Watch: How to Tie a Trucker’s Hitch Knot

Here’s a fast and easy lesson in knots to help you secure a load securely but easily. It includes a “trucker’s hitch” knot, which can be used with a rope to tighten up a rope to secure your load to truck or trailer. And the best thing about this video is that it gets right down to business without a bunch of patter and yakking.

My usual method is to begin with a bowline at the rope’s end, which isn’t bad and has worked fine for decades — but his starting knot (which he calls a “G.E.”) certainly comes loose more easily than my bowline.

The trucker’s hitch places a loop in the rope on the other side of the load, which can be used to really tighten up your rope to hold down the load. It’s pretty dang easy to tie, as it mainly involves a loop and a few twists.

When you get to where you’re going, the knots come loose even more easily than they went in. Nice!

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.