Did I do the right thing? What would of you done?

[Yendor]

You did great Rodney. Even with the risk the fact that you identified the risk means you mitigated it as much as you could by removing people and communicating the risks.

Now reading between the lines I read that because you could not remove the towball you had to use the tow ball? Is that right? I read also that this was a WINCH recovery? So you TOWED the vehicle out using your winch on their tow ball.? This is a Low Risk recovery if this is the case mate.

High risk would be a snatch strap on that tow ball? Basically, presented with this scenario then a Snatch is off the table and a safe winch recovery using a winch blanket for the win.

Well done mate,

I deemed that winching off the tow ball was too higher a risk. The rear cross brace of this vehicle's chassis was exposed (I couldn't tell you what type of vehicle it was but it was something like a short wheel base Daihatsu possibly an LJ or something similar). The strap was wrapped around the rear chassis cross brace. I connected my winch to the end of the strap. Yes dampeners were used. I made the owner of the vehicle fully aware of what might happen. I still think this was safer then connecting to the tow ball. The tow bar was connected directly to this cross brace anyway.

Yes a snatch recovery in that situation (in my opinion) was too higher risk.

The winch was was straight line pull but through some shrubs and small trees. So my best guess if I pulled the arse end of this vehicle off that between this and the dampeners this would hopefully stop it from hitting my vehicle. Once again I made sure all people were removed from the danger area.