semlin said:
that leaves me with an interesting question. since most built 80s have arbs up front and use the stock recovery points, why aren't they breaking all the time?
I'll probably hurt some feelings with these comments, but I'd put money on a simple answer.
Most '80s are not seeing bad stucks that get recovered via straps. Most '80s are being used on less challenging trails. The ones that are being used on the tougher trails are being used on trails that don't have a lot of mud as opposed to rocks and high traction situations. Most '80s are out in groups, not scouting with one or two rigs. Most '80s on the trail tend to be well equipped and the groups they are in tend to be also. If everyone has a winch that they are eager to put to use, that tends to be the first option selected.
Basically few '80s get subjected to hard yanks in bad stucks.
But there are many stucks that you can resolve in a few seconds with a strap while a winch hook up (if it is feasible) will take much longer. Several minutes at the very least. And the policing everything up and getting underway again can take even longer. This leads us (me and the bunch I run with) to usually select a strap before a winch anytime it is feasible.
Some recoveries are much easier with or even require a winch. Conversely some are much easier with and sometimes require a strap. And these are usually recoveries that call for a good bit of effort put into the yank.
I have seen tons of people who don't really understand how to use a strap to its greatest advantage. They try to use them to tow the stuck rig. Or they gently hit the end of the strap and then try to mantain forward pull against a rig that is not moving. If that's how you use a strap yuo won't ever have to worry about overloaded recovery points. But you'll have a lot of rgs that you won't be able to get out of the muck or which take a lot more work and time to free than they should.
Correct strap usage can look pretty violent to someone who is not familiar with it. You want to let the initial impact against the end of the strap do most of the work. Load the strap up with all of the momentum you can generate with the recovery rig. (Within reason of course... But usually in a situation like this the recovery rig doesn't have much traction either so getting moving too fast is seldom an issue.) Let this pop the mired rig out. Then if need be and if the terrain is favorable to it, continue to assist its forward motion by pulling (towing) on the strap until the stuck rig is free. Often the terrain won't allow this and you have to let off the throttle as the recovery rig hits the strap to avoid getting it mired also. Then momentum has to do all, not just most, of the work.
But this puts a lot of stress on anchor points so it is important that they are up to the task.
Mark...
1.5 megabytes more or less. But that includes picts and the sort of stuff that would have been on a site.
