Ratchet straps jam up for 4 common reasons. Here’s how to loosen them.
Once you know how to use one ratchet strap, you’ll find them to all be pretty much mechanically identical. You’ll also find vehicle uses that make securing and hauling large objects very easy and comfortable. Some folks find ratchet straps tricky and finicky. Indeed, there are a few reasons ratchet straps stick, which can be quite frustrating to deal with. Here are four of the most common ways ratchet straps jam and how to make them right again.
A ratchet strap can jam up because:
- It’s actually in a partially locked position
- You fed the strap through the pawl while it was twisted
- There’s too much webbing on the pawl
- The ratchet is rusty or has debris in it
Make sure to fully release the ratchet
Depending on the brand and quality, it can be hard just to squeeze the handle release. Also, if the handle is only partially open, the pawl will still be partially engaged. Be sure the handle is fully open. You can tell it’s completely unlocked because it’ll stay put in the open position.
Don’t twist the ratchet strap or overload the pawl
The pawl is the rotating cylinder the webbing strap feeds through. Properly position the “bitter end” of the strap and ensure what you’re feeding into the pawl is correctly angled to avoid twisting and knotting. You can do this by starting with one hand on the hook, facing it down, and then using both hands to feed down the excess webbing until your hands reach the end of the strap. Then, you can Insert the “bitter end” of the strap into the ratchet pawl.
It’s nearly impossible to lock a ratchet strap down with too much webbing on the pawl. Forcing it closed might jam the ratchet. What’s more, it can cause the strap to loosen once you start driving. To avoid this predicament, don’t start ratcheting until you’ve fed most of the loose webbing through the pawl. This limits the amount of webbing the pawl is forced to store in the locked position.
To loosen webbing that’s either all twisted up or too thick in the pawl, fully unlock the handle and then pull the ratchet assembly toward you. You might have to pull hard on the ratchet if it’s really jammed up.
Free seized ratchet components
Finally, you might encounter a ratchet strap that’s seen better days. Rust seizes the ratchet. Debris can clog the pawl or other moving parts. At the shop, the techs used a sprayable lubricant like WD-40 to free seized components or even some parts cleaner to dissolve debris.
