Thread: Another injury from an incorrectly used snatch strap

Originally Posted by 90@

The Patrol in which the accident/occurrence happened was unregistered,
Just saw the pics of it on the news and punched in the rego number on the rego check app.

So no insurance, also as mentioned earlier in this thread, they were trespassing as well.

Mike.

And the bearing that may have on whether the recovery was executed correctly or not ??

Martyn

Originally Posted by Bushie

And the bearing that may have on whether the recovery was executed correctly or not ??

Martyn

its says something about the attitude of the driver.

Pat, the best way to dampen recoil of either end of the strap is to make up 2 short (at least 2 metres) slings out of 1" dia. Nylon rope, one end spliced eye to each end of the strap. The other eye attached via small shackle or hook to a convenient point on each truck near to the recovery point.
If the strap recovery point or shackle is torn off the rope will restrict the heavy end, it works and only takes a minute to hook up.
Seems the most common breaking point is from the front bar or under the vehicle at the front.
I put this down to these rubbish bits of flat plate bolted to the side of the chassis rail with horizontal shackle pin holes.
These so called recovery points may be alright if being snatched from dead straight ahead, but if the tower is off to one side the shackle is pulled out of align, jambing the pin and making the shackle the weakest point in the setup. Always the snatch strap should be the weakest point.
Correct recovery points should have boxed in ends of chassis behind bull bar that you can screw a rated collared Eye Bolt into with the eye bolt holes in the vertical plane which allows the shackle to self align itself to the line of pull, only on this line is the shackle safe to use. Pulling a shackle to the side with it's pin jambed in the recovery point turns a shackle into the weakest point.
I have seen 3.5T SWL Shackle with a Guaranteed Breaking Strain (GBS) of 17.5T be totally destroyed by an 8T GBS snatch strap because it was used outside of it's design parameters by loading it off centre, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by PAT303

So can I ask where all of you snatch from?,for me I pull the goose neck and snatch from the retaining pin,thats the most secure spot IMHO,I also use a towl on the strap. Pat

Originally Posted by POD

Reading the article, it sounds unlikely to have been a towball as the object came through the back window and hit him in the back of the head, I'm the last one to assume any accuracy in media reporting but if that is true it's more likely a front recovery point failed on the stuck vehicle and the injured kid was doing the towing.

Channel 9 reported that it was a shackle that struck the young lad. I know we can all be quick to criticise and speculate, but we have all done dumb stuff when young and most of us got away with it, but not here. Hope he makes a full recovery, but apparently his injuries are severe.

A guy i knew a good few years ago didn't survive.

He was pulling his bogged,loaded, 130 with a tractor.

As said, often we did silly things when we were young…..

Tank has a very good set of points here. If you use a couple of slings or a bridle on each end of a snatch strap, then the direction of effort is toward the point where they join the snatch strap.Therefor any shackle or recovery point which fails will be projected toward that point and not toward anyone in or near a vehicle. It only means a bit of extra gear.
Tank you should take your ideas to recovery. This thread is not the place.

Originally Posted by Bushie

And the bearing that may have on whether the recovery was executed correctly or not ??

Martyn

Maybe I should have posted my post in the "Threads that go off topic" thread...

Anyways, as Eevo said, "it says something about the attitude of the driver", he was trespassing while driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.

I guess until the police release their report into the matter, that what we "know" is just supposition, innuendo, and hearsay.....

I just posted fact, maybe a little off the topic, but nevertheless gives a bit of background info.

Regards,
Mike.

Oh, yes....
I hope the young fella comes out of this "mishap" without to much more than a sore head and a kick up the bum from the police for trespassing and driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle and gets some training and proper equipment.

I was almost decapitated once, a long time ago, doing a trespass run. I had been looking to see if my mates had been watching my silly antics. I turned back in the nick of time to see the wire strung across the road and ducked. It brushed through my ample fuzzy mop.
I survived that and many other stupid, acts prior and following. Now here I am today, a reasonably responsible man with a nice Home and a lovely happy Family.
I hope we can one day say the same for that poor kid and he and his mates can one day tell their kids about the dangers of playing silly games in vehicles.