Binder Chains and ratchet chain binders are heavy duty tie down equipment , both chains and binders are made of carbon steel, compare to tie down straps, the chains and binders have higher working load limit , say we compare grade 70 size 5/16? binder chain(which has 4700lbs WLL) to 2? tie downs(typical WLL 3333lbs) , 3/8? WLL 6600lbs binder chain vs. 4? WLL 5400lbs tie down straps , you can see that the chains are much stronger, and the load binders are even stronger than same size chains, 5/16?-3/8? load binder(lever or ratchet type) has WLL of 5400lbs and 3/8?-1/2? binder has WLL 9200lbs. Another reason chains and binders are considered heavy duty, is their design factor is 4:1 while webbing tie downs have 3:1 typical design factor, see ?Design Factor? for reference .
According to NACM recommendations, the carbon steel used in making grade 70 chains should meet following criteria: no more than 0.35% Carbon, 0.040% Phosphorous and 0.050% Sulfur . When the material meets NACM recommendation, the manufacturing process are under strict quality control, and the final products meet or exceed DOT requirements, you can put the chains and binders on your 18 wheeler and haul away .
These chains and binders are mostly used to haul big, heavy equipment, such as backhoe, bulldozer, these things are hard on straps, only carbon steel chains can sustain that kind of abuse , when we talk about backhoe, forklift, we need at least 3/8? grade 70 chains and binders to secure them, for something which has less weight we consider 5/16? chains are good fit, of course we still have 1/2? and up chains and binders, these chains will most likely be used to tie down something out of ordinary, such as battle tanks, or some other applications require super heavy duty chains.
Grade 70 transport chains can be used on anything but overhead lifting, you need at least grade 80 alloy chains for overhead lifting. We see people use transport chains to drag the trees, tow the docks, and to tie down the logs out of the the trees, you can go around to find more creative uses of these chains and binders.