Neal McPhillips said racers can prevent a car rolling off a liftgate with a simple solution: a liftgate safety strap. McPhillips, of Hooker Harness, sells one for just $95. It’s a small price to pay to prevent wrecking a car — or worse seriously injuring people.
Why do cars roll off liftgates? Neal McPhillips cited a few reasons, but most come down to human error. Sometimes someone forgets to use a wheel chock. Sometimes the two pins that secure the chocks to the liftgate aren’t full seated, allowing the car to knock the chocks loose. And sometimes when a team uses loading tires, they don’t line up with the chocks positioned on the liftgate.
“A safety strap is one of the easiest ways to help secure your car on a liftgate,” said McPhillips. “Most trailers already have D-rings installed on the liftgate, so you simply attach [the strap] to one of the D-rings on the trailer side of the liftgate. One end of the strap hooks into the D-ring, and then the strap goes under the car and the other end connects to the rear bumper. The strap is adjusted in length to stop the car right before it hits the wheel chocks. A lockout bar is provided to set the length permanently after it has been set. Because it is adjustable, it will work on any brand liftgate and any type of car.”
Hooker Harness constructs its liftgate safety strap from 2-inch webbing and it measures 20 feet in length. It is rated for a 3,500-pound working load.
“We first made the strap as a one-off,” McPhillips said. “For some reason, more people seem to be rolling cars off of the liftgate. As more people are hearing about the strap, they are ordering one. It only takes a second to attach and detach, and costs far less than a bumper or any other damage or injury that could occur from a falling race car. You want to be safe? Put a strap on it.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
