Wheel Chock Tie Downs for Car Transport
Among the many innovations that have marked the growth of the auto transport is an often overlooked group of items. The wheel chock tie downs for car transport have played an important role in the improvement of car transport especially for luxury and exotic vehicles.
Wheel chock tie downs for car transport may not seem like such an important item. In one sense, they changed the face of auto transport by freeing the vehicles from the often hazardous use of chains to secure vehicles in carries. The impact of this change has been most important in the area of luxury and exotic car transport. These two areas had a priority for security during transit and a method of tie down for these vehicles always presented a problem.
The idea of a classic car secured by chains and even bouncing back and forth on the back of a transport carrier filled customers with understandable dread. The advent of the enclosed carrier in the 1970’s was a major step forward to reassuring the customer that security was a priority, but the wheel chock tie down systems for car transport played a major role in bringing the industry to the high level of customer satisfaction it enjoys today.
The wheel chock systems were so important and innovative that several different models received United States Patents. For example, US Patent 5160223 was given to a Polymer wheel chock tie down system and US Patent 4836726 for awarded to a very similar system that also used a wheel chock and rail system for security of transported vehicles.
The wheel chock systems basically attached the vehicle from the wheels using the chocks, tie downs and a rail. The chocks could be attached to the rail by use of a pin. The rails were designed with multiple attachment points to accommodate various size vehicles. The high impact polymer chocks were designed to fit between the wheel and the rail and were able to distribute the weight equally over the chock to prevent stress and breakage. The result of the wheel chock tie downs was a secure vehicle that was basically attached from the bottom rather than tied down from the top.
When the wheel chock tie down systems were added to the enclosed vehicles, the exotic car transport companies began to win the confidence of their customers. Even the appearances of vehicles in carriers secured by wheel chock tie downs caused a stir on the highway as the vehicles appeared to be just sitting there unsecured. Despite this scary image, the systems were one of the little bits of history that revolutionized car transport.