to store the straps in my side locker. That meant wrapping them up and putting a rubberband around them. The winder I used had two little pegs about an inch apart. Put the strap in about six inches from the end and start cranking. Sure saved a lot of time. And, I could wrap then nice and tight so that they didn't get all tangled up in the side locker. Bought mine at the Iowa-80.

The inner tube from an old garden tractor tire did a great job for a rubber band to make them stay all wound up. I believe I was able to make about a dozen out of each tube.

[thbogle]

I always used the winders with two pegs, they were the cheap ones than most faltbed companies sell in the company store. The only problem with them was that sometimes the welds would break, I got in the habit of buying them a couple at a time. They got the straps nice and tight and just stacked them in the sidebox. at 15 $ a pop it wasnt bad as the time it saved me was well worth the money. 1 winder lasted about 6 months.

[Phantom433a]

I bought the cheap one at Flying J that slides onto the rubrail and has the 2 pegs ($15), the straps are dragged on the ground from the side of the trailer (front to back) and rolls nice and tight. The part that sticks out from the mounting bracket does have a tendancy to break at the weld point but I had our welder reweld it (after it broke) and I've used it for over a year with no problems.