Web Bridle Slings

How to read the stock number

A bridle’s stock number is three letters, a dash, and the sling its legs are made from. DOS-EE292 is a double-leg bridle, oblong master link on top, eye sling hooks on the bottom, built from 2 ply 2" eye & eye.

First letter — legs

S single, D double, Q quadruple.

Second letter — top fitting

O oblong master link, S eye sling hook. The master link is what goes in the crane hook.

Third letter — bottom fitting

Same two letters, for whatever lands on the load. SOO is a single leg with a master link at both ends; SSS has a sling hook at both ends.

After the dash — the leg

The eye & eye sling each leg is built from. EE191 is 1 ply 1", EE291 is 2 ply 1", EE292 is 2 ply 2". Its vertical rating is the single-leg capacity of the bridle.

Leg length is not in the stock number because every bridle is made to order. Give us the length you want each leg to measure, and say if the legs are not all the same.

Why the angle matters

Two legs do not carry twice one leg. They carry twice one leg multiplied by the sine of the angle the legs make with the horizontal, and that is where riggers get caught out. The further the legs lean out from vertical, the more of the load turns into tension pulling the legs toward each other, and the less of it goes into lifting.

60°

Legs fairly upright. About 87% of what the legs would carry hanging straight down — the most you will get out of a bridle in practice.

45°

About 71%. The common working compromise, and the angle most people picture when they imagine a bridle.

30°

Exactly half. Two legs at 30° carry no more than one leg hanging vertically, which surprises people every time.

Below 30° the numbers fall away fast and the standard stops: ASME B30.9 says a sling is not to be used at an angle of loading under 30° unless the sling manufacturer or a qualified person says otherwise. If the legs are that flat, the answer is longer legs or a spreader beam, not a bigger sling.

Angles here are measured from the horizontal — the angle between the leg and the top of the load. Some charts measure from the vertical instead, and the two are easy to confuse. Read the column header before you read the number.

Loading a four-leg bridle

A four-leg bridle is rated as though all four legs take an equal share. On a rigid load, they often do not. Unless the pick points are placed so the load is genuinely symmetrical, a rigid load will settle onto two diagonal legs and leave the other two along for the ride — and those two legs are then carrying a load rated for four.

ASME B30.9 covers this in two places worth knowing. No leg may ever be loaded beyond its own single-leg rating, whatever the bridle is rated as a whole. And where a multiple-leg sling is used on a load that is not symmetrical, the standard asks for an analysis by a qualified person to keep any one leg from being overloaded.

In practice a four-leg bridle is there for stability and a level lift, not for four legs’ worth of capacity. If you need the capacity, size the sling as though fewer legs are doing the work, or give us the load and the pick points and we will work it out with you.

When to take one out of service

ASME B30.9 asks for a visual inspection every shift before the sling is used, and a documented periodic inspection at intervals set by how hard the sling works. A bridle has more to check than a single sling — every leg, the master link and every hook. Any one of the following takes the whole assembly out of service until a qualified person says otherwise.

A damaged web sling is not a field repair. Only the sling manufacturer or a qualified person may repair one, and a load-bearing splice cannot be repaired at all. Criteria from ASME B30.9-2025, Chapter 9-5. We inspect and we train — see rigging inspection and rigging training.