Truss Screws Instead of Hurricane Ties: Faster Uplift Connections

The Problem

Hurricane ties do their job, but installing them is slow: a stamped connector at every truss, each one held in place and nailed off with a fistful of joist-hanger nails, usually overhead. Multiply by every truss on the roof and the uplift connections become a day of fiddly nailing.

The Technique

Structural truss screws replace the tie entirely.

1. The screws (Simpson Strong-Tie's truss/plate connector screw is the one shown) come boxed with an installation guide — a jig that holds the screw at the engineered angle — and the driver bit.
2. Set the guide on the wall plate at the truss, seat the long screw in it, and drive. The screw runs at an angle through the plate and up into the truss bottom chord, making the uplift connection in one shot.
3. Move to the next truss. No connector to hold, no nail schedule to fill — a carpenter who switched reports years of use without going back, with each screw installing much faster than any tie.

The ratings are the point: these screws are engineered and load-rated to meet or exceed the uplift specs of a traditional hurricane tie, not a shortcut around them.