Awright, a few things…
First off, while you can have the strongest straps in the world on there, the question then becomes just how well are those racks fastened in??
What do ya do? Hop up into the back of the truck and do your damndest to pull the racks loose. Pull, tug, kick, etc. Put it this way, if you can get anything to loosen up or break by pulling on it or beating on it, etc, then it’s gonna happen in use and you’re gonna have racks, likely with boards still connected, flying up, up and awaaaay into traffic. Not only will they get thrashed, you’re likely to kill somebody. Let’s say you have a board on each side - well, it’s not straight and it’s not perfectly in line witht he airflow. There’s gonna be a lot of pressure on the thing. The pressures, pulls, etc, at 30 MPH are quadrupled at 60 MPH. Take it up to 90 MPH, not unusual for saome of the biggest interstates, and you have 8, that’s eight, times the pressure, pull, etc on that rack. I’d like to have a closer look at how those fasten into the truck bed.
Here’s another one - hook that ratchet strap ( link to the pic) up between the forward and back horizontal members and take up on it, hard. Things starting to creak a little? How strong are those racks? You got four boards on there, figure it as a minimum of around $1000 US replacement cost, let’s be real careful with 'em.
Straps - I’m not crazy about ratchet straps like the one in the pic. Why? 'Cos of two things, they can crush boards if the ratchet isn’t sitting on the board just right : it’s gonna push those metal edges right into the glass - ding city. Or if they are maxed out, pulling as hard as they can, they can crush things. I use straps like that, yes, but only for tying down stuff on trailers, say machinery
Here’s what you want, or at least a show-and-tell model of it:
Here’s another pic, with the strap run through
Note the heavy strap, serious cam-locking buckle ( in black, always in fashion) and the pad ( in this case I used a piece of Sunbrella acrylic canvas) that keeps the buckle from scratching or damaging the board or whatever is underneath. I should note that it took longer to scan the thing than it did to make it. The strap wants to be nearly 1/8" by 1" wide, the buckle shouldn’t feel flimsy. There should be what’s called a box-and-cross stitch pattern ( the one I made there is cheezy but strong enough ) .
Get four of them, one pair for each side, front and back. Do just like the other illustration in the other thread, and you’ll be fine.
hope that’s of use
doc…