Whilst your 4WD might be one of the most capable on the tracks, one bad decision with your chosen line can make the difference between making it through easily and getting your 4WD seriously stuck. If you find yourself with the second option, you will absolutely need to pull out your recovery gear and get yourself dirty!

When you head out with all the right recovery gear, the task of getting your 4WD recovered is straight forward and hassle free, but now all of your recovery gear will be filthy and over time prematurely wear out!

So just like you wash your 4WD (albeit occasionally) you need to wash all of your recovery gear, there are some very important reasons for this, but firstly mud and dirt are made up of tiny abrasive particles, which impregnate the fibers of both webbing and winch lines, as you can imagine, all these tiny little knives hiding inside your straps are waiting to cut through all of the fibers within, gradually reducing the strength of the strap without you knowing.

As safety on the tracks is important it is critical to ensure that your recovery gear doesn’t fail you when you need it most, firstly the amount of energy in a recovery is enormous, and when you are asking dirty recovery gear to do more than it can you are asking for trouble, as the straps / rated lines are tensioned, not only do you compress the fibers tight against one another but you also cause a lot of internal friction.

This pressure can make straps and lines fail extremely quickly, resulting in a stuck 4WD as well as potential injuries for any spectators.

HOW DO I CLEAN MY GEAR?

To clean your recovery gear is extremely simple and should be done every time you come back from a trip where it was used. Firstly, you need to unroll /unspool the entire length of the strap or line, this will let you both visually inspect the strap for any damage encountered on the strap as well as checking where the most troublesome spots of dirt and mud are.

Just like when you wash your car, you should rinse your recovery gear before washing to loosen up all the excess dirt and debris, this will make the washing process much easier.

Take a large vessel like a plastic crate or a large bucket and fill it with water, we recommend not using any detergents, but rather plenty of water, and gradually massaging the line/strap as you go. Basically, the idea is to rinse your gear over and over until the water is no longer dirty, this will ensure any of the loose dirt particles have been flushed out of the fibers, resulting in your gear lasting so much longer.

HOW DO I STORE MY GEAR?

Once your recovery gear has been thoroughly cleaned, you now need to dry it, whilst it may seem like a great idea to hang it on the line, you should if possible avoid prolonged periods of time in direct sunlight, as sunlight degrades synthetic materials extremely quickly. So hang your recovery straps and winch rope in a well ventilated shady place, and when they are dry, roll them like normal and store them in a cool dry place to avoid mould and mildew from deteriorating the fibers!

When you buy a recovery kit like the Hercules Complete Recovery Kit, or a Hercules Essential Recovery Kit you will have some of the best value for money recovery gear in the country, however, if you maintain the gear, you will get so much more life out of it, making it that much better value!