Basic recovery gear suggestions / recommendations?

[Atomic-Mouse]

Keep an eye open on the classified, quite often there is someone selling a factory steel bumper, and winch plates are relatively cheap.

Sponsored

 

[wreck99]

Keep an eye open on the classified, quite often there is someone selling a factory steel bumper, and winch plates are relatively cheap.

I appreciate the heads up. I definitely like the look of the factory one with the bull bar. I also like the look of venator one where you can attach d-rings straight to it. Just going to shop around for a while until a deal comes along on something. Thanks!

 

[bllprk]

I grabbed a couple things at harbor freight today, a friend gifted me these d-rings, and I ordered 2pk of soft shackles on Amazon since they were cheaper online. Hopefully this will be a good start. I do plan to get a good kinetic rope and will continue to add to the kit. I appreciate all the advice here.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C497V6JJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Funny enough, the same friend has a 12,000 lb Badland winch that is new in the box he never used that he's willing to sell to me. I just have to find a bumper! Hoping in the next few months I can get that installed.

This is perfect for what you need. No need to over think or over buy. As long as you are with someone this will do 99% of what you will need. When wheeling with very capable jeeps (all with winches) we go to the tow strap first because its fast, easy, clean, and works.

One note, is mud is fun, but not later. The hours and hours of cleanup from excessive mud is not worth it. It's a major pain and you will be finding mud in your jeep for years to come.

 

[Jamrock]

I have learnt a lot about off road recovery from the youtube channel of Matt's Offroad Recovery. Some of his recoveries are extreme. However, you will learn a lot about recovery points, different kinds of ropes, shackles, redirection, etc.

Very entertaining...

 

[OrneryBear]

Remember if you are getting a kinetic recovery rope, size it for the pulling vehicle (your jeep), not the intended max size vehicle you are recovering.

If you get a big line thinking "This way I can pull out 1 ton trucks", you're not going to be able to use the stretch in the line and it will shock the hell out of both vehicles, potentially breaking something and injuring someone. Size it correctly and it will soften the yank and use the energy to pull on the vehicle needing recovery.

Also, don't be a doorknob and just full blast it like that dumbass jeep in that video recently where it broke and injured a guy in a bronco. Small low speed tugs to start.

AND one more thing, soft shackles are great, but make sure you aren't attaching them somewhere with a sharp edge. That sharp edge creates a force concentration that can damage or break the soft shackle (that's what happened in the video mentioned above). Put it around something with a nice size radius if possible. This is also why it's good to have both bow shackles and soft shackles because sometimes you need to get creative.

 

[jimcoffey62]

A major no-no is using a trailer hitch ball in your recovery rigging. Never do that. They might seem like they can handle the forces involved, but they can't and may become deadly projectiles.

Which is why I got a 2 inch receiver with a d ring. If you get stuck in Texas just wait approximately 1.5 minutes for Bubba to drive by in a truck. But I don't want to put my strap on his tow ball. I put my d-ring block into his 2" receiver hitch and now I have a safe point for him to pull me from.

I also have soft shackles, a come-along, a 30' strap, 10' tree saver strap, about 100' of sythetic winch line (otherwise known as rope), and some aluminum pulley's so I can use my mad engineering skills to generate mechanical advantage.

But the most useful item was a small shovel. I don't trust the folding kind. So I got a solid shovel that is 3' long and it slides under my front seat.

Equally useful was a yard stick - for seeing how deep or how tall that obstacle is. If you high center, or bury your differential it DRAMATICALLY increases the friction load on the pull.

Whereas if you are stuck in the mud or sand, but I can pull you without having to drag your axle through the dirt - the pull is pretty simple.

Sponsored