Stop a Ratchet Strap's Loose Tail Flapping by Chaining It Into Itself

The Problem

Tie-down straps are made long so they'll reach anything. Once the ratchet is cinched on a dirt bike or a load of lumber, whatever length you didn't need is hanging off the buckle — often two or three feet of it.

At speed that tail beats against paint and plastic, and it works itself into the wheel, the chain, or under the ratchet mechanism. Tucking it under the strap doesn't hold. Tying a knot in it holds fine and then has to be picked apart with cold fingers at the other end of the trip.

The Technique

Chain the tail into itself. It's the same chain sinnet used to store rope, done one-handed on a loaded strap.

1. Start near the buckle. Make a bight in the webbing — a fold, not a knot — and hold it open.
2. Reach through that opening, grab the next section of the loose tail, and pull it through as a new loop. Don't pull it all the way; leave the loop standing.
3. Pull the tail below it snug so the loop closes down on itself.
4. Reach through the loop you just made and pull the next section through the same way.
5. Keep going down the tail — through, snug, through, snug. Each loop locks the one before it.
6. When you run out of webbing, feed the end through the last loop and pull it tight. That end is what stops the whole chain running back out.

You end up with a short, fat braid of webbing hanging off the buckle, six or eight inches long instead of three feet. It doesn't shake loose in wind because every loop is held closed by tension from the loop below it.