Never join recovery strops with a shackle

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:38 am

Just another reminder that doing so can lead to a very untimely end... sad story. Good thread with some good info.

Summary: Recovery strops are elastic... forces in recovery can be huge, shackles joining strops can/do become high-powered missiles from a large slingshot if anything fails. DON'T join strops with anything heavy... preferably loop the two strops together, and protect them from jamming using a rolled up newspaper or similar.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=485912

Be safe

minefield · Post by **minefield** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:43 pm

I disagree with your idear of looping too strops together because too hard to get apart,
I was in the army 161 batterey we were taught thread one threw the other and insert a stout peice of timber through the eye that way if something was to happen nothing goes flying BUT if it did it goes out side-ways

In my years in the army and also canterbury landrover club we used the same system never had any problems I even carry a short peice of hardwood about 60 dia x 300 long in case its needed for joining strops I have being doing this for over 40 years always used the same system with out problems

Graham

lilpigzuk · Post by **lilpigzuk** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:05 pm

Havent used a D shackle in years. Seen some fly through the air and take out winscreens, and body work. Have seen tow hooked with crap welding fail and the spare tire and rim too the impact, fawked both of them proper, which was lucky as the line of flight would of probably been the guys left arm/elbow.
Im pretty sure someone lost their calf muscle a few years ago up thompsons track from a similar failure....

wjw · Post by **wjw** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:06 pm

minefield wrote:I disagree with your idear of looping too strops together because too hard to get apart

?? where did he say that? I'm confused

Jungle · Post by **Jungle** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:16 pm

That somebody was on one of our club trips. Not sure what his name is. He's not a member of the club anymore.

I like the idea of the system that lilpigzuk has shown. Thats how we attach strops in the club. Although I've got some nice pics of us cutting the NZ4wd mag out of the connection. It clamped it so tight we had to cut it out. It was a real pain. I carry a piece of broom handle for that job.

G

BrentC · Post by **BrentC** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:24 pm

Cheap at $10

http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=134

BrentC · Post by **BrentC** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:37 pm

Please study this photograph carefully; notice the eight inch nylon strap, ¼ inch thick, out the rear of the Jeep. See that it comes through the rear window, then through the driver’s seat, then out the front windshield. Notice that the holes in the seat and the windshield are relatively clean.

This is a reconstructed photo. However, it shows precisely what happened and was reconstructed to demonstrate what can happen (and has happened before) when straps are used to pull a vehicle from mud, sand or snow. The picture depicts an actual occurrence. Happily, the driver recovered. Now the story of this NEAR MISS.

The Jeep owner was being a good guy and volunteered to help extricate a friend’s truck from where it was stuck in the mud some sixty feet away. Someone produced two of those thirty-foot straps and put them together with a five-pound clevis hook. One end was hooked to the frame rail of the truck, the other to the Jeep. The on-lookers recommended this procedure rather than to use the winch plainly seen on the front of the four-wheel drive, off-road vehicle. The Jeep driver slowly moved ahead and got the strap lines into a taut state. Then in low gear he started to pull.
The hook to the frame rail did not come loose; it pulled a nice neat piece from the rail. The hook and the dislodged section fell to the ground. The heavy clevis hooked became the leading edge of the missile. With the double straps trailing, it broke through the rear window, took a neat 4” square section from the seat, and crashed through the windshield. The end hooked to the Jeep stayed attached, but the clevis dragged the rest of the straps on its potentially fatal journey.

When the missile sprang forward, the release of drag caused the drivers upper body to shift forward moving his head to the right of that four-inch hole in the seat. The clevis hook struck him in the left shoulder, grazed his neck and went on its lethal way. The driver never knew, until later, what hit him. Rendered unconscious, he slumped forward, his foot depressing the accelerator. The Jeep roared ahead and stopped some 500 feet later when the dragging strap became tangled in the brush. This wild ride crossed two roads, two ditches and tore down a fence.

The onlookers rushed to the drivers aid expecting the worst. Still unconscious, he was air lifted to the hospital and x-rayed twice; there was no injury except a very sore shoulder. He personally related this tale to your editor some months after the event, and he still has some soreness where the clevis hook caressed him on its meteoric path through the Jeep.

This did not occur in the snow belt where off road, four-by-fours typically cruise about extricating vehicles imbedded in snow banks. This type of unprofessional conduct, using straps, has caused similar mishaps, one two years ago being a fatality. The Jeep owner in our story took a series of photos to reconstruct what happened and sent the photos to several magazines in the off-road vehicle trade. Tow Times got the exclusive in the towing industry. All of us hope that this will never happen again. That’s why we are telling you this story of this NEAR MISS.

minefield · Post by **minefield** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:52 pm

BrentC , You hit the nail right on the head ,I have mine made out of iron bark its a Aussie timber "very hard"

minefield · Post by **minefield** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:03 pm

I might further add SAFETY is what it all about ,, its good to spark a debate about strops,I could not let Superlux article go un-challenged

Sadam_Husain · Post by **Sadam_Husain** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:21 pm

I always avoid the drivers side hooks, if anything ever lets go I'd rather not be in the direct flight path

the passenger side's much more desireable for me! :oops:

turoa · Post by **turoa** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:06 pm

my hooks are on the passengers side. The front works fine and is really secure and accesible (I can jump on the front and put the rope on without getting my hands or feet muddy :lol:

). The rear needs to have a drivers side hook put on. But I wont bother with that until I get around to making a new rear crossmember with a removable towball.

kiwipete · Post by **kiwipete** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:13 pm

I use a piece off an old sledge hammer handle to join mine.

Cloggy_NZ · Post by **Cloggy_NZ** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:26 pm

Believe me you do not need to have any solid object attached to the end of the strop for the strop to do damage. I am speaking from first hand experience. This happened to me around Red Rocks on Wellington's South Coast.
Returning from a trip and almost back at the carpark we come across an ordinary car totally bellied in the sand.
Yippee, we all enjoy using our trucks to recover some poor soul who is stuck.
With the car totally buried to only accessible tow point is the tie down eye under the rear bumper. Not designed to snatch from or put any serious load on but if we take it easy it may do the job. My "D" shackle is way too large to fit through the tie down eye. What to do. Someone produce a short but decent looking piece of rope, 8-10mm in diameter. So the strop gets tied to the car's tie down eye with this rope being looped as many times as possible through the eye. Can't remember exactly but would have been at least 4 or 5 times before it couldn't be passed through anymore.
All tied up we take up the slack in the strop and give a gently pull but to no avail, the trucks wheels just spin in the soft sand without budging the stuck car. So I back up a little, perhaps a metre, to give me a bit of momentum. All I know is hearing something like a gunshot going off and almost the same instant my face getting pelted with broken glass.
The rope we had used to tie the strop with gave way and even though I had no where near stretched the strop to its maximum there was enough energy already built up to allow just the strop by itself to fly through the back window, out through the windscreen and back in again pulling what remained of the (still toughened, not laminated) screen into my face. As it all happened so quickly you get no time to react or even close your eyes. As a result even the whites of my eyes where cut as well as most of my face. Not huge lacerations but many small nicks from the little cubes of glass. I had a lucky escape really. I certainly have a lot of respect for the forces involved in recovery and still cringe a little when I see someone back up to another vehicle and take off like a bat out of hell to get maximum momentum and stretch out of the strop.
I am glad our club (CCVC) enforces rules regarding the mounting of tow hooks etc and the regular inspections of the hooks. We also get taught recovery techniques during driver training and optional advanced driver training.
I have also installed a cargo barrier in the back of my truck to stop any repeat should another strop break or give way.
An important lesson learned the hard way. I should have known better.

Sadam_Husain · Post by **Sadam_Husain** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:47 pm

Cloggy_NZ wrote:Believe me you do not need to have any solid object attached to the end of the strop for the strop to do damage

Thats exactually the problem, most people that are aware and have learnt from experience or have the right clues all have secure recovery points that are secure and unlikely to fail

......that means you are the one in the flight path when the other and less secure end gives way :sniper:

I had some really secure rings fixed to the front of an old landrover hold tight and it was the bullbar complete with chassis rails attached that collected the back of my truck when it decided to part company from the vehicle... fortunately it was all to heavy to get any height or distance to give me more than a good shake-up!

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:49 pm

Yep, that was one of the reasons to post this... it drags safe recovery methods out and makes them easier to find, and easier to remember.

The point was to make sure people were aware of the dangers of using heavy objects to join strops... its just not safe.

Has anyone used the newer style bungy ropes? Apparently a bit stronger but I've had nothing to do with one as yet.

Steve

minefield · Post by **minefield** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:27 pm

Year mate I'm useing one 10 metre had it for about 12 months now wears well ,dose not seem to have as much strech as the strap though ,got mine through the Nelson 4wd club

4WDbits · Post by **4WDbits** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:01 pm

BrentC wrote:Cheap at $10

http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=134

I've tried using a magazine instead of wood when joining two ropes, the magazine ended up as a peice of mush and we still couldn't get the ropes apart. The main problem with joining ropes is the heat build up in the knot as the ropes stretch. A smooth peice of wood can be driven out from between the ropes, and sometimes it does have to be driven out.

HJ60 · Post by **HJ60** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 1:28 am

[quote="Cloggy_NZ"]Believe me you do not need to have any solid object attached to the end of the strop for the strop to do damage. I am speaking from first hand experience. This happened to me around Red Rocks on Wellington's South Coast.
Returning from a trip and almost back at the carpark we come across an ordinary car totally bellied in the sand.
Yippee, we all enjoy using our trucks to recover some poor soul who is stuck.
[ed]

Thanks Cloggy_NZ for raising this part of the issue.

As a regular visitor to the south coast Red Rocks area I have run into the same problem of what to attach my snatch strap to?

Have straigtened slightly the standard tie down hooks just towing a hilux surf although after a night in the creek alongside the sewer pipes perhaps his brakes were a bit jamed. As per CCVC I have rated hooks and so far they have never moved.

Back to the problem .... is the frond axel a better place to attach to if rated hooks are not available?

I am happy to help but not everyone is keen to "get involved" with recoveries posibly due to the hazards.

The person who has not been stuck on the south coast will be eventually :-)

Rick.