I have a BUNCH of buddy's coming over next Tuesday do go wheeling in my field. There will be lots of diffrent trucks. I will get pictures of it with my camra for you guys. I have 60' Of chain and more will come I have a Farmall H with duals on it and my blue truck- I will not take my 78 out thier unless I have to recover. It ranges from hard slick mud to deep suppy mud to my tank with about 3' of water. Any tips on recovery???
Dustin

 

Unless your running decent hp and good tires, your probably gonna want a tractor...

Ive got an F350 and have never been pulled out by anything but a tractor.

 

Ditch the chain and get a few nylon tow straps. if that chain snaps, very bad things happen.

 

My truck is only recovery it will not be a wheeling truck. I will use the farmall H DRW
I guess

 

How could your truck be used for recovery?
4x2 78 F-250 with low clearance and street tires right?

I think you have the right idea just stick with the tractor.

 

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no!

Bad things happen when STRAPS break because they s-t-r-e-t-c-h and will fly back at you when they break at incredible speeds. The BIG danger is when you have a clevis or some other metal chunk attached to the end of the strap (or in the middle like when people attach 2 together end to end). If something lets loose it can send that clevis flying fast enough to kill.

Chains do not stretch. When a chain breaks it falls to the ground and doesn't go flying through the air. They're a MUCH safer way to go. We weren't hearing about people's heads being crushed until the nylon straps became popular. The advantage to the straps is they do have that stretch and they can actually increase the pull force but you need to take proper precautions to make sure you're safe.

If you use straps throw a blanket, jacket, etc. over the middle of it so if it snaps it'll stop at that object and not fly back at you. Try to avoid using 2 straps attached to each other. If you must then you need a blanket over the middle of each individual strap, not over the clevis you use to attach them.

Tow smart. Tow S-mart!

 

Ivan-

have you ever broken a chain? Personally, I have not. I would be curious to see what would happen. People claim that winch cable doesn't fly through the air, but I don't believe that. BTW, chain does stretch, just not any where near the ammount that nylon does.

However, I do agree that you should NOT attach tow straps like that.

 

No my tires on my 78 a 265 MT tire I have used the truck many times to extract people it works WELL for me as I don't want a truck that hawls going down the road and eats tires every 30K-My truck is prectical for ME!
Chains I will use Because straps are a joke They are for wussy wanna-be people They streach and land in your back seat- I use chains and chains only They are way safer ha
I

 

I've broken chain. Its all we used back in the day. Heres the thing (to expand on what you've guys already discussed): the nylon straps are the most dangereous because all it is is a giant sling shot...this was all covered pretty good. Heavy logging cable won't really snap back on you, but winch cable will. Its smaller diameter and lower rating makes it more elastic, and since you'll have a hook on the end it can still spell disaster. Guys have been killed by winch lines snapping back.

More about chain. If you use the mundo logging chain its about the safest of the bunch. Only broken one once years ago and it just dropped to the ground like Ivan said. You still run the risk of a broken link rocketing off, but chances are very slim. The stuff I had probably wouldn't have even broke except it was some old logging chain that had been through hell and gone. The problem is, very few folks using chain are using the good stuff. The stuff they are using is the much more readily found lighter weight that also has a good deal more elasticity. I've seen these break and snap back hard enough to hit the tailgate...not with much force mind you since the weight of the chain is still forcing it downwards, but still. With this stuff you do run a real risk of flying links. I'd rather see guys running nylon than cheap chain. Yes, even the best stuff you can buy at Ace or Home Depot is still cheap chain. Remember, chain isn't designed to be shockloaded, and unless you get the serious stuff it can and will break.

Ivan covered this all pretty well, I just thought I'd expand on the chain/cable aspect of it having used it all. Besides, can you trust a guy who doesn't have a front driveline in his 4x4?

 

i've broke heavy chain from the mines and they don't just fall to the ground links go off like a bullet, very hay wire
but chain is still the best way to go

ivan chain does stretch




have fun can't wait to see the pics

 

i like my synthetic rope winch rope ... so far i have pulled myself out a couple of times, a few full sizes, numerous compacts, and even my 4x4 tractor when the front tires were buried.

DO NOT use light gauge chain to ****** and DO NOT ****** with small straps. use common sense and make everyone stand back. don't forget the blanket to drape across the chain/strap

-cutts-

 

Yes, all metal has some degree of elasticity, but depending on the chain it can be hardly neglible to visibly obvious. Kind of like even a grade 8 bolt stretchs but you can't measure it by eye, where as a lesser grade you can.

Personally, my preferred method of extraction is a heavy chain with a steady pull from a skidder/cat, or if you have to be snatched use one heavy nylon strap connected to the vehicles by a hard mounted heavy clevis on either end. Nothing on the ends of the straps, no hooks.

Things to think about before you do some XTREME! field wheeling.

 

Right on, Pro!

Down here in Florida, there usually isn't any equipment handy, so we have to use trucks for extraction. I have an 8" clevis I loop over my receiver mount (not the slide in hitch) and attach one strap to that. On the other end of the strap, I take 1/2" grade 70 chain and loop around each side of the frame. Then drop each end of the chain through the strap loop, and hook it back to itself (sounds complex but really isn't). All the stress is then concentrated on 2 sections of chain, the strap loops and the 4 bolts that mount my hitch to the frame. No real potential for projectiles. We often also loop a strap around a reese mount and then clevis it shut. This forces the stress to be on two loops of strap material and not the clevis pin. Over the years we have broken some of just about everything, cheap chain, straps, frame horns, bumper mounts, and once even sheared a ball shank. The best thing to do is use common sense, buy the best recovery equipment you can afford, and keep everyone far away from the recovery attempt. And, most importantly, have a sober person attempt to pull the guy out.

Ernie

 

Simple highschool physics (again what pro and ivan have said) will show that a HEAVY (the good stuff thats designed for pulling, which does stretch a certain amount, we have about 100 feet of the stuff for hooking up to stuck 4wd with duals on all four cornors tractors) chain will drop to the ground before it can go anywhere.

But for towropes, the only ones we use on the farm are the big suckers (we have a 10" double ply, frickin huge), and we always use a clevis is possible, or a chainstrapped around an axle with a clevis and the tow rope hooked to the clevis. The best times to use a rope is when your vehicle is smaller or the same size as the stuck vehicle (in my expierence on the farm), as often times you need the multiplication in pulling force to pop them out (again simple high school physics will show this) but it varies from stuck to stuck.

Always drap an old blanket or something over the middle of the rope or chain, as if a chain is going to break its generally going to be in middle, and a coat or blanket can help prevent this, ever seen a broken link break a camper window (pulling a 2wd tractor out and the chain snapped in the middle and unfortunately an old beater truck was close enough to get hit)?

 

Around the Axle? Was it trussed? aaaahhhhh!

(For the unexperienced)- Doesnt have to be a blanket, coat, towel or anything... You can use anything that is decent in weight like another chain or your little brother or something.
Also, If youre going to use a towel, dip it in water first, it will be a lot more effective than a dry one in hte rare event (yet not so rare) that the chain/tow strap breaking...