Strap Breakage

[D'Animal]

I thought I would start this regarding the tow strap breaking and whipping effects of straps. (I do not want to pollute the ACT 2010 thread.)

When a strap breaks, there several thousand pounds of force against both ends of the strap. The strap has the energy stored in it and when it releases, it will go flying. It is amazing how much a strap will actually stretch.

If it breaks on the end nearest the leather reinforced eyes, the entire long length of strap will go flying towards the other end of the strap.

This can/will/has caused damage to vehicles. The damage caused can be astounding. It will not crack a turn signal lense, it will remove the entire turn signal housing from the vehicle. The same for the headlight.

I have also seen a strap remove a WARN winch controller solenoid box assy from the winch. The only thing holding it on was the short battery cables. The strap kept going and removed the front grill and settled in the radiator. After going through the winch controller, grill and into the radiator, it still had enough force to bulge the back (engine side) of the radiator. The mass damage to the radiator was (in my opinion) caused by the broken grill.


Check your straps.

If they are:

• 2" wide
• 2.5" wide
• show any visible fraying
• show any signs of thread wear along the eyes
• show any signs of thread wear along the double wrap section near the eyes
• are kinked since they had a knot in them,
• Sun faded
• Brittle

Do not use them for a stuck vehicle recovery purpose. They may be OK for towing a non running rig off the trail but not for a stuck vehicle recovery.

I threw all of my 14 month old/used 3 times Pro Comp straps away last weekend.

I will begin using ARB 3" wide straps or something similar.

I will post some pics later when I get to my other computer.

 

[greentruck]

Yeah, people think if they are using a strap they are relatively safe. True, but it can still tear things up.

One thing I don't see mentioned much anymore in relation to using a winch -- generally more dangerous than using a strap if something were to break -- is to raise the hood of the recovery vehicle (b/c that's generally the front). Hard to do that when using a strap, just because of how it's used and where the vehicles will be located in relation to each other.

Your point is a good one. Be aware of what damage a failure in any part of your rigging at any point in the recovery process could be.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Curious about the Pro-Comp straps in question since I have 2 of the 3 inch ones.

The ones that failed-what model? Was it the heavier wider ones or something else?

I saw a strap fail on Cadillac once-the long end recoiled and hit a tree (fortunately) with surprising force, but didn't cause any other damage. It was a 3 inch strap that looked pretty old.

 

[D'Animal]

Carnage

 

[D'Animal]

They were the Pro Comp 2" 20,000lb limit straps. Pro Comp Tow Straps - SummitRacing.com

Curious about the Pro-Comp straps in question since I have 2 of the 3 inch ones.

The ones that failed-what model? Was it the heavier wider ones or something else?

I saw a strap fail on Cadillac once-the long end recoiled and hit a tree (fortunately) with surprising force, but didn't cause any other damage. It was a 3 inch strap that looked pretty old.

 

[D'Animal]

The Eye on the ARB Bumper of the stuck vehicle that had the shackle secured to it is egg shaped.


Witnesses will confirm that the vehicle was stuck but not that stuck.

 

[Mark W]

I keep hearing peope make statements to the effect that winching is more dangreous than using a strap... NO... it is NOT!

Strap recover has far more force involved, stores farmore energy and is far less precise and controlled.


Failed cable... Meh.... failed strap... dive for cover.


Mark...

 

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

D'Animal, sorry to hear about the carnage!

I agree with Mark W. I think using a winch is far more of a "controlled" situation than a yank strap.

The yank strap puts a lot of shock load on the drive train of the truck IMO. Safe winching pulls the rig out of the stuck situation in a controlled manner.

Regards,

Alan

 

[D'Animal]

I agree with Mark as well. I use a winch 90% of the time. Around here we get 5" of annual rainfall so "stuck in the mud" is generally a tractor that got too close to a leach field.

There are times when a strap can pull someone through a muddy spot on the trail much faster than properly setting up for a winch pull. This is just a reminder that if you are going to use a strap, have good straps and not crappy straps.

 

[Mark W]

I may consider a strap far more potentially hazardous than a winch... but it is still my choice far more often than the winch for the type of activities we see here. having less control then with a winch does not mean that it is out of control.

Sometimes when using a strap you have to NOT "give it everything you've got"..... With a heavy rig that has decent acceleration in the particular situation, you can overstress any strap. Like anything else, you develop a feel for it and figure out how to finess the grey area between leaving the mired rig still stuck and blowing out the strap. Assuming that the strap is up to sniff of course.

Always look your strap over at least briefly before putting it to use. We tend to run with the straps rigged to at least one end of every rig in the group when we head out on an outing like the trek. Makes for much quicker setup when someone gets stuck, or when they are immobilized in a river, We don't check it every time we hook it up... But a glance at it every day, or any time there is a reason to wonder is a habit to have.


Mark...

 

[rusty_tlc]

If straps store that much energy why don't we use short winch lines instead?

20' of synth line with an eye on each end would be pretty easy to store.

 

[SAMI188]

If straps store that much energy why don't we use short winch lines instead?

20' of synth line with an eye on each end would be pretty easy to store.

From what I understand a synth line and a snatch strap are engineered for completely different tasks. The snatch strap is engineered to stretch, and actually use the stored forces to help extract a stuck vehicle. The synth line may have some small stretchability, but not nearly to what the strap is capable of.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Are there different types of straps?
Most of the times I've used a strap it was just to pull, not jerk, a truck off on obstacle or up over a ledge.

 

[D'Animal]

Different types of wheeling.

Are there different types of straps?
Most of the times I've used a strap it was just to pull, not jerk, a truck off on obstacle or up over a ledge.

Same strap though.

 

[SAMI188]

There are certainly different types of straps:

Snatch strap - "Dynamic" = stretchable. From ARB's description. "kinetic energy generated by the elasticity actually aids the recovery itself, and secondly, the elasticity greatly reduces the likelihood of vehicle damage during recovery"

Tow Strap - "Static" = non stretchable. If there is a red band showing underneath where the loop is sewed back to the strap, the strap has been 'overloaded' and should be retired for a new strap. Not all straps have this feature, but most should.

Winch extention strap - Non stretchable

 

[Mark W]

If straps store that much energy why don't we use short winch lines instead?

20' of synth line with an eye on each end would be pretty easy to store.

Think about it for a moment... the stretch of the recovery strap and the stored energy are desirable. it allows you to translate the momentum of the moving rig performing the recovery into a shorter duration period of smoothly applied greatly increased pulling power on the stuck rig. That is why this type of extraction works and why we use recovery straps. If the strap did not stretch and store the energy, it would be delivered instantaneously, like it is if you jerk with a chain or a winch line. Minimal pull delivered to the stuck rig, and major overloading of whatever the line was secured to. You would basically just rip crap off of your truck and tear it apart.

The stretch of a recovery strap is not a fault it is its design.


Mark...

 

[Mark W]

Many people confuse a tow strap and a recovery strap. Tow straps are for ... well, for towing. They should not be used for dynamic recovery.

And many many people do not understand how to use a dynamic recovery strap. I see guys all the time, back up to a badly mired rig and attempt to just drag it out. That works if you are just barely hung on a rock. Not when you are sucked into quicksand or deep in a peat bog. You have to use momentum... sometimes a LOT... You just have to have a feel for what the limit of your gear is.


Mark...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Most of us here in the Sierras rarely need to do a dynamic recovery like that. There is essentially no mud, no bog and no muskeg. So Rusty_TLC is right-we tug someone off a rock and that's it. When a strap is used it's because it's expedient and quick, not necessarily better than a winch pull.

I definitely plan to upgrade to one of those kinetic ropes prior to my visit to the ACT.

 

[Bogo]

Failed cable... Meh.... failed strap... dive for cover.


Mark...

When either fails you don't have time to dive for cover. The tension in a snatch type recover strap can accelerate the end past the speed of sound. How fast and much damage do bullets go and do? Best bet is to place yourself out of harms reach. Either way to the side, or behind something solid that can take the impact of the strap or cable end.

Synthetic cables and cable extension straps are designed for little to no stretch when in use. They actually stretch less than a cable does. Because of this they have much less stored energy. Also they don't work for a snatch type recovery.

 

[Mark W]

Diving for cover was a figure of speech... I have seen my share of straps and cables fail.

I will stand by my comment... straps are killers... the steel winch cables used in the class of winches that we are all using for vehicle self-recovery stretch roughly 1 inch per 100 feet at their breaking point. Not a lot of energy stored there. Can you create a situation where one can hurt you? sure. But the hazards are not from the energy stored in the cable, but from rigging that is poorly thought out creating other hazards when a cable fails. Or rigging that stores energy and the releases it when the cable or the rigging fails. I have had a number of cables fail and slither past my legs on the ground, or hop a few feet and fall... cables to don't scare me. Straps do. Doesn't stop me from using straps as my first choice... but you have to respect them.


Mark...