ahh mr. xxxxxx at his finest again.. straps break and tear **** up as well man.. everything breaks eventually

 

I use a 30k strap and never have any problems, Ive never towed anyone but have been towed out of sand once =) My poor 2x4 with lack of off roading tires.

 

that is why i use a 4" strap

 

how are you supposed to hook the tow strap to other cars and truck if they dont have hooks?

IE the other night my buddy got stuck in my wet lawn. being that i live with the inlaws, i used what my father in law had, and it was a 8 ft chain. there was no tuging involved, i just pulled him far enough so that he was on the driveway and not the grass.

in that incident, i was able to put one hook from the end of the chain on to my recever hitch (where the safty chains go for pulling a trailer) and the other on to the loop that was on the back of his car (i am assuming for use on a tow truck or something)

other times i have helped my father get his van un stuck from his yard, using a tow rope with hooks at either end. one end he had on the safty chain loops on the hitch and the other he hooked onto his frame.

IIRC you dont want to wrap it around the bumper??

sorry for the OT post, but i look foreward to more info.

 

he is dead call his wife...

 

the lil hooks on imports, and some of the other cars running around are not for towing! their for shipping only! their tie down hooks for when the cars are loaded onto trailers and stuff

Chains can and will break. tho if u have nothing else to use they work, however its a good idea to put something over the chain, a towel, a jacket, a shirt... something, anything, that will take out ALOT of the wipping action. you should do the same with any type of strap chain or wire.

as far as taking someones head off- really depends on the situation, how much are your pulling? how long is the wire? how high off the ground is it? there are lots of variables, and quite frankly, its better to put a towel or blanket over what ever your using to pull someone out, strap chain, wire, whatever, everything WILL break, regardless of what it is, just a matter of time. Straps are safer yes, but those too can, and will break. be safe and dont end up dead.

 

I guess the guy in Doc's thread......

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...highlight=jeep

is a total moron for using chains to secure his jeep to trees before winching? But then again, he wasn't towing or snagging someone. He was stationary and winching. And yet, for what he was winching (a freaking cement truck) I guess there wasn't any concern for him using chains for anchor.

What a moron

< /sarcasm >

 

Yeah, nevermind the 3 inch tow strap that I ripped at the reinforced loop end when my best friend's ranger died on him on an off ramp and I tried to pull him up.

 

Never said he wasn't CoJack, re read what I typed. I said I called BS on cutting his head off, not his death. Try not to make topic pointed rebuttles about the wrong information.

 

Nope, not possible, go revisit Myth Buster's episode where they tried to cut the balistic gelatin man in half with a steel cable. This was done in a whipping action and still it could not be done. A whipping action which has more speed/force than just a straight lashing would have. A chain or tow rope will not have a whipping action when it breaks, for it to whip it must have obstruction to travel around to creat the whip action, and I dont think anyone tows another vehicle in a perpindicular fashion, with the rope/chain/cable wrapped around a stationary object in a 90* fashion.

 

I've seen chains, cables and tow straps all break under load, and quite a few dented tailgates and broken windows. I've seen a few people get hit pretty good, but never anything fatal. Mostly just fat lips, a couple of nasty cuts and bruises, and maybe a good headache or two. Either way, I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of anything when it brakes. It has a lot to do with the angle, tension and condition of the strap, cable or chain. I've used chains, but only in a pinch, and at that I usually put a strap in between for safety. A lot has to do with common sense, if your trying to pull something that isn't going to come easily, I'd surely make certain that what ever I was using was up to the task.
Problems usually arise when your not prepared or ill equipped.
I prefer a strap not only for personal safety, but it's also a lot easier on the vehicles. It absorbs a lot of the shock that can rip things apart if your not careful. Not only that, a strap tends to give some warning before it snaps, they usually start to fray or unwind before they let go completely.
No matter what I pull with, I usually drape a heavy shipping blanket over it to keep it from whipping around if it snaps. I preffer a heavy nylon strap with two stitched loops at each end. Chains are really only rated for binding loads, or grasping at the point of pull since they will not be abraded like nylon. Back when I did a lot of offroading, I used to carry a couple of old inner tubes with me, they make great padding, and if you cut one apart and slip the tow strap through it to add some weight to it in case it did break. When I buy a strap, I try to go at least 4 times stronger than I need, this allows some reserve if it does get scraped or pinched while in use. I think most of the ones I have now are rated at 35,000 lbs. There are also different types of straps, make sure you buy one that's rated for vehicle recovery.

But really, I thought when you see one of those other brands in a hole, your supposed to just cover it up and move on.

 

Thanks jason, just what i was looking for. there are some tow straps that central tractor has. has anyone ever seen these and are they of good quality?

 

chains do break sometimes... ive only broken a strap... but id rather use a strap than a chain anyways...

 

Most of the straps I have came from Central Tractor, but they are all pretty old now since it's been at least 7 years since there's been a CT store here, some of my straps fron CT are probably at least 10 years old or more and they are all still in excellent condition. Since they get stored in a metal box or in bags under the seat they don't age much when not in use. I can't say that I ever remember breaking one of the CT bought straps, which are all loop type of recovery straps.

 

I'm not tryin to bash on you or anything like that, neither am i sayin that ive never used a chain before, but you cant trust mythbusters... so far theyve said
1. A bullet shot in the air wont kill you on its way down
= It might not be likely, but using basic physics, its gonna be flyin super fast on the way down
2. a gun shot in water wont kill you (they used many guns between bb- .50)
= If a bullet can kill a saltwater fish in the water, then im sure it could kill me
3. now that up there?

I'm justsayin i woldnt trust the accuracy of mythbusters findings, i find it more of entertaining

 

1) First of all, your wrong, the myth was of a bullet fired straight up into the air, not just "into the air", therfore they only tested a bullet fired completely perpindicular to the Earth itself, initially. Everything hits a terminal velocity when falling, guess what, even bullets do. They proved that. Oh, and "using basic physics" also tells us that as well. No it wont be "flying super fast", it will be falling at a terminal velocity, and while falling it will be tumbling, again this was proven on the show, and is a true fact to life.

They also revisited this myth. And corrected themselves, a bullet fired perpindicular to the ground will experience everything they discovered, and it will do it everytime. However; a bullet fired at any angle will maintian a velocity, and trajectory, as well as a rifled air flight. Which yes could kill a person.

SOOOOO, you're taking the facts and findings from both segments, while of the same myth just different scenarios, to "prove" that myth buster's isn't reliable because their findings from one experiment aren't the same from another with different variables.

2) I did not see that episode, therefore, I have no comment.

3) The episode where they attempted to cut the balistic's man in half with the cable was done very well, they covered all issues with the myth, and attempted to cut the man down in the most severe possibility. A highly tensioned cable was anchored to a point, the man stood X amount of feet away, the cable was then wrapped 90* around a pole to achieve the maximum whipping action achievable. And yet they were not able to do so. The results were very brutal. The whip had enough force to break bones and do severe damage, but never once had any indication that it even had a chance to cut someone in half. Could it kill someone? Of course it could, that isn't being argued though. But, IT WILL NOT CUT SOMEONE IN HALF.

As well, you used 3 examples of the over 100 episodes they have done. Yes they have had some experiments they needed to revisit because the myth was not reproduced in its full accuracy. I'd say their impecable success rate is one that is more than reliable to base findings on.