Although none of us likes to admit it, getting stuck is just part and parcel of taking your 4×4 or SUV off-road. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most careful 4WDer ever, there’s going to be a time when that ‘little mud puddle’ turns into something a lot nastier and catches you by surprise. And then there’s those amongst us who live and breathe tough 4WDing, and head out with our mates every weekend to challenge ourselves and our 4x4s against the biggest, worst hills we can find!

Whether you fit into Category A, Category B or somewhere in between, the one thing that should be in every car is a proper 4×4 recovery kit. It doesn’t even matter if you have an electric winch or not – if you carry a good selection of recovery gear, you’ll almost always be equipped to get yourself out of trouble. It’s also very good practice that even if you’re by yourself and someone stops to help, that you use your own recovery gear to get you out of trouble.

The Hercules Complete Recovery Kit is the perfect 4×4 recovery kit to keep in the back of your 4WD for emergency situations because it has just about everything you’d want in a recovery kit. Here’s what you should look for in a 4WD recovery kit, what it does and when to use it.

SNATCH STRAP: The most commonly-used bit of gear. A good 4wd snatch strap has a certain amount of ‘stretch’ designed into it, like a giant rubber band. When the towing vehicle takes off, the snatch strap stretches a little, and as it recoils it ‘pops’ the stuck vehicle up and free. Use it on the beach, or if a 4×4 is stuck in the middle just a little bit, like when it sits on its diffs in a rut, spinning tyres.

EXTENSION STRAP: Often you won’t be able to get the recovering vehicle close enough to the bogged 4WD to connect the winch cable or the snatch strap straight up. In this case, you can use an extension strap to cover the extra distance. Works beautifully with the Grande Mk3 or the Domin8r X winches, but can also be connected to one end of a snatch strap by passing one eyelet through the other, and using a large branch at least three inches in diameter to stop it coming undone. NOTE: Never use a shackle to connect two snatch straps together.

TREE TRUNK PROTECTOR: When you’re winching off a tree, you can very quickly kill even the biggest tree if you just wrap your winch cable around it. You’ll end up ring-barking the tree. Use a tree-trunk protector wrapped around the tree as an anchor point for your winch hook. If you need to winch off the back of another vehicle that has a removable towbar, you can remove the towbar and feed one end of the tree-trunk protector in, securing with the towing hitch pin to provide a solid anchor point on the other end of the tree-trunk protector.

DAMPENER/AIRBRAKE: Vehicle recoveries deal with massive forces, and sometimes things go wrong. We’ve seen rated recovery points simply pull straight out of the vehicle’s chassis rail. Whether you’re winching or snatching, you should always use a dampener over the snatch strap or the winch cable. If something breaks, it’ll happen at the moment when there’s maximum tension on the strap or cable, and the dampener will ensure that tension doesn’t slingshot a broken recovery point through your rear winch. Always, always use one.

PROPER RATED SHACKLES: Even large hardware store shackles simply aren’t rated anywhere near close enough for 4WD duties. We’ve tested our shackles and literally broke the test jig before the shackle let go. Always carry a pair of rated 4.7t bow shackles to use in connecting your strap or cable.

SNATCH BLOCK: Sometimes even the toughest winch won’t cut the mustard – some recoveries are just that difficult! If your winch is struggling, doubling the winch hook back to the vehicle by running the cable through a snatch block effectively doubles the winch’s pulling power. Also useful if you need to change the direction of a winch cable if you can’t get straight at the bogged vehicle for instance.

And the best part is the Hercules Complete Recovery Kit has everything you need in it, for about the same price as just buying a single snatch strap from some other places! Along with everything listed above, you get a folding shovel that’s perfect for digging yourself out of tight spots, a Kwiky tyre deflator for adjusting tyre pressures on the run, and a heavy-duty canvas carry bag to store it all in. Buy one, put it in the back of your 4×4 and you’ll always have the gear you need to get you out of just about any situation.