For flatbed trucks there is one thing which is necessary , truck winch, when the flatbeds have winches installed, only winch straps are needed to tie down loads, and the truck winch can be welded on or slide in , and the winches usually have 2 sizes, 2” and 4”, and of course there are 2” & 4” winch straps which can be used with 2” and 4” winches respectively. Occasionally people are looking for 3” winch straps, which is not as popular as 2” & 4” winch straps but people have their use for them.
The way the truck winch and strap system works is pretty simple, the mandrel, the part into which you can insert the tie down strap, can be used to tighten the winch straps easily, thus tie the loads down pretty much by just put winch bar into the winch side hole then turn as many rounds as needed until the loads are secured properly. The barrel across the winch body has holes at one end, a gear at the other end, the part between the winch body is mandrel, the winch strap can be inserted into it, close the brake on the gear will allow you the tighten the straps over the load, since the gear is only allowed to go one direction, when you untie the strap, open the brake, turn the barrel the opposite direction to pull the strap off the load. To turn your winch barrel you will definitely need a winch bar, no one can do it with bare hands, besides, it’s required by law to use a winch bar with truck winches.
For your information, usually you can choose from 4 different kind of winch bar, the standard winch bars painted black, the chromated standard winch bars, chromated combination winch bars and combination winch bars painted half yellow. To be honest, all these winch bars are serving the exact same purpose, and it’s all about personal preference and sometimes people choose combination winch bars for specific reasons, one of them being that you can use something else with the combination winch bar, thus the word “combination” in the name.
