Vehicle recovery question.

[GLOCKMAN23C]

Go to your local NAPA and ask them for their SCC book. It has all sorts of attaching hooks, I carry one that is a loop with 3 different hooks on it. If they don't have a book, let me know, and I'll see if I can round one up for you.

 

[downzero]

I find straps far more useful than my winch.

A winch has its place, but if the vehicle has a solid place to attach a strap, a strap is usually quicker. It just depends on how stuck it is.

I have never seen anyone injured by a tow strap, but I also think that possibility is best served by using a short length of chain.

I'd also point out that I'm far more scared of my winch cable than any 5/16" or 3/8" transport chain. Winch cable is scary.

A winch anchor is a good point as well. Even more important, though, is the ability to actually restrain the winching vehicle so that the winch doesn't pull it instead of the stuck one.

 

[mike4]

It's a fallacy of risk analysis that doing something in an unsafe manner and getting away with it several times means it does not carry a substantial and/or unacceptable risk. They launched space shuttles dozens of times before they destroyed one and finally appreciated how many unacknowledged risks they were really taking.

It usually only takes one story for a lesson to sink in and learn by bad example. For me it was a friend's older brother when we were kids pulling someone with chain + nylon strap. Something gave and the nylon strap whipped the chain back into the cab of his full sized pickup. Major cab damage and it was just pure luck where it struck that he wasn't killed as it broke the rear window but the surrounding sheet metal on the top and one side caught most of the impacting chain.

I try to keep it all nylon or all chain.