Thread: Recovery Hitches. How good are they?

G'Day All,

I am wondering what experience people have had using the Rocovery Hitches.
What effects have you seen?
The hitch, being solid, puts all the load onto the pin and the holes through the hitch tube. To my eye, from the pictures I have seen, the Hitch is only really long enough to enable the pin to go through it. This would put a lot of load on the outer end of the tube and posibly cause bearing stress failure around the pin hole in the tube..
Has anyone seen/experienced any adverse effects from pulling slightly to the side?

I ask these questions, because I have only just discovered them.... Yeah yeah.... I know.... Where have I been hiding for the last 10 years?..... Regardless, I have never had the need for one. They look good for snatch straps and perhaps winching in a straight line, but how do they go if you are being winched as much or more more to the side than forward (<30°)?

On a side note..... Would it count towards a world record free line catch if you used your winch cable to pull a new triton out of the ocean? Or does that count towards a power assisted catch?


Cheers,

Phill.

Recovery hitches should be designed so that the shackle pin bolt goes through the hitch hole in a vertical plane, which will allow the shackle to swivel to align itself with the line of pull.
With the pin hole in the horizontal position and the line of pull not directly straight ahead, the shackle cannot swivel to the line of pull and the load will be transferred to the side of the shackle body. This is not acceptable as the shackle was ONLY designed to have the load straight ahead in the middle of the shackle. Pulling a shackle sideways under load will make the shackle the weakest link in the tow/snatch setup, Regards Frank.