6 Best Trailer D Rings For Securing Loads Of Firewood Old-Timers Trust
Secure heavy firewood with the 6 best D-rings trusted by old-timers. Our guide covers the most durable options for a safe and stable trailer load.
There’s a specific kind of dread that hits you when you glance in your rearview mirror and see a stack of firewood shifting on the trailer. One good bump, one sharp turn, and you could be leaving a trail of valuable oak splits all over the county road. The difference between a safe, secure haul and a roadside disaster often comes down to the anchor points you trust—your D-rings.
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Why Solid D-Rings Matter for Hauling Firewood
A load of firewood isn’t like a neat stack of lumber. It’s a jumble of uneven, heavy, and often slick pieces of wood that want to move in every direction. When you hit the brakes or take a corner, that entire mass of potential energy shifts, putting immense, sudden strain on your tie-down points.
Flimsy, sheet-metal anchor points or weak eye bolts just can’t handle that kind of shock load. They’ll bend, stretch, or shear off completely. A proper D-ring, made of forged steel, is designed to absorb that force and transfer it to the trailer’s frame. It’s the critical link between your ratchet strap and the steel of your trailer bed.
Think of it this way: your straps are only as strong as the points they’re hooked to. A 10,000-pound ratchet strap is useless if it’s hooked to an anchor that fails at 1,000 pounds. For firewood, you need anchor points with a Working Load Limit (WLL) that far exceeds what you think you need, because the forces in play during a sudden stop are far greater than the static weight of the wood.
Buyers Products Weld-On Forged Steel D-Ring
When you want an anchor point to be a permanent, immovable part of your trailer, you weld it on. The Buyers Products forged steel D-ring is the classic, no-nonsense choice for this. There are no bolts to check and no plates to worry about; it becomes one with the trailer frame.
This is the old-timer’s choice for a dedicated firewood or farm trailer. You find the strongest points on your trailer’s frame or stake pockets, clean the metal down to bare steel, and lay a solid bead. The result is an anchor with incredible shear strength that you’ll never have to think about again. Its simple, robust design has no moving parts to fail, other than the ring itself.
The obvious tradeoff is that you need a welder and the skill to use it properly. A poor weld is worse than a good bolt, so this isn’t a job to learn on. But if you have the equipment, this is the strongest and most reliable way to anchor a load. It’s for the person who has set up their trailer for one primary job: hauling heavy stuff without fail.
DC Cargo Mall Heavy-Duty Bolt-On V-Ring Anchor
Not everyone has a welder sitting in the barn, and that’s where high-quality bolt-on options come in. The DC Cargo Mall V-Ring is a beast of a bolt-on anchor that provides serious holding power without needing to fire up an arc. These are not the flimsy little rings you find at the hardware store; they are thick, forged steel rings on a heavy-duty mounting bracket.
The key to making a bolt-on anchor work is the installation. You must use high-strength hardware, preferably Grade 8 bolts, with locking nuts and large, thick washers or, even better, a steel backing plate on the underside. This distributes the pulling force over a wider area of the trailer floor or frame, preventing the bolts from pulling through under a heavy shock load.
These V-Rings offer a great balance of strength and versatility. You can install them exactly where you need them with just a drill and a wrench. They are an excellent choice for trailers that serve multiple purposes, or for anyone who wants top-tier strength without the permanence or skill requirement of welding.
Pit Posse Recessed Pan Fitting for Flush Mounts
Sometimes, the best anchor point is the one that disappears when you don’t need it. That’s the whole idea behind a recessed pan fitting. This D-ring sits inside a steel "pan" that you mount flush with the trailer deck. When not in use, the D-ring lays flat, leaving you with a smooth surface for sliding pallets, loading a mower, or sweeping out debris.
This design is ideal for wooden-decked utility trailers that haul more than just firewood. The installation is more involved, as it requires you to cut a precise hole in the trailer floor. Like any bolt-on, its strength is entirely dependent on how it’s mounted. You absolutely need to use a steel backing plate underneath the wood deck to keep it from ripping out under load.
While incredibly convenient, a recessed ring is generally not as strong as a surface-mounted weld-on or heavy-duty bolt-on anchor that’s tied directly to the steel frame. It’s a tradeoff: you sacrifice some ultimate strength for a huge gain in everyday usability. For standard half-cord loads of seasoned wood, a properly installed recessed ring is more than adequate.
CURT Swivel D-Ring for Angled Tie-Down Jobs
Firewood rarely stacks in a way that allows for a perfect 90-degree pull on your straps. You’re often pulling at an angle to cinch down an uneven part of the load. This is where a standard D-ring can bind, putting awkward side-load pressure on the ring, the bracket, and the strap hook.
The CURT Swivel D-Ring solves this problem elegantly. The D-ring itself is mounted on a swivel that allows it to rotate 360 degrees, so it always aligns perfectly with the direction of the pull. This ensures the force is applied evenly and directly, maximizing the strength of the anchor and reducing wear and tear on your straps.
This is a smart upgrade for any trailer, but especially for those with anchor points in less-than-ideal locations. It gives you far more flexibility in how you strap your load down. The installation is typically a single, heavy-duty bolt, which again requires a solid mounting point and proper hardware to be effective. It’s a problem-solver for tricky tie-down situations.
Erickson E-Track D-Ring for Versatile Systems
For the ultimate in modularity, nothing beats an E-Track system. Instead of a few fixed anchor points, you have long steel rails with dozens of potential connection spots. The Erickson E-Track D-Ring is a clip-in fitting that can be moved anywhere along the track in seconds.
This system is fantastic for a multi-purpose hobby farm trailer. One day you’re hauling firewood with D-rings clipped in every two feet. The next, you’re hauling hay bales using different E-Track rope tie-offs, or securing a piece of equipment with wheel chocks that lock into the same track. The versatility is unmatched.
The important thing to remember is that the strength of this system is in the track’s installation. The track itself must be secured to the trailer frame with dozens of screws or bolts. The individual D-ring fittings have a solid WLL, but they are only as strong as the track they are clipped into. This isn’t the choice for point-loading extremely heavy items, but for securing a distributed load like firewood, it’s a wonderfully flexible solution.
Big Red Forged Steel D-Ring for Heaviest Loads
There are times when you just want massive overkill for total peace of mind. Maybe you’re hauling a full cord of green, water-logged red oak, or using your trailer to skid large logs out of the woods. For those jobs, you need an anchor point that simply will not fail.
The Big Red style of weld-on forged D-rings are absolute monsters. With working load limits often exceeding 10,000 or 15,000 pounds, a single one of these rings is stronger than most of the straps you’ll attach to it. They are designed for industrial rigging and heavy equipment hauling, which makes them more than capable for any firewood task.
These are almost exclusively weld-on applications. Their sheer size and strength rating demand a permanent, professional-grade connection to the thickest parts of your trailer’s steel frame. For 95% of firewood hauling, this is more than you need. But for that other 5%—the heaviest, most demanding jobs—having this level of strength means you have one less thing to worry about.
Proper D-Ring Installation for Maximum Strength
A top-quality D-ring is worthless if it’s installed improperly. The anchor point is a system, and it’s only as strong as its weakest link—which is often the connection to the trailer itself. Getting this part right is not optional.
For bolt-on D-rings, the rules are simple but crucial. Always use a steel backing plate on the underside of the mounting surface, especially on wood or thinner sheet metal floors. This spreads the load and prevents the bolts from pulling through. Use Grade 8 bolts, nuts, and washers; the extra cost is negligible for the huge increase in shear strength. Never assume a simple washer is enough for a heavy load.
If you’re welding, surface preparation is everything. You must grind away all paint, rust, and mill scale to get to clean, bare metal on both the trailer and the D-ring bracket. A good weld achieves deep penetration, fusing the two pieces of metal together. A "cold" weld that just sits on the surface looks fine but will pop right off under the first real shock load. When in doubt, have a professional welder do it.
Choosing the right D-ring comes down to your trailer, your skills, and the kinds of loads you haul. Whether you choose the permanence of a weld-on anchor or the flexibility of a bolt-on system, the principle is the same: install it correctly and match its strength to the job. A little extra effort up front ensures your hard-cut firewood makes it from the woodlot to the woodshed, safely and securely, every single time.
