Hercules Heavy Duty Ratchet Straps Review

What’s in the box

Two complete tie-downs in a box. Each one comes in two parts: a ratchet with a short strap and a hook, and a long orange strap with a hook on the end. The long strap feeds through the ratchet, which is what lets you set the length. Hercules is the recovery gear brand of Adventure Kings.

Quick Specs

The ratchet

The ratchet is the part you handle, and this one is easy on the hands. The handle has a thick rubber grip with the Hercules name on it, which is a lot more comfortable to crank than bare pressed steel. A yellow lever inside the handle releases it.

A ratchet gives you measured tension: each crank takes up a little more slack, so you can stop when the load is firm without crushing it. Once the handle is closed, the mechanism locks, so the strap can’t release by accident on a rough road.

Webbing and hooks

The webbing is orange polyester, which is easy to spot on a dark load or in the bottom of a drawer. A blue tag sewn onto each strap gives the rating: a lashing capacity of 450 kg. The same tag says the straps must not be used for lifting. They hold things down; they don’t hoist or tow them.

The hooks are steel S-hooks with a black coating. The coating is there to protect what you hook onto: it’s kinder to the paint on a roof rack than bare steel.

In use

We used these in the days before the rooftop tent, when we had a roof basket on the car and needed to secure the items in it. Here’s one doing that job: holding a bag down in the basket, with the hooks on the bars and the ratchet on top. They hold really well: once the ratchet is closed, nothing moves.

Three metres is enough for a job like that. It’s short for anything wide or bulky, though. Going over a big load and down to both sides of a ute tray or a trailer can use up 3 m quickly, so measure before you rely on them for that. On a small load you have the opposite problem: there’s strap left over, and the loose end needs tying off so it doesn’t flap in the wind.

Size and weight

One complete strap weighs 679 g on our scale, so the pair comes to almost 1.4 kg. That’s the downside: they’re heavy, and with two steel ratchets and four hooks they’re not easy to store when you don’t have much space.

Conclusion: Hercules Heavy Duty Ratchet Straps

The Hercules Heavy Duty Ratchet Straps are a two-pack of 3 m tie-downs with a 450 kg lashing capacity, a comfortable rubber grip on the ratchet and coated steel hooks. The ratchet gives measured tension and locks against accidental release. They hold really well. They’re heavy and not easy to store when you’re short on space, 3 m is short for wide loads, and they’re not for lifting or towing. For about $30 the pair, they’re a solid choice for anyone who carries gear in a roof basket, on a rack or in a tray.