Thread: Snatch strap misuse danger

If they continue that practice, hopefully it will be all chain, or chain & tree protector that doesn't stretch..

Originally Posted by goingbush

fair go mate. Obviously the remoteness precludes periodic visits from the work cover inspectors.

That was the fair go version..

tell you what extend the iterations of the event a couple of times and see how many "nahh she'll be right mates" it takes till you kill someone.

Its because too many people want to take the short easy way that the problem of overly anal retentive OH+S people has come about. Give a healthy dose of people who dont know what they're doing doing things that they see people who do know what they're doing doing and thats someone standing there on one foot at the precipice of the grave and leaning forwards ready to be one foot in the grave.

Lets say that young mate 16yoNTlplater learnt his tying the chain wrapped around the tyre with fencing wire trick from me because he'd seen me do it. Entirely plausible because I've done exactly that. What he missed is

a, The chain I was using had a hook on the end of it and the wire merely secured the hook preventing it from coming off the chain
b, while I was doing the same job with a dual cab Ute it had inch square arc mesh constructed into the head board behind the cab
c, I never went over 15kph while pulling the tyre and it was only ever used on the runs the cows used to get to milking shed the and in the immediate area of the gates at the paddocks.


whats the next iteration.?.

joe blogs 16yoNlplater young son is bogged on the beach and without the right gear decides that the way to make a recovery point for his mates bogged 4x4 is to loop a lump of chain around something and the snatch strap cinch it with fencing wire then yank on it cause thats how dad does it on the tyre on the farm.

I have seen 1. Fraser island. Guy with a brand new jeep wrangler bogged to the axles. Pulls out a "snatch strap" 1" to 1.5" wide, unopened and unrated in a no name packet, for a 1.8 tonne car. No idea how to use it. 2. Toolangi, guy with an 80 series. Snatch strap snapped so he knotted to halfs together 2 YEARS BEFORE!! And 3. Murrandinji, another 80 series. Guy winching his truck with a hand operated ratchet puller something thingy. Now with the exception of the wrangler, when I offered to help, using my recovery gear as what I saw was clearly unsafe I was told to eff off and mind my own business.. I think you can fall into 3 roughly broad groups. Those who have the good gear and bother to find out how to use it as having fun and getting home safe to talk over a beer about it is worth the effort. Those that can afford the good gear and just wait till they need it and hope someone will show them on the day and lastly the ones that don't give a rats backside and have crap. In my experience, and it's a general statement, look at the car. If its clearly unroadworthy ( and believe me there are lots of them) it means they dont give a toss if its unsafe on the road and will fall into to last group.

Nino

Originally Posted by steveG

Frank, I'd suggest that for the number of snatch straps that are in use, there are relatively few accidents. If we take the approach of banning everything that might cause an injury then we will pretty soon be in the situation where we legally can't do anything without putting on our helmets and body armour. Its already pretty close to that in the workplace now. Cant walk there as it doesn't have a yellow walkway, you're not authorised to use the paper guillotine so you might cut your finger - blah blah.

Maybe the next step from banning snatch straps is to ban 4wd's, as all of these snatch strap incidents seem to be related to them.
Seriously......
What about something proactive such as getting the likes of 4WD Action to run a couple of short educational segments showing the dangers. Not just Roothy saying "be careful with your snatchy", but video of real failures under controlled test conditions together with the associated damage, and maybe a couple of interviews with survivors that have been seriously injured.

As you've said - most 4WDers are unaware of how to use them safely. Surely a bit of education for the non-club masses would be better than the "ban everything that has a danger factor" approach.

Steve

Steve, 4WD Action has no Idea of safe recovery methods, some of their articles are downright criminal, that **** Shaun Wales once described the Anchor pin on a Tirfor as the "Shear Pin", for ****s sake if that was the shear pin and it broke/sheared the whole kit and kaboodle would be off down the hill. They don't even know how to setup a safe snatch block recovery or how to put sling eyes into a shackle.
Snatch straps have no Safe Working Load (SWL) or Working Load Limit (WLL) stamped on them, just some vague figure being the estimated breaking strain of the strap. The Mining/Construction industries do not allow snatch type straps to be used in towing/lifting for a ****in' good reason, they are dangerous and unpredictable and people have died using ropes/straps that store kinetic energy, letting the average idiot use one is asking for trouble. If people got off their arses when a vehicle gets bogged and dig a bit of dirt/sand away from the wheels a winch or normal tow strap will get the bogged vehicle out, also you can't tell me that some damage to both vehicles chassis doesn't occur with a heavy snatch.
I've been 4Wdriving for over 50 years and have never had the need to use a snatch strap either to get my vehicle unstuck or someone elses, so why is it NOW so necessary to have a snatch strap as the main means of getting a vehicle unbogged and NO it is not progress it is a step backward, Regards Frank.

last time i used a strap other than as a toe rope i had beached a commdore in deep ruts travelling with a sunraisier clad stockman.

with the placement of timber skids and stockman driving away repeatingly like a yoyo and the commodore came out without any of the normal body damage common to snig chains..

From the list of injuries i think he is lucky to still have his face intact let alone be alive , made me wince just thinking about it.

Check this video out , watch the lot, there are so many errors.
None of these idiots have any idea whatsoever , exept for one of the guys on a bike that gets out of the way soon as he realises what is about to happen.
Whats worse is the idiots don't even realise they are so close to tragedy even as its happening

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOT-rMYrDE8]VERY professional kinetic rope snatch recovery-NOT!.mp4 - YouTube[/ame]

if you want it spelled out

A- 21s, Rocket Scientist standing next to winch cable under strain.
his mates are standing close by.
(check the strain on the cable by how much its squashing the front tyres)

B- 1.18s Winch cable snaps, imagine if it went toward the Disco instead of the 90, it would have cut the Rocket Scientists legs off

(Do these dicks know what a spade is, how easy would that stuff be to shovel)

You can tell the 90 drivers IQ level is not quite in the mensa scale by his ingenious tonneau attachment idea.

C- 2.23s Hello, the guy on the Bultaco went to the same school as the 90 driver

D- 2.50s Heres an idea lets try some GrateMates, at least it won't kill anybody

E- 3.10 Laughing Hyena in the background waiting for the kill

F- 3.20 are you kidding, a tow rope from a service station

G- 3.33 at last someone can sense danger

H- 4.32 unrated $1.99 bow shackle to join 2 x snatch straps together
(you NEVER join snatch straps with shackles, even rated ones)

I- 5.15 the admissions come out, no one knows what they are doing, but proceed anyway

J- 5.55 look at all the idiots standing around

K- 6.15 Holy Shizen

L- 6.37 These idiots have actually hooked the strap to the tow ball

M- 7.59 Disco clutches are a lot better than I thought

N- 8.49 These guys still have no idea. NASA is looking good.

I rest my case, see my last post, regards frank.