Spardo:
Weren’t Span Sets the up and over tensioners rather than ratchets? Or am I thinking of something else? I had both at one time or another but the heavy duty ratchets were unbeatable.And you are right about sharp edges. A driver of ours scattered a full load of steel sheets all over Mansfield Road Redhill (Nottingham) and I couldn’t understand how it happened, until I went there to help with the clear up and saw the sliced straps and not a sleeve in sight. We kept him on, duly chastised, because I knew if he was sacked the next bloke might do the same thing, but he never would. And didn’t. He, and we, were very lucky not to face charges for that though.
I used to work for a heavy engineering company, most loads were strapped because of weight etc, I used to find some old cardboard boxes which can be found in pretty much any environment a lorry goes to, fold them over to make corners, with those and sleeves never had a problem, my straps lasted me for years.