Why Tie-Downs Never Lift: The Line Between Securement and Rigging

Comic split panel of a strap correctly holding a crate down versus a crossed-out hanging crate

It comes up on shop floors everywhere: the forklift is busy, the load has to go up, and somebody eyes the ratchet straps in the corner — "they're rated for more than this weighs." The strap might even survive the lift. The rule exists because "might" is not a rigging standard.

Different failure, different stakes

Securement and lifting are engineered around different disasters. If a tie-down fails, cargo shifts on a deck — bad, sometimes very bad, usually survivable. If a lifting connection fails, the load falls from height, often with people under or beside it. That is why the two worlds run different design factors: web tie-downs are built to a 3:1 margin over break strength, while lifting slings are built to 5:1 — and every fitting in a lifting path (hooks, links, shackles) has to carry a lifting rating of its own. Same webbing, very different promises.

The gear is telling you its job

  • Ratings language: tie-downs carry a Working Load Limit for securement; slings carry rated capacities per hitch — vertical, choker, basket — because lifting geometry changes the load (the angle guide shows how fast).
  • Hardware: a ratchet is a tensioning device, not a lifting point — its pawls and mandrel were never designed to hang a load. Sling eyes, master links, and sling hooks with latches are.
  • Inspection standards: lifting gear lives under stricter inspection and retirement rules, because its failures are not survivable ones.
  • Chain says it plainly: Grade 70 transport chain is prohibited from overhead lifting; only alloy G80/G100 lifts — the whole story in the grade guide.

The gray areas, un-grayed

Dragging or skidding a load? That is a pull, not a lift — securement and recovery gear territory (the three-worlds guide sorts it). Lifting with the forks, strap just steadying? If the strap ever carries the load's weight over someone's boots, it is lifting. "It is only a foot off the ground"? Height changes the consequence, not the classification — a load suspended is a load lifted. The clean test: if gravity is held back by the gear alone, that gear needs a lifting rating.

The right tool costs less than the story

The fix for "we only had straps" is owning a sling: our custom sling builder sews Type III, IV, and V web slings (the types guide picks between them) to your length and capacity, with Wear Shield eye protection standard. Keep the tie-downs for the trailer — that is where they are unbeatable.

Always rig within the rated Working Load Limit. Inspect straps and chain before each use and remove them from service if cut, gouged, excessively worn, corroded, or deformed.

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