Thread: Local lad killed by towball

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Question,
For the rear I am going to remove the tow ball and fit a rated shackle to the tow ball hole.
Is this OK? I saw it done in 4X4 Australia Magazine in an article demonstrating recovery technique.

Dave.

no worries there, i just removed my towball this afternoon as i am heading off to fraser island tomorrow and may need to pull somebody out of the sand......providing i don't get bogged

What I find hard to comprehend is a tow ball rated to 3500kg is about the same as a rated shackle.

Dave.

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Question,
I am doing a trip cup weekend. I have proper recovery points fitted to the front of my D1.
For the rear I am going to remove the tow ball and fit a rated shackle to the tow ball hole.
Is this OK? I saw it done in 4X4 Australia Magazine in an article demonstrating recovery technique.

Dave.

If you don't have the removable receiver type, this is probably your best option.
Otherwise, remove the insert and just use the pin to secure the strap.

Not a tow ball, but I once saw two snatch straps joined by a shackle. (Noooooo!!!) and then 2.5 tonnes of Nissan given the biggest run up I have ever seen for a snatch (10 to 20m - flat to the boards ). (I ran for the biggest tree I could find to stand behind.) Scary stuff indeed. Luckily the strap broke first on this occassion.


Nonetheless it is sad when we have a fatality and I shouldn't jump to conclusions. - It may just have been a tragic acccident.

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

What I find hard to comprehend is a tow ball rated to 3500kg is about the same as a rated shackle.

Dave.

I may be wrong, but a tow ball will be rated to tow a trailer that weighs up to 3500kg. but not necessarily take a 3500kg shock load and a 3.5T rated shackle will have a minimum breaking strain many time more than its SWL. JFYI the shackles we use in comp must be at the very least 4.75T and used in pairs with a bridal if possible so your looking at a breaking strain well in excess of 30T

Cheers

Ben

A few things I have noted.
I dont like snatch straps at all unless the towed vehicle is in a easy to recover situation.

The forces in snatch recoverys are not controlled.

People try to snatch vehicles bogged to the chassis rails and wonder why things break. ( work with a shovel and elbow greae is the better option)

Years ago before snatch straps people would use chains around tow balls etc and there was few probems as the chain did not tend to store energy if any thing broke.

If you try hard enough , just but any sort of recovery point will fail with a snatch strap.

People often forget what we used to do in the old days and crawl under vehicles and wrap a chain around the spring or axle assembly as most vehicles didnt have proper recovery points.(noting position of wires and brake lines)

Independant suspension vehicles can usually have a chain wrapped around the cross member under the motor or suspension lower anchor points.
Most people are too lazy to do the above and dig or crawl under the vehicle.

Using a winch the forces are known and easly controlled.

The dangerous part is the snatch strap and the reason they are so popular is they are cheap and much,much lighter than chains.

Originally Posted by Sleepy

..... 2.5 tonnes of Nissan given the biggest run up I have ever seen for a snatch (10 to 20m - flat to the boards ). (I ran for the biggest tree I could find to stand behind.) Scary stuff indeed. Luckily the strap broke first on this occassion.

When I was in the Toyota LC Club in Sydney, that is how I was taught to do a snatch recovery (well, not that long a run up but at close to the length of the snatch strap).

The first time I tried it, I snapped my new snatch strap - and with good reason. I was trying to recover this:




In retrospect, one can see it would be impossible to move by snatching - it should have been towed (it was later towed out). How heavy would it be with all that water inside it?

Its incidents like these that that I only go bush with other drivers that I trust and have something between their ears.

Doesn't help when you come across some turkey stuck on a popular track though, 9 times out of 10 dropping their tyre pressure and a shovel or some muscle will get them unstuck.

Makes you wonder whether a cargo barrier might have been enough to save the young blokes life?