After a year or 2 of playing with my straps and having some severe over kill on my system. I have now drastically changed it. Fount that with ratchet straps I was getting them way to tight and it was beating the crap out of my trailer. I switched to the KTM straps that have a closed hook on one end and a loop system on the other with a good hook on it that will not pop out of the loop. These are the pull type straps. Iv also went to making my ancor points as far out as I can. Machines are way more secure. Tight enough to keep machine from rolling but not tight enough to compress the suspension. Only issue I have had with the straps is the matiral is way thicker than a standard good quality strap and hard to tie up the excess so the excess has come undone and got ripped off my the tire. A couple of new straps and a few extra hooks to put the loops in so they can't reach the ground and all is good

 

I agree. I have giant eye hooks mounted down the center of my deck where I have a strip of structural aluminum between the two sheets of plywood. Managed to actually pull one right through it, even though I had it backed up with large flat washers. Also my trailer has a 4 inch side lip on it that I have drilled holes in it to hook into. those have not been a problem. I find straps fit the bill in most cases. However I am switching to a web/net type that you see on commercial tow trucks that capture the wheel now. For a couple reasons. 1) straps loosen. And stretch when they get wet. And no mater how number of straps you use or how tight you have them, the *** end of my machines tend to hop sideways. the new method captures the tires, not compressing the suspension, Tires don't move, and the machine's suspension is allowed to react to the bumps in the road. So it doesn't move.

 

I always liked having a trailer with sides and a rear gate. If your straps completely failed, most likely you wouldn't lose your quads. They might scoot around a bit and get scuffed and scratched but they wouldn't slide off the trailer. Most of the newer cvt auto machines have a park position in the transmission, they probably wouldn't even move then with the machine in park except under hard braking. I'm not saying that straps aren't important but they're the only thing keeping the quads from sliding off if you have a trailer with no sides or rear gate. Its similar to guardrails on a bridge. You don't intend to hit the guardrail but if something happens to your vehicle, that guardrail will keep you from sliding off the bridge into the water.

 

I'm still using 4 straps, one tied to each corner of the trailer, and my quad doesn't move. One ratchet strap broke and I replaced it with an old cam lock strap I had lying around. I tighten the 3 ratchet straps first then put my weight on the cam lock strap and get all of them really tight. The suspension on the quad doesn't move but the trailer does.

 

Greg, I am totally against not using some form of strap, and in many states, that would be illegal to not have it strapped down. I had a very close friend get killed by a guy hauling a lawn tractor/mower in the bed of a pickup without straps. He swerved to miss another vehicle and it popped out and hit my friend in the windshield coming the other way. She left behind two very young boys and a husband. No life insurance etc. Real sad deal that could have been prevented.

 

First thing you do when transporting an ATV is, once loaded, put on the parking brake, then make sure it's in gear, I'd it's a manual. If it's automatic, put it in reverse. I'd you have a winch or rope on the front, attach it to the front of trailer or truck, and put your straps on the axles. NEVER TRANSPORT AN ATV IN NEUTRAL. Also, if you can, find a motorcycle stand, that you put a motorcycle in while it's on a trailer, and put one, or, if you have two, both wells into the stands and you are to go

 

First thing you do when transporting an ATV is, once loaded, put on the parking brake, then make sure it's in gear, I'd it's a manual. If it's automatic, put it in reverse. I'd you have a winch or rope on the front, attach it to the front of trailer or truck, and put your straps on the axles. NEVER TRANSPORT AN ATV IN NEUTRAL. Also, if you can, find a motorcycle stand, that you put a motorcycle in while it's on a trailer, and put one, or, if you have two, both wells into the stands and you are to go

 

I think you misunderstood what i was saying. I was not saying don't use straps. I was saying that I like that 2nd line of defense in case the strap breaks, which would be the sides of the trailer and the rear gate. If you have a trailer which is flat and has no sides, if a strap breaks, your machine could easily slide off. There is nothing to catch it.

 

I put 2x6's on the front and sides of my snowmobile trailer to have a backup for if the straps fail. I put a 4x4 on the rear because the 2x6 got all torn up on the end using the tilt feature of the trailer loading quads. Had my quad and my son's quad side by side on the trailer and loaded my buddy's quad on sideways. Got about 10 miles or so and entered the on ramp for the highway home and saw his quad roll sideways until it hit the 2x6. It was just enough to stop it from going over. One strap had failed and the others fell off when it rolled and they became slack.

 

I disagree with a couple of things you said. Mine's an automatic and I always put it in park, not reverse. And you should never use a winch to tie down a quad. It's not built for a load that bounces up and down and could break the cable or the gears in the winch. Some winches owner's manuals specifically tell you not to use it to tie down the ATV.