SmartStraps Gunwale Tie-Down Strap with S-Hooks - 2" x 16' - 333 lbs

Video Transcript for SmartStraps Gunwale Tie-Down Strap Review

Randy: Hey guys, Randy 00:00:01, here at etrailer.com. Today, we're going to be taking a look at a gunwale strap. Now, typically, these are going to be used for securing your boat. A lot of times, it's a jon boat, a duck boat, something like that, down to your trailer. It helps to prevent side to side movement, but also helps to prevent that bouncing we sometimes get, when we get into the rougher roads, getting to a boat ramp or a launch. This one's going to be two inches wide, it's polyester webbing, and something I really like about this, we'll take a look at it in just a minute, but it has S hooks on it, so we can either connect it to the frame of our trailer, if we have some eye bolts there to connect it to, or we can connect it to itself and just make a constant loop.So, we're bringing everything together and holding it down really well.

It's going to use a really basic, but very reliable cam lock system here. You see, it's very easy to adjust the length that we need. Once we get it to the point we want it, just going to cam it over. It gives us a very positive engagement there. We've got a keeper here for the excess strap.

So I'll just go lay up on top of it like that.We can bring the hook and loop around it. That's 16 feet in total length. So, sometimes you'll have excess strap if you're just going to be hooking it on each side of your trailer. And there's plenty of length in that hook and loop to get as much of it contained as you need to. See, it's got really nice strap material, very tightly woven, almost like a seatbelt style material.

Using the strap, you can pull up and open that buckle up. You see it engages really well, a black powder coat finish on that. Diagram on how to thread it, if you loosen it up or take the strap out. And then we've got the yellow zinc finish here, and it's going to do a great job. It's nice and sturdy.

And we've been playing with it for quite a while here and we haven't had this slip at all, once it was engaged.The other part we'll take a look at are the hooks. So let's flip it around and look at those now. As you can see, the hooks are nice rubber coated hooks. And of course, they'll very easily connect together, if we need one continuous strap. Then we've got the keepers on them, so we don't have to worry about them falling apart. I really appreciate that. I hate chasing a strap back and forth. And then, you see they open up pretty wide for a nice throat on them, so we can get it around larger items. I'm connecting it to our frame here. Just kind of come over and around, pulls up very nicely on it. I don't generally like connecting straps like that. I think if you found the spot you wanted it, you could drill a hole and place an eye bolt in there, and just very easily be able to click it into that eye bolt and pull it down where you want it. And we went just to the trailer sides there, to kind of give you an example of how much room we've got in our hook and loop here.As you can see, even with six or seven foot of excess, there's still tons of room on that. So, you could probably wind the entire strap up and use that to keep it in place. And I think in certain situations, gunwale straps are really nice. They're very handy. They really helped to hold everything together. You could use a couple of them, if you we're trying to keep some duck blind material or stuff down in the boat. The one thing that you want to use some caution with is if you tighten these down on the edge, it can sometimes wear the paint. So, you want to be a little bit conscious of that and make sure that you get them nice and tight, so they're not flipping around and not really let them rub back and forth. That can cause that. As a kind of an option, if you didn't want to do gunwales straps, transom straps are made to connect, generally, to the handles on the back of the boat.And they're going to go down to the runner on the trailer. Those, are in essence, are kind of doing the same thing. The gunwale strap is important, especially though if you don't have the bunks on the side. It kind of helps to keep everything more centered. The transom straps will do the same thing, but I think if you don't have bunks on the side, I would do transom straps and a gunwale strap. But overall, as far as they go, they're much more fancy ones out there. There are some that are a little bit more basic than this, but it's a good solid gunwale strap and I think it's going to do a good job. It's easy to use and it certainly something I would own if I needed it..