Thread: Another snatch strap death

land rovers never need recovering
so recovery points are not needed

What does rated actually mean to most people. It is only really a number that most people do not fully understand. I know that most people struggle to estimate distance and speed let alone the forces involved in snatch recovery situation, who measures it anyway, we simply say "that worked" and go about our business. I seriously doubt most people even correctly know the actual weight of their vehicle, when loaded and travelling, not the weight the manufacturers print in the manual and weight is a critical number in any recovery situation.

i have seen recovery hooks with a stamped rating simply attached by drilling a hole through the upright section of a bull bar and I have also seen a similar hook with a stamped rating fitted to a chassis rail, with no washers even fitted, let alone any other means of spreading the load. In both instances when questioned I was informed that these points had been fitted by reputable four wheel drive workshops.

If manufacturers fitted a rated recovery point how do they actually know how it was used and in which situation and how much force was applied in which direction. Rather safer from their perspective to simply say we did not fit a recovery point.

There is a vast difference between a static and a dynamic recovery, again something most people would not fully understand

Recovery courses undertaken by us, involve at least half of the course understanding and performing various calculation, in order to use the correct equipment for the task at hand. In most recovery scenarios I doubt that the majority of the time people would even take the time to do these calculations, even if only as an estimate.

Snatch straps or to use the correct terminology kinetic energy recovery ropes (kerr) should be the last piece of recovery equipment that you reach for and only used once you have performed a sequence of work, including checking tyre pressures and doing a fair amount of digging or moving of obstacles as well as placing mantrax or similar.

i hope that this information helps, however there does need to be a lot more education undertaken by users themselves if they are truly interested in undertaking recoveries and not in playing a game of chance

regards

XDrive

I am with JD & Rick130 on snatch straps. They frighten me particularly when one sees the inexperienced, the half drunk, and just plain feral turkeys using them on Rainbow and Fraser. A bloody wonder there are not more serious injuries and deaths from misuse of these.

We always used chains to recover bogged trucks and to tow broken down vehicles out on the black soil plains. Never had a failure that I can recall but then these were bush drivers with years of experience. They had learned the best and quickest ways to get debogged. First thing is to get the shovel and mattock out and dig a path to climb out on. Dig out between the wheels and underneath if the vehicle had bellied out.

So okay who do you go to to inspect the recovery points you do have and to perhaps install some proper rated ones on a D1? I'm going to see LR Automotive next week for an opinion on something, I reckon they'd probably be a good bunch to ask no?

Originally Posted by Young Angus

So okay who do you go to to inspect the recovery points you do have and to perhaps install some proper rated ones on a D1? I'm going to see LR Automotive next week for an opinion on something, I reckon they'd probably be a good bunch to ask no?

If you don't have a winch fitted to the front of your D1 then the cost of having recovery points fitted will go a long way to paying for a winch.
With a winch you won't Need the recovery points

Originally Posted by trout1105

If you don't have a winch fitted to the front of your D1 then the cost of having recovery points fitted will go a long way to paying for a winch.
With a winch you won't Need the recovery points

Haha I do have a winch, and they needed to install a proper TJM bracket on the chassis (pretty sure it was on the chassis) to fit it.

I do have a few recovery points in the front though already, I'll have to take a photo, there are three on each side so I'd just like to know what they are. On each side there is one shiny steel hook looking one, and two dull steel plate looking ones with holes in them...but I don't know the history of them and when they were installed, or if one is a factory recovery point...one of them probably is but maybe the other one is a proper one.

I'll have to get them looked at and I'll try to get a photo of them to put up here. I'd like to know just in case I ever end up in a situation where I want to connect a snatch strap to one...definitely a last resort after this good reading, but it's still a potential option and if it comes to that I want to know it's as safe as it can be.

Originally Posted by trout1105

If you don't have a winch fitted to the front of your D1 then the cost of having recovery points fitted will go a long way to paying for a winch.
With a winch you won't Need the recovery points

Rubbish. Stop saying that. If you need a single line pull then no, but to double line your vehicle you DO need a rated recovery point.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Rubbish. Stop saying that. If you need a single line pull then no, but to double line your vehicle you DO need a rated recovery point.

Hmm. Well, with a double line pull, the vehicle is being pulled from two points (the winch and tow point), so the load on each point is close to half of the total pulling force being exerted.

An 11,000lb winch translated to metric is five tonnes. Technically, that means that it can generate 5t of line tension on your tow point. However, in that scenario there would be 10t of total pulling force, which is substantial. In most recoveries i guesstimate that less than 2t total is required, which only puts 1t on the tow point. I am confident tow points can handle 1t safely. Those big snatches people do are typically because the tow vehicle is on soft ground, not because a larger amount of tension is required.

What load is a typical 4wd tow point designed to handle? What can it safely handle?

If you were to winch a typical 4wd completely into the air, the load would be the weight of the vehicle, often around 3t loaded for a camping trip.

These are just some initial thoughts. Hmm.....