Grade 70 Binder Chain and load binders are tough truck tie downs , both chains and binders are made of carbon steel, the WLL of the chains and binders are higher than most comparable tie down straps , let’s look at 5/16” transport chain(WLL 4700lbs) vs. WLL 3333lbs 2” ratchet tie down straps , 3/8” WLL 6600lbs binder chain vs. 4” WLL 5400lbs tie down straps , you will see that compare to tie down straps, binder chains are much stronger, and chain binders are even stronger than same size chains, for instance, 5/16”-3/8” binder has WLL 5400lbs which is stronger than 4700lbs WLL of 5/16” grade 70 chain . If we examine the design factor of chains and tie down straps, we will see that chains and binders have 4:1 design factor while tie down straps have design factor 3:1, that’s another reason we consider chains and binders are heavy duty tie downs .
The National Association of Chain Manufacturer recommends that the steel which can be used to make grade 70 binder chains must have less than 0.35% Carbon, 0.040% Phosphorous and 0.050% Sulfur. When the material meets NACM recommendation, the manufacturing process are under strict quality control, and the final products meet or exceed DOT requirements, you can put the chains and binders on your 18 wheeler and haul away .
These chains and binders are mostly used to haul big, heavy equipment, such as backhoe, bulldozer, these things are hard on straps, only carbon steel chains can sustain that kind of abuse , when we talk about backhoe, forklift, we need at least 3/8” grade 70 chains and binders to secure them, for something which has less weight we consider 5/16” chains are good fit, of course we still have 1/2” and up chains and binders, these chains will most likely be used to tie down something out of ordinary, such as battle tanks, or some other applications require super heavy duty chains.
Grade 70 binder chains, a.k.a. transport chain, can be used for any purpose except overhead lifting. You can use these chains for tearing down trees, tow heavy objects, we some times use these chains to tow our mobile loading dock. We’ve seen forestry service companies use a lot of these chains in their work as well.
