Recovery points subsitutes

[Tentman]

Hello Guys

In the weekend I was asked to “recover” a very stuck campervan – a 3.5 tonne vehicle down to its axles at the back. Several others had tried but it was wet and the Prado and Vitara that were present didn’t have the traction or weight. They were also using some dammed dangerous gear/techniques but as always it hadn't bitten them on the arse – yet !!

In preparation we did a lot of digging but jacking it was hopeless as they are all fibreglass and there was nowhere I could put the high-lift where it was going to do any good (without wrecking bodywork). I am going to make up some webbing loops because then we could have jacked on the wheel spokes but a normal lift-mate wouldn't reach. A lift bag would have been good though.

Anyhow that was only the start of the head-scratching. The camper didn’t have any tow points in the right places, much less anything rated.

So I used a big tree protector, double choked around the chassis, and it did the job fine, with the prep work the Safari had it on flat ground first try.

I see from all the “manuals” that choking wire round trees (and presumably anything else) is “verboten” and I understand how a poor choke reduces the wire or line strength due to the angles, but why else is it bad practise ?? (apart from the obvious damage to trees). By using the loop in a tree protector there is no hardware like a shackle to become an additional missile. We always used a double choke hitch when we were logging in the bush, although when you’re hauling there’s no one in the line of fire if your other procedures are correct.

Any thoughts ??

[mudlva]

i think you did the best you could considering the circumstances.

and choking the chassis i personally don't have an issue with either.

if there was enough gear then the possibility of a strop on either side to help balance the pulling weight would be beneficial but kricky we shouldn't be carrying two tonne of gear around just in case somebody else gets stuck ah

the reason why you don't choke a tree is the twisting of the rope/strap when it loads up ring barks the tree, resulting in a dead tree in the future. which is why there is just about no trees left in Thompson's track any more!

[Suza]

What you did sounds good to me. I have to go and recover campervans from time to time out of fords and when they are really bogged down we dig then use drag chains one on each side of the chassis and then winch them, which also means sometimes back anchoring to a tree or what ever else is handy

[Crash bandicoot]

The worst one i've done is one of those Chrysler voyagers loaded to the gunnels with camping gear got it's self beached...at the beach funnily enough ..anyway it wasn't the beach or the wieght, its the fact it's monocoque and the tow eye's are hardly enough for saftey chain D bolt on a car trailer let alone a 3.5 or 5 tonne D shackle. ended up using the torsion rod mounts.

[keithal]

had to tow start my hilux today with rope around the front springs mounts

what makes it worse is the bull bars with rated hooks were removed yesterday