Recovery equipment
Thread Starter
|
More Turbo
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 539
Likes: 1
From: San Mateo, CA
Recovery equipment
I just got back from a day trip to the mountains. We were hoping for an awesome day on the slopes. Only problem was the avalanche zone between us and the slopes, a small 2 mile section called Carson Spur, was closed. Normally they can get it open by 9 or 10 but this day the sheriff came by a little after 10am to announce, to the line of cars waiting, that the spur would not be opening this day. Something about the 8.5' of snow in the previous 4 days. So rather than turn around and drive 3 hours home we decided to grab the snowshoes and pack the skis to the top of an old abandoned ski resort, Iron Mountain. Well I must say the first turns of a season in light & fluffy powder is something I live for. However the 1.5 hour hike back out was somewhat grueling and offered much time for reflection.
Which is when I remembered that every piece of recovery equipment I owned was in my Mazda B4000 when it was stolen in late August. I now own an 01 F150, supercab, 4x4 w/ the offroad package and need to buy tools to get myself(and others I might come across) out of a snow bank, ditch, etc.
I used to carry a strap w/ hooks, shovel, come-a-long, rope, hammer,assorted blocks of wood and chains. Most of my tools stayed in the truck as well.
I'm hoping some people out there have real world experience with this type of equipment and can recommend what works and advise against products that are more useless or dangerous than helpful. The police up in the mountains cruise around in Expeditions with a pretty cool bumper and winch combo but I probably won't go with a winch because of the cost.
On the straps there some with loops, some with hooks and some with clips on the hooks. I'll probably choose a strap with the clip on the hook so the strap won't fly off and smack one of the vehicles- a lesson learned the hard way. That was when I learned about weighting down the middle of the strap.
On the come-a-long what weight capacity would serve and what length of cable is most useful?
Obviously a high lift jack would be on the list as well. Can anyone recommend a quality jack that's economical(because hopefully I'll never have to use it).
Thanks & sorry for the long post.
Tim
Which is when I remembered that every piece of recovery equipment I owned was in my Mazda B4000 when it was stolen in late August. I now own an 01 F150, supercab, 4x4 w/ the offroad package and need to buy tools to get myself(and others I might come across) out of a snow bank, ditch, etc.
I used to carry a strap w/ hooks, shovel, come-a-long, rope, hammer,assorted blocks of wood and chains. Most of my tools stayed in the truck as well.
I'm hoping some people out there have real world experience with this type of equipment and can recommend what works and advise against products that are more useless or dangerous than helpful. The police up in the mountains cruise around in Expeditions with a pretty cool bumper and winch combo but I probably won't go with a winch because of the cost.
On the straps there some with loops, some with hooks and some with clips on the hooks. I'll probably choose a strap with the clip on the hook so the strap won't fly off and smack one of the vehicles- a lesson learned the hard way. That was when I learned about weighting down the middle of the strap.
On the come-a-long what weight capacity would serve and what length of cable is most useful?
Obviously a high lift jack would be on the list as well. Can anyone recommend a quality jack that's economical(because hopefully I'll never have to use it).
Thanks & sorry for the long post.
Tim
Recovery equipment
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
cowlady
General NON-Automotive Conversation
4
Dec 11, 2003 09:36 PM
