Thread: Snatch strap misuse danger

that would work, but you dont need to use a tree trunk protector....

The idea is to arrest the inertia... once more into the relm of telstra rope....

btw going bush's video covers the strap use very well in all aspects. The only thing it doesnt cover is a multi attempt recovery but it does touch into the planning of it.

I setup my safeties as lengths of rope. attach the rope to the safety point (not the same structure as the primary hook up) tie an eye in the end and loop it around the eye of the strap and make the rope about 2-5m long (approximate stretch rate of the strap+50%, bunch it up neatly and wrap it with electrical tape or zipties.

When the recovery point breaks off it will launch, then the rope will pull it up slowing it down before the rope itself snaps you now have a much lower velocity or it will be arrested.

If you anchor it with a strong enough strap when it hits the end of the strap if old mate doing the yanking is still hard at it you will be in the same boat all over again.

I hope that safety strap is mounted to some decent points on the chassis though, it could become a projectile, i wonder if it would be better to just have a decent dampener on the snatch strap. Sometimes, not always the simpler set up can be safer in basic operation IMO. Mind you if the safety (tree protector) strap was attached to some decent points and had a suitable shock load breaking strength it would be superior. I can just imagine it becoming like the flying towball you hear of if something goes horribly wrong.
Food for thought
Cheers
Will

EDIT: As Dave said above "if old mate doing the yanking is still hard at it you will be in the same boat all over again" this is the situation i am talking about, is 2-5m really enough to stop the tow vehicle in a hard recovery where equipment failure occurs.

in the setup I use its not ment to stop the vehicle doing the recovery, its designed to stop whats being launched.

lets say the shackle rips out of the tow mount (or one of those 2 bolts through the chassis recovery points rips out of the chassis) it takes of at warp factor "thats gunna hurt if it connects" because its a 1 pound item with 12000 pounds of force being applied to it from the stretch of the strap.

the strap runs out of stretch and begins to drop the shackle is happily zipping along at 3x escape velocity and all of a sudden the rope goes taught, the shackle spends a bucket load of energy snapping the rope and now moving at sub orbital velocities begins to succumb to gravity, drag from the strap and the atmosphere.

Old mate is still hauling on the strap but the projectile is now on the deck.

Version 2....

the strap runs out of stretch and begins to drop the shackle is happily zipping along at 3x escape velocity and all of a sudden the rope goes taught, the shackle spends a bucket load of energy trying to snap the rope but doesnt now stationary it falls to the ground. Old mate is still hauling on the strap but the projectile is now on the deck the snatch strap takes tension again but as its only being held back by a rope rated to 200kg when the shackle takes off again as the rope breaks by the time the projectile is a third of the way to the back of his vehicle the weight of the strap is pulling it down so the thunks into the middle of his spare wheel cracking the plastich casing but little else.

What you say makes a lot of sense Dave, i think thats the best option, have something to kill the inertia of the snatch strap and as a weak point in the system to drop it to the ground when everything goes belly up (hopefully not literally in recovery), i prefer that over Franks method from a safety point of view as it removes a lot of the complications when the strong tree strap goes taught on a chassis point that is probably not in the middle and not the strongest.

Not having used a snatch-strap, I'd decided that IF I had to, I'd take one or more of those $10 (Bunnings) woven poly ropes, wrap it loosely around the snatch-strap for a few metres, with the end loose-looped and tied to the towed car somewhere safe(er)

Do the same with the towing end.

The idea being that if/when the towing point or shackle breaks and launches into Low Earth Orbit, that it would entangle itself in the rope loops and be arrested.
The other end of the looped rope is tied around the snatch-strap etc.

Naturally this all goes pear-shaped if the tractor driver is not aquainted with Rear-View mirrors.

And yes, its been a worth-while thread for me. Thanks to all.

Originally Posted by MR LR jnr.

What you say makes a lot of sense Dave, i think thats the best option, have something to kill the inertia of the snatch strap and as a weak point in the system to drop it to the ground when everything goes belly up (hopefully not literally in recovery), i prefer that over Franks method from a safety point of view as it removes a lot of the complications when the strong tree strap goes taught on a chassis point that is probably not in the middle and not the strongest.

the other side of that is the thick heavy protector takes a double whap...

first arresting the inertia of what ever got launched then again when the recovering vehicle hits the end of the strap again and restarts the process that can take out the point its tied to or the backup.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

the other side of that is the thick heavy protector takes a double whap...

first arresting the inertia of what ever got launched then again when the recovering vehicle hits the end of the strap again and restarts the process that can take out the point its tied to or the backup.

I may be confused, but i think thats what i was trying to say, just may have read differently

Originally Posted by Disco Muppet

Okay folks, prepare for some truly appalling drawing!
Frank, this is how i've interpreted your safety feature, please correct me if i'm wrong.
Way i see it, the tree trunk protector or similar is secured to the chassis, having been threaded through the eye of the snatch strap.
Thus, if the shackle or tow point fails, the tree trunk protecter stops the snatch strap/ broken shackle from slinging off through someones window.
Something like this?
Because i must say, that's a bloody clever idea.
Apologies for the awful drawing folks, not a lot of paint type programs on mac
Cheers
Muppet

Right principle but only one end is attached to the towed vehicles chassis the other end to the bits that might go flying through the air, the tree protecter sling is not meant to take the place of the tow point, just as a restraint if the worst happens, regards Frank.