No matter what car you drive, or what terrain is your favorite safety on the tracks, for both passengers, spectators and you should be the #1 concern, and when things start to go pear shaped, rash decisions and inadequate preparation are always a recipe for disaster, time and time again, people head out into the bush completely unprepared for safe driving and safe offroad recoveries.

For this reason, we are going to run over a handful of surefire ways to increase the safety of your 4WD and offroad recoveries for years to come!

First things first is making sure you are fully equipped with recovery gear that is up to standard-  if there is any doubt in your mind at all about the condition of your gear you should retire it IMMEDIATELY!

By prolonging the use of gear that has seen better days you increase the likelihood of your gear having a catastrophic failure. Whilst these catastrophic failures are becoming less and less likely with the increase in affordable and safe recovery gear, people still try and milk the most out of their old recovery kits, putting not only themselves but everyone they are on the tracks with, in danger.

We strongly advocate double checking your recovery gear status every time before you head out on the tracks, to make sure that nothing can go wrong!

WHAT TO LOOK FOR?

When assessing your gear, it is important to make sure that it is in tip top condition, this includes fraying fibers, discolouration, loose stitching, cracks in metal gear, and missing paint. All of these things are indicators that your gear is about to give up the ghost. It’s a really good idea to unroll all of your straps to make sure that the entire strap is healthy, and that both end loops are free from loose stitching and still have the reinforcement covers in place!

By laying out all of your shackles, removing their pins, and inspecting all components, closely, you should easily be able to identify any heavy wearing that may have occurred whilst they are floating around the back of your 4WD or during recoveries on the tracks the last time you were out.

whilst it may look cool leaving your shackles hanging from your recovery points, these locations are often prone to scraping on rocks and getting mud and water sprayed in them, often leading to the potential of corrosion in the threads, leaving you stranded when you need them most!

Don’t forget to unspool your winch to inspect for any damage, modern synthetic winch ropes like the kind found in a Domin8r X 12,000lb winch offer 4WDers so many advantages over the older steel counterparts, however they can still wear down over time and respond poorly to abrasion and sharp surfaces. If you have any obvious fluffy spots, or fibers that are broken, its time to spool on a new winch cable!

DIRT AND GRUB!

Keeping your recovery gear clean is critical to its longevity, when snatching out of deep mud puddles or winching through sloppy surfaces it is almost inevitable that your recovery gear will get filthy dirty! Your snatch strap and winch cable will get dirty and dusty.
This seems pretty obvious, however you may not be aware of the damage dirt can do to the internal fibers of your recovery gear, being woven from many smaller fibers, muddy recovery gear actually has small spaces between the fibers that are now packed full of dirt, sand and dried mud, which are actually quite abrasive, the abrasiveness means that when the fibers are put under the extraordinary tension experienced when you are recovering a 4WD, the abrasive particles cut into the strands of your strap and can mean your strap or winch rope breaks from the inside out!

This is why it is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that you maintain your 4WD recovery gear and keep everything as clean as a whistle for the safest recoveries possible!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaxAEPRy710[/embedyt]

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR GEAR

It may be tempting to do the lazy thing and try chucking your snatch strap or winch cable into the washing machine on a spin cycle, with a scoop or two of your average clothes detergent-  this is a big no-no, and the harsh caustic chemicals in clothes detergent can damage your straps.

To clean your gear, you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty!

By unrolling your favorite snatch strap or un-spooling your winch rope, you can begin to wash them by hand, first start off with a bucket of clean fresh water, and a couple of drops of your favorite dish soap. By slowly working loose the fibers of the strap/cable you can allow the soapy water to pull all of the abrasive dirt particles out of the tightly packed fibers without damaging them.

The next step to cleaning your straps is to give them a good and thorough rinse to remove any excess soap, this is best done in a bucket of clean water, rinse it through until the water is clear.

Once your recovery gear is clean, you should let it dry in a well ventilated shady area – once it is dry you can pack it back into your car and re-spool it back onto your winch drum ready to escape on the tracks!

SAFE USAGE OF SNATCH!

There are a million ways to swing a cat, but there are only a few ways to perform safe recoveries.

If you’ve ever been involved in working at elevations, rock climbing or abseiling, you would be aware that setting up safely requires having redundancies in place, for the off chance that something disastrous (outside your predictions) might happen. This same rule for having a “backup plan” is applicable to 4WD recoveries too!

With a fully loaded Landcruiser weighing nearly 4000Kg – the forces involved in getting one out of trouble are tremendous, so taking due diligence in a recovery situation could save you a massive headache!

When rigging up a snatch recovery there are a few steps you should follow for success;

Firstly unroll your strap between your two vehicles, making sure you have no twists along its length, by making sure the strap is straight means you wont damage the shackles at either end, when the weight is taken up.

The next step is to overlap a section towards the middle of the strap by 1m in a ‘Z’ shape, this 1m overlap allows the towing vehicle to gather enough momentum to pre-stretch the snatch strap and store as much Kinetic energy as possible, this ‘z’ is the secret to a successful snatch recovery, and without it you will typically put your 4WD through more stress than absolutely necessary.

The 1m rule ensures the maximum chance of success – another thing to consider is your point of connection, by using a rated shackle to a rated recovery point you dramatically reduce the risk of the attachment becoming a dangerous projectile – things like tow-balls and tie down loops are often mistaken by uneducated 4WDers as being ideal for recoveries. A tow-ball in the wrong circumstance can become a projectile and at best the strap could slip off potentially launching at your rear window giving a large amount of sudden ventilation.

When connecting to a recovery point on your vehicle, tightening the shackle up all the way, then unscrewing by a half of a turn, will allow the shackle to stretch with the recovery and by not being bound all the way tight, you can easily remove it from the vehicle, whether the recovery was successful or not.

Bear in mind, one of the biggest reasons you got stuck in the first place is by burying your 4WD up to its frame or axles in sand, mud or dirt. One of the easiest things you can do to reduce the amount of force required in getting your 4WD free is by taking a shovel and clearing the obstruction out of the way of your undercarriage, this greatly increases the likelihood of both driving out and the snatch strap not slamming your vehicles chassis with a massive jolt!

Hopefully with these tips and tricks will give a better insight into how to increase your 4WD safety on the tracks, and with these tips in mind, give you an advantage when things don’t quite go to plan!