The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure. Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping.

[DadJokes]

Yes this correct, but I’ve never seen it work, at least in the sugar sand mud/ clay mud crap we have around here. In fact, this is what usually happens.

Sounds like suction in your cases there.

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[sourdough]

I'm also suddenly became convinced to add two dampers to my recovery gear. Thanks, @wibornz, for sharing your experience.

Yes, two:

Haha, That video is how to properly load a kenetic strap. Not like in wibonz(how not to)video.

 

[Mx5red]

So up wheeling over the weekend and been in 2wd all weekend. The trails are sandy and no real threat of getting stuck..... well or so I thought.

We are leading the pack as normal. Enter a water hole and bam stuck we are. Out comes our kinetic rope. The 2nd Jeep drives around the water hole and hooks up to pull us out. We are not super stuck. Should be an easy recovery. My bud gives it a yank and the kinetic rope breaks.

Turn up the sound. It sounds like a rifle shot through the woods.

The rope come back to my Jeep and destroys the winch control box, and winch solenoid. Then hits the grille and bust the grille insert and caves in the AC condenser. I unhook the positive cable to winch to ensure that the exploded wires do not turn the winch or or ground out the battery. Luck is on my side though as the A/C condenser is not leaking and we still have air. We continue wheeling the rest of the day without issue.

A/C condenser

Grille insert

Winch Control box

Get home and today, finish ordering everything I need.

Bought a new Warn winch to replace the Smitybuilt X2O. The cost to get a new control box,, solenoid and wireless control module and I had planned on replacing the synthetic rope in the near future, it just made sense to upgrade to the WARN and have a new winch. The Smitybuilt had served me well, but I just could not see dropping approx 400 to 450 into the Smitybuilt winch when that money could be used to upgrade to the Warn.

I bought this for a winch $840 of Amazon. About $50 cheaper than anywhere I could find it on the web.
Warn VR EVO 12-S Winch with Synthetic Rope

I ordered a new Gladiator center grille insert. $23 at the dealer. I could find it for $13 on the web, but by the time I added shipping, most places were at the $45 range. Score one for the dealer.

The new A/C condenser was $54 + shipping and total cost was $75. I will still have to pay someone to drain the old system and recharge it after I install the condenser so there is no total cost on this.

Bought a new kinetic rope from Factor 55. Cost $170

Just the cost of wheeling.

Some pics leading up to it and the weekend in general.

Pic of the Jeep and camper heading home after the weekend.

out on the trails

Drone flight through our base camp at a lake that is off the beating path in Northern Michigan.

ouch!
I love how you hid some light bars beneath your fenders. Looks stock, good job.

 

[Roky]

Sounds like suction in your cases there.

Yeah.....took my winch, with another Rubi hooked to my rear bumper anchoring, to get this guy out, lol.

When he came out , he brought this with him, lol....

 

[hoag4147]

So up wheeling over the weekend and been in 2wd all weekend. The trails are sandy and no real threat of getting stuck..... well or so I thought.

We are leading the pack as normal. Enter a water hole and bam stuck we are. Out comes our kinetic rope. The 2nd Jeep drives around the water hole and hooks up to pull us out. We are not super stuck. Should be an easy recovery. My bud gives it a yank and the kinetic rope breaks.

Turn up the sound. It sounds like a rifle shot through the woods.

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The rope come back to my Jeep and destroys the winch control box, and winch solenoid. Then hits the grille and bust the grille insert and caves in the AC condenser. I unhook the positive cable to winch to ensure that the exploded wires do not turn the winch or or ground out the battery. Luck is on my side though as the A/C condenser is not leaking and we still have air. We continue wheeling the rest of the day without issue.

WOW. Not being there is hard to tell but looks like a simple pull not snatch would have been fine. He was definitely sending it front the start.

sorry to hear about all the damage Ted but glad everyone is good. Would hate to see that coming through the windshield

 

[4xFUN]

Thank goodness everyone is ok, could have been so much worse!
BTW, I hate mud! Well really, I just hate cleaning mud afterwards...

 

[Lapis]

Glad you're all OK and it wasn't too much damage to your Jeep.

I watched the video a couple times real slow. Looks like the vehicle pulling you out had some short (2-3ft) lead on his bumper that was connected to the kinetic rope and it failed where those two connected. Might not be a fault of your rope at all, I would try to stick to as few connections as possible (i.e. kinetic rope direct to shackle on bumper)

 

[rkwfxd]

That seamed like an overly enthusiastic tug.

 

[CaJLMetalHead]

This is not exactly the same product... but interesting video nevertheless:
Dangers of Snatch Strap Recoveries - Destruction Testing - YouTube

Dampers help... but I wonder if any of us will ever take the extra time to use them while
recovering

Here is the video (I converted it using an online converter... the original video uses
HEVC Codec (H.265) (not free to download anymore for Windows computers)

 

[HungryHound]

Sounds like suction in your cases there.

I'd agree with that. About 99% of the time I wreck, it's because of suction coming from the passenger

 

[SilverSurfer]

Some rookie mistakes in this recovery attempt:

1. No recovery dampener blanket were used.
2. No recovery safety lanyard were used.
3. The stuck vehicle needs to start spinning its wheels long before the recovery vehicle takes off.

I would not blame the kinetic rope, it is rather a practical example of Newton's third law.

 

[GATORB8]

I'd agree with that. About 99% of the time I wreck, it's because of suction coming from the passenger

You must not be married…

 

[wibornz]

And how old was that kinetic rope Ted? Exposed to sun much? Just trying to figure out if these things have a shelf life like synthetic rope.

No real exposure to the sun, when not traveling, it was stored in its bag in the garage, when traveling stored in the bag inside of the Jeep that has tinted windows. The rope was about 2 years old.

 

[wibornz]

Are you still enjoying the GeoPro?

I am. I like that I can control it with my phone.

 

[wibornz]

40+yrs. of wheeling, WOW! To bad the rope didn't go the other way. The guy doing the tugging is an idiot IMO. If the rope broke at his bumper connection, a double idiot. Rope connection is often the weak link.

The rope is connected with soft shackles at both ends.

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