Thread: Snatch strap & Inertia switch

Originally Posted by DeeJay

Last weekend I snatched a heavily bogged Disco on a club outing at Narbethong. Took about 4 snatches, each getting more willing than the previous one before it started to move & maybe another 5 or 6 to get it out. About a minute later, after skirting the boghole, my TD5 Defender started to run erratically and I just managed to get off the track when it died. I mean dead, no gauges, nothing. I have 2 batteries, one is brand new, the other maybe 2 years old.
As usually happens many "hands on" to help & someone else pushed the reset button without making a difference ( they said it never moved) and as things were a bit confused it is hard to say when full power was back on. I had done about 8 minutes winching about 20 minutes before this happened.
My question is, has this happened to anyone else? I'm thinking a dodgy inertia switch, but wondering if inertia switches have been known to trigger. I was reversing to snatch it out.

Hey dave Im guessing its possible as ive had one trigger by hitting a decent bump at speed on a dirt road in a D1

They can trigger when off road (or even 'on road') but they're either on or they're off - there's no halfway point where it would make the car run rough.

they have a halfway point...

if the hazards come on but the engine keeps running thats the half way point. They're not ment to do it but some do.

If you manage to trigger the inertia switch while conducting a snatch recovery, stop you're doing it wrong or your snatch strap is fully stretched out and is now an extension strap.

If you're being recovered and it happens, ask the yob in the yota to kindly unhook and go somewhere else, you'd rather dig.

10 or 11 clean & jerks!!

It was just tired

Originally Posted by Stevie

10 or 11 clean & jerks!!

It was just tired

Well a fully tricked up Disco with 35" tyres in a bottomless mire takes a bit of work.. One bonus is I then found about 11 metres of synthetic rope - which I think was buried there. Washed it, spliced eyelets & now have a 10m extension strap

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

they have a halfway point...

if the hazards come on but the engine keeps running thats the half way point. They're not ment to do it but some do.

Are they meant to kill the Td5? I've been on trips where the inertia switch has triggered on a Td5 Defender & all it appears to do is trigger the hazards (and I assume unlock the doors if they were locked).
I know petrol cars have the pump disabled when it's triggered but I thought diesels didn't.

It's ment to unlock the doors, disable the engine by turning off the fuel pump and ECU and initiate the hazards.

I always figured that the ECU had some time of fractional timer on it and if you hit the switch hard enough to momentarily trigger it but not trip it completely then just the hazards come on.


I just put it down to a landrover thing.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

It's ment to unlock the doors, disable the engine by turning off the fuel pump and ECU and initiate the hazards.

I always figured that the ECU had some time of fractional timer on it and if you hit the switch hard enough to momentarily trigger it but not trip it completely then just the hazards come on.


I just put it down to a landrover thing.

I think it was a land Rover thing !! Everything went dead, no hazards, no unlocking ( pretty difficult for a pre central locking model) and a multimeter showed 6.5 volts on the second battery - maybe the terminal was dodgy..