Safely Using a Snatchem Strap

[AB]

Correctly pulling someone out using a snatchem.

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[Ruby]

I was shown many years ago to saddle the strap with a wet hessian bag to dampen the strap incase it comes away from its anchor.


Thanks for the video

TOOR

[YNOT]

The wet hessian bag would make a good damper but places like ARB, TJM and Opposite Lock sell proper damper blankets that won't make the inside of your car wet when you put them away.

Tony

[nowoolies]

sorry but that aint the safe way
NO damper on the snatch strap
time to redo the video

[Gert B Frobe]

Ive never seen dampers used when snatching but always with winches. Whats the general rule? Or is it just best to go for overkill on the safety side of things?

[the evil twin]

Ive never seen dampers used when snatching but always with winches. Whats the general rule? Or is it just best to go for overkill on the safety side of things?

Thats because a damper in the middle of a snatch strap does very little in 95% or more of cases if something lets go other than a strap eye.

The damper on a winch cable is to defuse the danger of the cable itself causing damage. Snatch strap fatalities etc are from getting hit by the lump of metal that is/was attached to the strap. In the most recent fatality it was part of a bull bar. A damper would have done nothing in that tragedy

With a strap it is the flying object (lets say a shackle) that kills not the strap. A strap has transfered 100% of the stored kinetic energy to the shackle in the first 20% of contraction... the damper will probably not have even hit the ground by then.

If the shackle 'flys' then the damper is irrelevant
If the shackle remains attached to the strap and the strap is in one piece it can only hit something within 120% of the length of the strap which is 99.9 times the vehicle attached at the other end
If the strap breaks then you have no flying object other than the longest part of the 'soft' nylon strap which is about the only time the Damper will come into play

IMHO when using dampers on a strap you need 2, one at each end not 1 in the middle but by far the safest option is the latest generation of straps with anti recoil webbing.

Bottom line tho always remains "if you aren't happy with a method either change it till you are or do not do it that way at all."

[Winnie]

There is NO way to safely snatch somebody out. Sure there are ways to make it a little safer, but it's always a dangerous exercise.

[Silver]

There is NO way to safely snatch somebody out. Sure there are ways to make it a little safer, but it's always a dangerous exercise.

That's probably true Kristoffa, in the sense that all activities carry risk, but if everthing is kept well within the safety limits then snatching should be, and in my experience has been, uneventful and effective.

Where things go wrong is where people push the limits with big run offs and high speeds, or dodgy attachment points. On top of that are recoveries where the vehicle is already teetering on the brink of disaster

[taslucas]

sorry but that aint the safe way
NO damper on the snatch strap
time to redo the video

yep i have to agree

[the ferret]

At the request of another member, I have put this up again just as a reminder,
have a good look at it and think about what you're doing next recovery.
Cheers, the ferret.
http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt164/ferret/strap.jpg

[chester]

I know what it's like when something goes wrong when snatching.

When i was younger i got my mavrick bog good and proper,so we hooked up the snatch strap to the hook on the front of mine and over the towball of my of my mate's 40 series shorty,yes i know dumb,we were young and thought we knew best,admit we've all done it.

Anyway he could'nt get me out so we hooked a 75 series tray to the front of him,had two trying to get me out.

After a few pulls there was a bang on the windscreen piller on my side,i landed on the wife's lap i thought it was just the strap hitting the front,i got out to have a look and seen the big dent in the piller at the same time my mate seen that the ball had not snapped but the whole tounge had snapped off.

After a look around we found it 10 metre's behind me buried into the hill had to dig it out,that night when i washed it i found a bigger dent on the front of the bonnet right where it rolls,it was directily inline with my seat we reckon the ball has hit it and deflected of the right slighty.

Learnt a very valuble lesson that day and have never done it since.

[Silver]

Just yesterday on the inside track on Bribie a bloke in a nice cruiser was keen to drop a snatch strap over the towball on a RAV 4. Standard tow tongue, not hayman reece style.

We had done a fair bit of spade work, and it might have been ok. Or not.

Took a bit of talking to get them to wait until 04OFF Steve bought along his towball spanner, lump hammer and shackle. Perhaps still not ideal, but a step up from the tow ball. As Steve said, his yet to be acquired winch would have given more control.

What was interesting was that this bloke had a nicely turned out rig, yet what we see as the basics were news to him - likewise the frailty of the front loops on the RAV. At one point he was talking about hooking one RAV to the other and pulling them both out at once. The RAV blokes were new to it all - and ran over the strap etc - would have been a nightmare with a recovery train I think!