Offroad-Express

I'm gonna open a rather large can of worms here and ask.............

WHICH IS THE BEST BRAND OF SNATCH STRAP

I've had a 9 metre Cookes strap for the best part of 10-12 years.
Its had a fray about 1 metre from one of the ends but hasn't broken, until the other weekend when I was well and truly bellied in a hole and MWB Cruiser had only a wee run up of 1.5 mtres and the strap broke on the stiching at one end resulting in a tidy pile under the front of my cruiser.

So who has the good or bad word on strops.

More so asking about the cheaper brands that you can pick up from Supercheap etc as I'm fairly sure a Cookes or ARB strap will be the best, but have heard bad things about the Supercheap brand and others as well

What do the ORE folk say

Supercheap range is hardly cheap
http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/online- ... ?id=100209

Cookes are cheaper
http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductsList.aspx?CategoryID=8

As to what's best... I've only ever seen cookes in use myself

I've got a real cheap nasty white one from super cheap over here that I keep In my ute for recovering muppets who don't know how to use 4x4 (no snatching just light towing)
I've used it maybe 4 times an it's already showing signs of wear an chaffing, it's also very thin an weak looking compared to my cookes ones at home

snatch master from cookes. wouldnt buy anything else. Im sure there other good ones. like from arb etc. but the snatchmaster is priced right and you got ten years from one. seen a few of the cheap ones out supercheap etc and the lack of stretch is very noticable to the point you think its not a snatch rope at all. dangerous really. winch extensions and tree protectors chinese be fine but snatch ropes the quality really matters. im going to get a shorter one from 4wd bits but an 8 strand round rope with 45% stretch. cookes snatch rope is 20% street. the stretch is what does the job.

skid wrote:I'm gonna open a rather large can of worms here and ask.............

WHICH IS THE BEST BRAND OF SNATCH STRAP

I've had a 9 metre Cookes strap for the best part of 10-12 years.
Its had a fray about 1 metre from one of the ends but hasn't broken, until the other weekend when I was well and truly bellied in a hole and MWB Cruiser had only a wee run up of 1.5 mtres and the strap broke on the stiching at one end resulting in a tidy pile under the front of my cruiser.

So who has the good or bad word on strops.

More so asking about the cheaper brands that you can pick up from Supercheap etc as I'm fairly sure a Cookes or ARB strap will be the best, but have heard bad things about the Supercheap brand and others as well

What do the ORE folk say

Be wary of the Supercheap ones and those from FCO.
Cheap is not necessarily the best and as snatch towing is dangerous at the best of times why would you want to add further risk with inferior or dodgey products.

You certainly had a good run out of your Cookes strap so maybe best option. Once frayed you should have replaced it then as that's one of the first signs it has past its use by date.
I prefer to use 20mm nylon rope spliced up as its has better stretch and doesn't suffer limitations with stitching.
If using flat straps I would be using Cookes or ARB ones although the ARB product is rather costly compared to the Cookes snatchmaster.

x5 on the cookes straps, my first 2 lasted 10 years before they started perishing and broke, had a couple of ARB straps for the past 5 years and there starting to show their age but still going fine, the 12,000kg one is strong as fawk

My Cookes (x2) have broken the stitching, got someone to sew them up, geting a rope soon. Made the mistake of buying a supershit one, may as well have been a tow rope, no stretch.

Cookes one.. then atleast they will repair it if its damaged. generally they wont repair other brands.

I damaged a cookes one the first day of owning it, the hook went through the strap right after the loop due to not being put on the hook properly. Cookes sent it away and it was repaired free of charge.

I got mine from ripco about 3-4 years ago, had a hard life and its still good, was 90 bucks "max..." something,

I wash it after every use and dry it though

i always buy the cookes ones and find them great. However I have snapped one from brand new, im pretty sure you could break anything if you give it a really hard time (better than ripping the bar work off the other truck i guess..). IMHO there are times that only winches should be used.

When you see the size of the dent and damge that just a broken snatch strap does to the back door of a truck you really start to wonder if those 2 x 10.8 12mm bolts holding your hook on are enough..

Ive had a sca snatch strap for about 1.5 years now and used it about 6 times and neve had a problem with it.
Its made of the same stuff and always stretched really well and is showing no signs of wearing out yet. I do clean it after every use aswell. I got one that was corectly rated for my 4x4 and it does the job mint, got it when it was on speciall so was cheep.
Hasent given me any trouble yet so time and a bow shackel thru the window will tell

i use black rat recovery gear. bloody awesome. purchased a whole kit while in aussie, even comes with certification certificate. has wash bag to clean straps afterwards

I brought a repco one. 9000lb or somthing doesn't stretch very well. Maybe a lighter one would be better.

007 wrote:I brought a repco one. 9000lb or somthing doesn't stretch very well. Maybe a lighter one would be better.

is it a polyster or nylon one?
Polyster doesn't stretch.

Ralfie wrote:

007 wrote:I brought a repco one. 9000lb or somthing doesn't stretch very well. Maybe a lighter one would be better.

is it a polyster or nylon one?
Polyster doesn't stretch.

correct.
I read an article in the last 4wd mag where the editor was saying that the sca snatch straps were not 100% nylon.
Reading this and thinking the worst I checked my one out and its definatly 100%nylon, I also check the ones instore and they were the same right thru each different rating aswell.
I dont know where he got that info, Perhaps they have improved the quality of there straps since his experience?

I owned one of each (past tense... now stolen)
The SCA was bought on a run when I'd forgotten my recovery gear
For the use they both got the snatch master fray'd faster but the stitching held better

The biggest difference was in use in simple terms the SCA was harsh when the snatch took up... even at realitivly low speed, it was that bad I gave it away... it lasted its new owner a couple of years before it broke

ladeda wrote:
correct.
I read an article in the last 4wd mag where the editor was saying that the sca snatch straps were not 100% nylon.
Reading this and thinking the worst I checked my one out and its definatly 100%nylon, I also check the ones instore and they were the same right thru each different rating aswell.
I dont know where he got that info, Perhaps they have improved the quality of there straps since his experience?

Re-read it and its says Supercheap sold both types and both were almost identical apart from price (and type of construction).
Does yours say its nylon on the strap?

Ralfie wrote:

ladeda wrote:
correct.
I read an article in the last 4wd mag where the editor was saying that the sca snatch straps were not 100% nylon.
Reading this and thinking the worst I checked my one out and its definatly 100%nylon, I also check the ones instore and they were the same right thru each different rating aswell.
I dont know where he got that info, Perhaps they have improved the quality of there straps since his experience?

Re-read it and its says Supercheap sold both types and both were almost identical apart from price (and type of construction).
Does yours say its nylon on the strap?

Can't I gave the mag away, fair enough although I have only seen the one type of snatch strap at sca.
please note Im not having a dig at the editor of the article, found it to be a good read and informative.
nope, it says on the box it came in, the tag on the strap only has the load rating and a bit on safe use of it etc

ladeda wrote:

Ralfie wrote:

ladeda wrote:
correct.
I read an article in the last 4wd mag where the editor was saying that the sca snatch straps were not 100% nylon.
Reading this and thinking the worst I checked my one out and its definatly 100%nylon, I also check the ones instore and they were the same right thru each different rating aswell.
I dont know where he got that info, Perhaps they have improved the quality of there straps since his experience?

Re-read it and its says Supercheap sold both types and both were almost identical apart from price (and type of construction).
Does yours say its nylon on the strap?

Can't I gave the mag away, fair enough although I have only seen the one type of snatch strap at sca.
please note Im not having a dig at the editor of the article, found it to be a good read and informative.
nope, it says on the box it came in, the tag on the strap only has the load rating and a bit on safe use of it etc

Sorry, that was meant to say I re-read the article and the article referred to both types being on the shelf for sale.

get another cookes one , you can get them repaired there as well

firestonecruiser wrote:i use black rat recovery gear. bloody awesome. purchased a whole kit while in aussie, even comes with certification certificate. has wash bag to clean straps afterwards

Had a little google on this stuff looks the biss. Wonder if it would be easy enough to get it posted over.
Did you buy it direct from black rat or another shop?
have ya used it much?
Im keen to give it a try once my sca one craps out

Steel n Tube have had posters up advertising black rat recovery gear.... give em a call could be cheaper option

ladeda wrote:correct.
I read an article in the last 4wd mag where the editor was saying that the sca snatch straps were not 100% nylon.
Reading this and thinking the worst I checked my one out and its definatly 100%nylon, I also check the ones instore and they were the same right thru each different rating aswell.
I dont know where he got that info, Perhaps they have improved the quality of there straps since his experience?

Hi, I wrote that column in NZ4WD and actually went into a Supercheap store and personally purchased both a Ridge Ryder nylon 4WD snatch recovery strap and a Ridge Ryder 4WD recovery strap before doing so. They were on the shelf next to each other along with their other polyester products for winch extension and tree protectors. The nylon was about 20% dearer than the polyester recovery strap from memory.
The specifications on the boxes for each were virtually word for word except the part where it was either nylon or polyester. The instructions in both boxes for use, were virtually identical and word for word also.

I also quickly looked up the Black Rat recovery kit on the web and it specified the strap as being polyester so again you need to be sure of what you are buying. Black Rat also do a nylon strap but I didn't see it listed in their recovery kit, only as a separate item.

But to answer Skid's query only use nylon for 4WD recovery and the best is to use nylon rope as it has more stretch but the down side is it is bulkier to store away in a vehicle. Straps have less strength and stretch due to the stitching but store away flat and don't take up much space in a vehicle and are therefore very convenient.
If going for straps I would be using the Cookes snatchmaster or ARB as I stated in NZ4WD.

Or even cheaper still. Dont get stuck, leave your vehicle in the garage

LR90NZ wrote:

ladeda wrote:correct.
I read an article in the last 4wd mag where the editor was saying that the sca snatch straps were not 100% nylon.
Reading this and thinking the worst I checked my one out and its definatly 100%nylon, I also check the ones instore and they were the same right thru each different rating aswell.
I dont know where he got that info, Perhaps they have improved the quality of there straps since his experience?

Hi, I wrote that column in NZ4WD and actually went into a Supercheap store and personally purchased both a Ridge Ryder nylon 4WD snatch recovery strap and a Ridge Ryder 4WD recovery strap before doing so. They were on the shelf next to each other along with their other polyester products for winch extension and tree protectors. The nylon was about 20% dearer than the polyester recovery strap from memory.
The specifications on the boxes for each were virtually word for word except the part where it was either nylon or polyester. The instructions in both boxes for use, were virtually identical and word for word also.

I also quickly looked up the Black Rat recovery kit on the web and it specified the strap as being polyester so again you need to be sure of what you are buying. Black Rat also do a nylon strap but I didn't see it listed in their recovery kit, only as a separate item.

But to answer Skid's query only use nylon for 4WD recovery and the best is to use nylon rope as it has more stretch but the down side is it is bulkier to store away in a vehicle. Straps have less strength and stretch due to the stitching but store away flat and don't take up much space in a vehicle and are therefore very convenient.
If going for straps I would be using the Cookes snatchmaster or ARB as I stated in NZ4WD.

Hey mate good to hear from you. I realy enjoy reading and have learnt alot from your columns.
Just to ask the question does the sca polyester recovery strap have 'recovery snatch strap' on the box or just 'recovery strap' on it.
Reason being is I'm wondering what determins what is a snatch and what is a recovery (nylon or polly?) and if it would be false advertising to call a polyester strap a 'snatch strap'?, as far as im aware the sca stuff all meets australian standards.

Now where is the fun in not getting stuck 007

Jerry wrote:get another cookes one , you can get them repaired there as well

Really, you had this done, is it a good repair, any idea of cost

callum007 wrote:Or even cheaper still. Dont get stuck, leave your vehicle in the garage

LOL, only reason I was stuck was because I had kindly offered to go get the Landrover out coz the other Landrover couldn't do it

LR90NZ wrote:
But to answer Skid's query only use nylon for 4WD recovery and the best is to use nylon rope as it has more stretch but the down side is it is bulkier to store away in a vehicle. Straps have less strength and stretch due to the stitching but store away flat and don't take up much space in a vehicle and are therefore very convenient.
If going for straps I would be using the Cookes snatchmaster or ARB as I stated in NZ4WD.

Yeah I've got a 10 metre snatch rope that cost me a shiteload of money but as you say its far too bulky to be carrying around

The only thing that I have to query is that the Cookes Snatchmaster strops seem to only be 8000kg where some of the other brands are as high as 12000kg breaking strain

ladeda wrote:
Hey mate good to hear from you. I realy enjoy reading and have learnt alot from your columns.
Just to ask the question does the sca polyester recovery strap have 'recovery snatch strap' on the box or just 'recovery strap' on it.
Reason being is I'm wondering what determins what is a snatch and what is a recovery (nylon or polly?) and if it would be false advertising to call a polyester strap a 'snatch strap'?, as far as im aware the sca stuff all meets australian standards.

Just because it meets the Australian Authority Standards, doesn't mean its a nylon strap and is safe to use for kinetic snatch recovery.

There was supposed to be a photo included with that column, of both straps together with their boxes. Unfortunately it was not included, but would have helped see the similarities between them both.

One has “4WD Recovery Strap” on the box.
The other has “4WD Recovery Snatch Strap”.
Both are orange in colour.
Both have printed on box “Guidelines for safe use of vehicle snatch straps included”
Those instructions are identical for both word for word.

The nylon one has a soft padded sleeve at the eye with the Ridge Ryder logo on.

The Australian Standards Authority (correct name Product Safety Australia, part of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) regulated the mandatory standards for “motor vehicle recovery straps and stipulated that all recovery straps sold in Australia must have warnings to promote safe usage of the product.

They even said quote; “Recovery straps, also called snatch straps, used to connect two vehicles when one vehicle is freeing another from being bogged. The straps stretch and release energy under tension to achieve a sharp, jerking action.” unquote.

There is no mention of the type of material, or synthetic fibre the straps can be made out of, thus allowing polyester recovery straps to be sold as snatch straps. This is very wrong and dangerous, in my opinion as only nylon has the stretch ability to take the shock loadings of recovery points. Also it’s the kinetic energy that gets stored in the straps that helps get a vehicle unstuck.

The regulations came about due to two fatalities that had occurred in Queensland.

It is legal, but probably morally wrong, to sell 4WD recovery straps made of polyester. It is left up to the user to know what he/she is doing and that the correct equipment is used, with the correct technique.

skid wrote:

Jerry wrote:get another cookes one , you can get them repaired there as well

Really, you had this done, is it a good repair, any idea of cost


The only thing that I have to query is that the Cookes Snatchmaster strops seem to only be 8000kg where some of the other brands are as high as 12000kg breaking strain

Cookes can stitch in new eyes on straps and its reasonably priced. But the strap has to be in good condition.

Skid, you already said your strap was 10 years old and was frayed. Its way past its used by date, so chuck it and buy a new one. At around $75.00 for a new Cookes Snatchmaster thats only $7.50 per year so you have done bloody well.
For the safety of yourself and your mates out four wheeling open that wallet and let the moths out!

Most nylon snatch straps are rated to 8,000kgs. Higher rated ones such as the 12,000kg one you mention are generally made of polyester as it is stronger, just doesn't have any stretch.

Of the two Ridge Ryder straps I mentioned previously, the nylon was rated to "8,000kgs, minimum breaking strength", the polyester was rated at "10,000kgs breaking strength 5000kgs safe working load"

Skid
had one repaired last years cost $10 at christmas time no I didn't want any paper work, the also make/made them here in chch I believe