Ski Tie Downs

[DTro]

So both of my ski tie downs have managed to snap. They are aluminum and both snapped where the hole is. Most likely my fault as they got bent and I tried to straighten them. At any rate I come to find out they are not standard. Newmans uses a ¾” hole with a 1x2 bar. They were little difficult to find, but I think they want like 60 bucks/ea. I did pick up a couple bars at FF, but found out they were only 1 ¼ and I’m worried about opening up that 5/8” hole to ¾” (doesn’t leave much material). So my question is has anyone used a wood tie down? Maybe like a 2x2 or 2x3? The stud crank is pretty long at almost 5” so I think a straight board might work. Any problems with this thinking?

[ZachD]

Couldn't you use a 2x2 steel square tube then?

[leech~~]

I got a new trailer 2 winters ago and sold the Alm tie downs on the (List) asap and bought two new metal tie downs at FF. I like them better because you can crank them down a little tighter without them bending and becoming loose on a long trip or breaking!

The other thing you can do if you need to drill little bigger holes on the metal ones is find a buddy good at welding and have him weld a large washer on both sides of the hole to give them a little more strength in that area!

[DTro]

yeah I wish I could use these FF bars I have, but I just don't think its going to work.

[leech~~]

yeah I wish I could use these FF bars I have, but I just don't think its going to work.

See above I added! But do not use Wood!

[DTro]

In case anyone was wondering, a 2x3 works great. I got 2 bars out of a 8' board for a total cost of $1.92. I did have to chisel out a 2" section about 1/8" deep for the threads to grab. But it worked great.

I'm not too worried about the strength, as everything I've read said that in an accident it probably doesn't matter what kind of tie down bar you have.

[leech~~]

If you were going to go the wood route, maybe a hard wood Oak board off a pallet would have worked better for not splitting or something in a nice Black Walnut may be!

[nitro640]

I hope you dont need to do quick move at speed

[aanderud]

Regular ski tie downs definitely aren't going to do squat in an accident, no matter what material they are. Aluminum holding a 500 pound sled in a wreck? No way. They're just there to keep the thing from moving forward and backward under NORMAL acceleration instances. Your wood tie downs should work just fine for that.

If you want to upgrade later, go to metals depot or any random metal shop around town will work -- and get the 2x1x.120 structural retangular tube. It's 35 bucks for 8 feet.

[Gus]

I drilled out the FF ones. I don't think it really removed all that much material, unless the fleet farm ones you have are different than the ones I have. Seems to work fine, no bending or anything negative.