Heep Recovery

[Julian T]

How to test your recovery anchor point or where not to stand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EN-FXOjRQKI

Ouch, .........

 

[Chris]

Oh, he got a proper tw*tting there.
Rule 36b. NEVER turn your back on a recovery situation. Eyes front or move away.

I had to winch with three attachment points yesterday, three vehicles, 2 winches all in different places and didn't have anyone to coordinate the whole lot. I just made sure that I was safe. The rest was just metal.

Chris

 

[SpinDrift]

He's lucky it didnt take his head out

 

[grantw]

Kind of sickening to watch ... you just knew something nasty was going to happen!

 

[warrenpfo]

Brute force and ignorance

 

[fast but dim]

Kinetic recovery= recipe for disaster.

He was so lucky.

 

[Andrew Brierley]

Let's just hope that they learned from the experience, and don't f**k around with recoveries again - although I sincerely doubt it....

 

[TonyP]

Very lucky indeed.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Kinetic recovery= recipe for disaster.

He was so lucky.

When we were in Aus we used snatch straps for recovery; never really jerk loaded in that way though. We tended to pull until the strap didn't want to stretch anymore and then it would ping the vehicle out.

I think that an issue is the angle of the loading (on potentially an inappropriate attachment point); if you look the strap was not at 90* on either vehicle, more like about 75* and 85* on the other. To me that would strain the attachments in such a way that the hi tensile bolts would snap.

There is a part of me that says that putting a bit of weight on the strap (sometimes just a jacket with some stones in the pockets a la winch damper) is not a bad idea to help stop it flying around.... is that a good idea or stoopid?

 

[clivehorridge]

Time for an old thread revival, an interesting variety of ways how not to do it...

Here

 

[Towpack]

I've seen a similar incident where a professionally made 'rated' recovery point failed, or so it seemed, until it became obvious that the section of the chassis it was bolted to was so corroded that the bolts just ripped out.
Here's a good vid on rope testing to failure....

 

[Chris]

The problem here is that there is too much elongation in the material. It's almost like a kinetic strap. If they used something like the material used in synthetic ropes, it shouldn't stretch so much. Also used correctly in a normal recovery, with the strap well stored and used, it shouldn't break in the first place.

But people don't look after them and use them til they break.

 

[clivehorridge]

The guys in that vid were so ignorant of what they were actually doing, it beggars belief.

Creating slack so that you hit the towed car with a bout 50 tonnes of kinetic energy is asking a lot from a 20 year old Lada Niva bumper bolt.