Rigging & Lifting · 8 min read

Sling Hitch Types: Vertical, Choker and Basket

By SteelToeTools Editorial Team — Editorial team of SteelToeTools.com (published by LSEA SAS) Updated August 28, 2026

One sling has three capacities, not one. Tie it as a vertical hitch and it carries the number on the tag; choke it around the load and it carries about three-quarters of that; run it under the load as a basket and it can carry double — but only if the legs are near vertical and the load is round enough. Picking the hitch is picking the rating, and the tag lists all of them.

The three hitches, as OSHA defines them

The definitions are not folklore, they are in the standard. 29 CFR 1910.184(b) says a vertical hitch is "a method of supporting a load by a single, vertical part or leg of the sling"; a choker hitch is "a sling configuration with one end of the sling passing under the load and through an end attachment, handle or eye on the other end"; a basket hitch is "a sling configuration whereby the sling is passed under the load and has both ends, end attachments, eyes or handles on the hook or a single master link."

The three basic hitches, how the sling carries the load, and what governs the rating
Hitch	Parts carrying the load	Relative rating	The condition attached to it
Vertical	One	The baseline on the tag	The leg has to be vertical. Off vertical it is no longer a vertical hitch.
Choker	One, turned through its own eye	Below vertical — roughly three-quarters in OSHA's tables	The angle of choke has to be 120° or more, or the rating drops again.
Basket	Two	Up to twice vertical	Legs within 5° of vertical and a big enough bend diameter under the load.

The relative column is a shape, not a number to rig by. What you rig by is the marking on the sling: OSHA requires it to state the rated load "for the types of hitches, and the angle upon which they are based," and 1910.184(c)(14) forbids using a sling without affixed and legible identification markings at all.

Vertical hitch: the baseline, and it is fragile

A vertical hitch is one leg, straight up, eye on the hook and eye on the load. It is the number every other rating is built from, and it is the simplest thing on this page — which is exactly why it gets abused.

Two things break it. The first is rotation: a single leg gives the load nothing to resist spinning, so anything that is not balanced under the eye will turn, and a turning load can unscrew a shackle pin or unlay a rope. The second is the angle. The moment the leg is pulled off vertical it stops being a vertical hitch — OSHA's Fig. N-184-5, "Sling Configurations with Angled Legs," prints NOT APPLICABLE in the vertical hitch column, because a leg on an angle is a bridle leg and its tension follows the sling angle, not the weight of the load.

Fig. N-184-4 allows a little slack in the definition: "angles 5° or less from the vertical may be considered vertical angles." Past 5°, the note continues, "the actual angle as shown in Figure N-184-5 must be considered."

Choker hitch: it grips, and it pays for the grip

A choker passes under the load and back through its own eye, so the sling tightens as it lifts. That grip is the point — it is what keeps a bundle of pipe from rolling out — and it is also the reason the rating is lower than a vertical hitch on the same sling.

OSHA's own figure explains why in a single sentence. In the legend of Fig. N-184-4, the symbol placed at the choker contact point "represents a load in a choker hitch and illustrates the rotary force on the load and/or the slippage of the rope in contact with the load," and the note adds that the diameter of curvature of the load surface "shall be at least double the diameter of the rope." The sling is turning hard, sliding on the load, and being crushed against it, all while carrying the weight.

The 120-degree rule almost nobody reads

Here is the part that catches experienced riggers. The choker column in OSHA's rated-load tables is not valid at any choke: it holds only "provided that the angle of the choke is 120 degrees or more." Pull the choke tighter than that — which happens as soon as you cinch a sling hard around a narrow load — and the rating falls again, on top of the reduction the choker already carries.

Percent of the choker rated capacity by angle of choke — OSHA Guidance on Safe Sling Use, Fig. 2
Angle of choke	Percent of the choker rating
Over 120°	100%
90–120°	87%
60–89°	74%
30–59°	62%
0–29°	49%

Note what that means at the bottom of the table: a hard choke can cost you half the choker rating, which was already below the vertical rating you probably read off the tag. And keep your hands out of it — 1910.184(c)(10) and 1926.251(c)(10) both prohibit placing hands or fingers between the sling and the load while the sling is being tightened around it.

Basket hitch: double, with two strings attached

Run the sling under the load and put both eyes on the hook and you have two parts of the sling carrying the weight instead of one. That is why the vertical basket column in OSHA's published wire rope tables is twice the vertical column. It is the cheapest capacity on the jobsite — and it is conditional.

Condition one: the legs have to be near vertical. A basket over a wide load spreads the legs, and a spread leg carries more than half the load, not half. That is the whole subject of the sling tension calculator and of OSHA's Fig. N-184-5, which is drawn for exactly this case: the only hitch shown with angled legs is the basket hitch, with the horizontal angle marked on the drawing. OSHA's guidance also sets a floor for that angle: "do not use horizontal angles less than 30 degrees except as recommended by the sling manufacturer or a qualified person."

Condition two: the load has to be round enough. In a basket the sling body itself bends under the load, and that is the contact surface Fig. N-184-4 marks with its strictest symbol: a diameter of curvature "at least 8 times the diameter of the rope." The published rated loads assume much more than the minimum — the general notes on OSHA's wire rope tables read "rated loads based on minimum D/d ratio of 25/1." Basket a half-inch rope over a 3-inch pipe and you are at 6 to 1: below the regulatory floor, and a long way below the ratio the number on the tag was calculated from. The D/d ratio calculator does that division and tells you which side of both lines you are on.

One more line from the standard that belongs here: 1910.184(c)(5) and 1926.251(c)(8) require that "slings used in a basket hitch shall have the loads balanced to prevent slippage." A basket holds by friction and geometry, not by grip. An unbalanced basket does not slowly lean — it dumps.

Bridles: two, three and four legs

A bridle is not a fourth hitch, it is several legs on one hook, and each leg is rigged as a vertical or a choker. What changes is the sharing. Two matched legs on a symmetric load under the hook split the weight; three and four legs usually do not, because the shortest leg takes the load first and there is no mechanism forcing the others to catch up.

Standard rigging practice, and the default on this site's tension calculator, is to design a three- or four-leg bridle on two legs carrying the load unless the load is rigid and the leg lengths are genuinely matched. OSHA's guidance pushes in the same direction: "for multiple-leg slings used with nonsymmetrical loads, ensure that an analysis by a qualified person is performed to prevent overloading of any leg," and "when using a multiple-leg sling, ensure that the rating shown for the single-leg sling is not exceeded in any leg."

What OSHA requires, whichever hitch you tie

Inspect it first. Rigging equipment is inspected prior to use on each shift and as necessary during use, and defective equipment comes out of service — 1926.251(a)(1); 1910.184(d) puts the daily inspection on a competent person designated by the employer.
Read the marking for the hitch you are using. 1926.251(a)(2)(i) requires permanently affixed, legible markings stating the recommended safe working load; (a)(2)(ii) forbids exceeding it; (a)(2)(iii) forbids using the sling without them.
Protect the sling from edges. "Slings shall be padded or protected from the sharp edges of their loads" — 1926.251(c)(9), 1910.184(c)(7). This is not the same problem as bend diameter, and padding does not fix a tight bend.
No knots, no kinks, no makeshift shortening. 1910.184(c)(2) and (c)(3): slings are not shortened with knots or bolts, and legs are not kinked.
No shock loading. 1910.184(c)(11) and 1926.251(c)(11) prohibit it outright. Snatching a load multiplies the tension in a way no hitch rating covers.
Never pull a sling from under a resting load. 1910.184(c)(12), 1926.251(c)(12) — the classic way a basket sling is destroyed after a successful lift.

Four ways the hitch gets the blame

Reading the vertical number and tying a choke. The tag carries several ratings. Using the largest one is the single most common overload on a jobsite, and nothing about the lift looks wrong until it fails.

Counting on double from a spread basket. Two legs at 30° from horizontal each carry the entire weight of the load. The basket gave you two parts; the angle took them back.

Choking a small-diameter load hard. A tight choke is two reductions stacked: the choker rating, then the angle-of-choke percentage, and on a narrow load a bend diameter under the 2× minimum on top.

Using a double-wrap choke as if it were a plain choke. A double wrap changes how the sling grips and how it bends. If the rating for it is not on the tag, the number comes from the sling manufacturer, not from arithmetic.

Bottom line

Three hitches, three ratings on the same sling, all defined in 1910.184(b).
Vertical is the baseline and stops being vertical past 5° off plumb.
Choker is lower, and lower again below a 120° angle of choke — down to 49% of the choker rating under 30°.
Basket can be double, if the legs are near vertical and the bend diameter under the load is big enough.
Three- and four-leg bridles are designed on two legs unless the load is rigid and the legs are matched.
Weigh the load, read the right line on the tag, and check the geometry before the pick, not after.

Frequently asked questions

Vertical, choker and basket. OSHA defines them in 29 CFR 1910.184(b): a vertical hitch supports the load on a single vertical part or leg of the sling; a choker hitch passes one end of the sling under the load and through the eye or handle on the other end; a basket hitch passes the sling under the load with both ends on the hook or a single master link.

The basket hitch, because two parts of the sling carry the load instead of one. In OSHA's published wire rope sling tables the vertical basket column is twice the vertical column, and the choker column is roughly three-quarters of it. Read the actual numbers off the tag on your sling: the ratio changes with the splice and the construction.

Because the sling is not just supporting the load, it is turning sharply through its own eye and gripping the load. OSHA's Fig. N-184-4 marks the choker contact point with a symbol whose own legend describes the rotary force on the load and the slippage of the rope against it. A tight turn plus a grip is harder on the sling than a straight pull.

The angle the sling body makes where it doubles back through the eye. OSHA's rated loads for a choker hitch hold only where that angle is 120 degrees or more. Below it, the guidance gives the remaining percentage of the choker rating: 87% between 90 and 120 degrees, 74% between 60 and 89 degrees, 62% between 30 and 59 degrees, and 49% below 30 degrees.

No — it is worth double only when two conditions hold. The legs must be within 5 degrees of vertical, because past that the leg angle multiplies the tension in each leg. And the diameter the sling bends around under the load must be big enough: Fig. N-184-4 requires at least 8 times the rope diameter there, and the published rated loads assume far more than that.

Not as a vertical hitch. OSHA's Fig. N-184-5, Sling Configurations with Angled Legs, marks both the vertical hitch and the choker hitch NOT APPLICABLE and shows only basket hitches. A single leg pulled off vertical is a bridle leg, and its tension follows the sling angle, not the weight of the load.

No, but you do need to read the right line on the tag. OSHA requires the marking to state the rated load for the types of hitches and the angle those loads are based on. One sling carries several ratings; using the vertical number for a choke is one of the most common ways a sling ends up overloaded.

1910.184 requires a metal mesh sling to be marked with its rated capacity for vertical basket hitch and choker hitch loadings — the two hitches the fabric is designed for. It is not marked for a single vertical part, and a sling may not be used at all without affixed, legible identification markings.

Sources & references

Content checked against these sources — last reviewed August 28, 2026.

SteelToeTools Editorial Team

Editorial team of SteelToeTools.com (published by LSEA SAS)

Tools and guides researched against primary sources (OSHA, NIOSH, ACI, ASME, NFPA) and reviewed before publication.

Informational content, not legal, engineering or safety advice. Verify requirements with the standards cited and a qualified professional. See our editorial policy.