I know you were joking, I just used your statement to set up my drunk driver pulling out his drunk buddy with a chain statement

I once saw someone try to pull someone out with a chain that snapped and in the ensuing events, hit another vehicles undercarraige, ignited the gas tank, and burned alive a similiar family of 5 that just happened to be passing by on their way to church for the wedding of their daughter... Tragic... ok, maybe its not true, but chains are still very dangerous. Let this families tragic story be a lesson to you.

Stay safe everyone.

 

Damn, I am going to regret getting involved in this! But this is getting out of hand and I got to say something. I can and will defend any of my fact and statements, but I need to post and run for few days, sorry.

Everything ya'll said about chains is in some way wrong! It is normally including, "I heard", "a friend said" or does not have all the information. There is a BIG difference between chains, ****** straps, cables and tow straps and the fact or getting confused here.

1) If you use a 20' chain to hook a truck to a tree, slowly ease the truck away from the tree, the chain will become taught and stress will buiild in the chain to its breaking point, if the chain breaks one foot behind the truck, the other 19' of chain does only one thing, IT FALLS TO THE GROUND!! This is a result of the laws of physics!

2) If you did the exact same thing as above but the chain breaks one foot from the tree, the other 19' of chain will do two things, fall to the ground and start to move around in a way to follow the now moving truck it is attached to. The only way the chain will hit the truck is because the both of them are now moving 10mph forward until the truck hits the brakes, the chain does not have brakes, so the chain hits the truck at 10mph. This is the common cause of some damage, but a 100lb chain moving at 10mph can really do some damage.

3) Do the same as above however the chain does not break, the chain has been attached to the tree using a 5' ****** strap wrapped around the tree. Now when you start pulling slowly the energy of the truck is used to strecth the strap and it is being stored there until the strach can recole. When the strap breaks the energy is released quickly and the strap goes flying. The 5lb 5' strap will try to jump towards the truck but will be weighed down by the 100lb 20' of chain attached to it. The result will be the same as above in #2, with a little more movement and excitement, unless you are standing directlly next to the strap, first 5'.

4) Now attach the 20' chain to the tree and use the 5' ****** strap at the truck. The chain comes off the tree after the energy of the truck has been loaded into the starp. When the starp goes to recoil, it will jerk that chain towards the truck very quickly, accelarating the chains from 10 mph to ?25mph?, not much more because the chain is so heavy. A 100lb chain at 25mph can total a trucks body work or a persons body.

5) One more example, use a 20' ****** strap and 5' of chain. Hook the chain to the tree and strap to the truck. As is #4 above this is bad. You now have 4x the stored energy in the strap and 1/4 the weight of the chain when it breaks! You now have a 25lb chain flying towards the back of the truck at a few hundred mph and will total the whole truck and anybody near by.

Chains don't store energy! Cables, tow straps and snacth straps do! (increasing in that order)
Chains don't strech! Cables, tow straps and snacth straps do! (increasing in that order)

If you are jerking with a chain then you are not smart. If it does not break the chain it WILL break the truck because there is no shock absorber. The only reason a jerked chain will hit something is because of the fact that the truck started it moving and it will continue to move as fast as the truck until it hits something. "Bad" stories only come from this type of impact if people are up to no good to start with, if a dumby wants to back up to jerk another truck with a 40' chain and gets up to 15mph before it gets taught then a 200lb chain moving at 15mph will make for a "bad" story.
The true urban legends are when chains are used WITH a cable or strap and that part gets left out of the story. Because those or not urban legends and I DO have pictures to prove it.

The safest recovery method is a slow gradualy pull with a chain!

The most dangerous recovery method is a quick hard jerk with a ****** strap!

Which do I use? The ****** strap of course! But it must be used correctlly and with the proper cleves. The chain is too damn heavy, noisy in the back of the truck and when do you ever have a chance to be slow and steady! That not my style, I just could not listen to any more stories about flying and jumping chains without saying something.

OK, ya'll pick this apart, have your fun, tell your legends, tell me how wrong I am when I know I'm right and I'll be back in a few days to check on ya'll. In the mean time I would rather see a freshman off-roader use a simple chain until they learn from the right people how to use a strap.

 

Bravo, good post, if you couldnt tell, my posts were intended to make people smile, I like humor. good way of explaining things.

 

Thanks, Josh. I didn't mean to be a spoiler and I am a real fun guy, I am just having a bad day. I am sorry the post got that long!! See what happens when ya'll get me on my soap box. By the way I was a freshman off-roader at one time and learned the hard way. It is lucky I survived my early years, LOL!

 

I agree that a chain is good for a "slow gradual pull", just like you said. I even said, I'd rather use a chain if the truck is not stuck to bad, b/c it is simpler than taking out my nice 30 foot strap getting it covered it mud, then haveing to put all that back in the bed of the truck, and going wash it off when I get back latter(a 10 foot chain is easier to handle, tighten up and pull out, and no clean up(other than the truck)).

But I have seen a chain break.... but it is because it was being used to jerk! When it was jerked, it broke at it's shock load(which isn't that much), and I've seen a few cases where back glasses were broken or tail gates have been F*ed up.

You are talking about a person tighten it up a chain and then getting enough force built up to break the chain(which would be at it's WWL or static limit, which is a LOT higher than the shock load), and you are right, there will not be much damage done in this situation. There's a couple things about this: I've never seen ANY body tighten up a chain and get enough 'traction' to break it(a good chain now...not a swing set chain, come on guys). And I(and I asume others) was talking about what can happen when a chain is being used to jerk.

 

haha, yeah. I am pretty sure everybody has done something that looking back on it they say, how the heck did i live through that. I will now tell a short story I am not particularily proud of. Not entirely four wheel related, but definately off-road.

While moving equipment home from the field, I decided to take a shortcut through an old dried up slough. It had been a dry last few years, so I figured no problem. So I took of pulling the haybine with the John Deere 4230. Got about halfway through and then things got bad. Haybine (think a swather that you pull behind a tractor) was just to heavy and it sank like a brick. I managed to get unhooked, which was quite an ordeal, having to dig under mud and water just to find the hitch pin... Managed to drive the tractor out, but now I had to get the haybine out before it disappeared.

The Haybine was probably a good 100 feet from dry ground, and I wouldnt be able to pull it out if the tractor was in mud, so i cobbled together all of the recovery items i could find. big mixture of chain, towropes and recovery straps. Hooked the Haybine from behind and was attempting to pull it out backwards. I was hiding down low as far as I could get in the cab anticipating something breaking, the only thing that didnt survive was the tow strap. Chain was 3/4 inch chain, and tow rope was probably 2 inch. The strap was def. the weak link.

Luckily, the rear window in the tractor stayed in tact, chain recoiled a good amount, hitting the back of the tractor, probably could have been aleviated if i put them in a different order.

Wow, that got kinda long. Ok, now everybody, DONT DO WHAT I DID!

at least I got it out, though

 

MBBFord, you are right. What happens when a chain is used to jerk is example #2.

It would be the same as if you had 20' of chain in your arms and you throw it at the back of your truck (damn you must be strong caus I can't do that), it would F*up the tailgate and break the back glass if you hit it. There is no stored earth shattering energy in a chain that must by released. Just the power of weight in motion. With the weight of a chain being high, it is strongly recommended to keep the motion at low speed. There is no whiplash or recoil energy in a chain.

I would rather be hit by a chain weighing 10lb (just the part that accually hit you) traveling at a few mph, then whiped by a lite cable or strap traveling at a few hundred mph!

 

I would prefer being whipped by neither, but whatever you do behind closed doors is none of my business

 

Cute Josh, I didn't see that one coming until it hit me!

 

Until what hit you? the pun or the whip?

 

Just gunna share a real world experience, not a "friend said" or "i heard".
i watched a guy trying to pull down a barn frame with a chain (maybe 15 ft long) mind you this was a logging chain. it parted company with itself about 1 ft behind his truck, the other part whent through both sets of wall studs and all the way through the barn and out the other wall studs. that was easing into it with a 460 f250 in 4LO.

i think the absolute best way to pull, whether in a pull off or for recovery is the chain with the hard clear plasitic tubing over it (cant remember the proper term for it... ) that keeps water and other corrosives from damaging the chain and weakening it, cause only the last few links are exposed and if those get rusted you can just cut it and move to fresh ones.

agreed with soilman, ive seen nylon recovery straps go, and i would def. NOT want to get hit with one of those!

 

Just talking about things breaking. I showed up where one of my buddys was stuck, and there where two people there watching. There was one truck getting ready to attempt to pull him out, and I started looking at their set up... it was a chain and a ****** strap, the truck started to jurk, and I jumped behind a fallen tree, and one guy looked at me like I was stupid, and the other joined me. Well the strap popped, but it went the oposite dirrection and took out a couple of SMALL chicken trees and left a ugly scare on a large pine tree towards the stuck truck. Well, the guy that looked at me like I was stupid got down with me and the other guy the next time they attempted something. I left after that... I didn't want to die.

 

I made a little mistake in my wording above. There is no backlash or recoil in a chain. There may be some whiplash in a chain, that is part of what causes the problem in the moving chain. Whiplash would be when you are pulling on a angle or around something. The chain moves at 10mph but then turns a corner and centrificial forces speeds the end of it up to a faster speed.

I saw a 2" ball go through the tailgate, through the front of the bed and dent the back of the cap on a full size Jeep truck. I think they are just single wall construction? The guy put the loop of a ****** strap over a 2" pull of another truck and I was about 40' away.

I had a 25' 4" strap ONLY break right at the back bumper of the other truck and all of at wodded up on itself and went through my 1977 grill, radiator and wrap around the turning fan of my engine before it cut off.

I have a good chain tatoo on the back of my 1977 from a ten foot chain that was on the end of a 25' strap. You can count every lent by the dents.

I have a nice cable tatoo on the top of the cab and back tailgate when the winch cable snapped and the angle made it go over the truck and give me a spanking from behide.

I pulled out my back driveshaft and break lines when the cable fly under the truck on it way out the back. Stubid, I had no ancher points in front of me or no tackle points around me and I needed to go backwards anyway. I route the cable straight down under the truck axles and anchored to a tree behind me. The sharp angle out of the winch bumper cut the cable and off it went wraping around the back drive shaft and removing it. The truck was not even in gear and moving so it was the motion of the cable alone that did that.

What are the odds? I was having a pull off with someone with a chain on dry dirt. The chain broke in the exact middle. I of course leaped forward but slowed down easyly because I had room and the chain did not get me. The other guy leaped forward and imediatly slamed on breaks and the chain smacked his tailgate.

I have seen a 25' 6" strap get wraped around a Chevy bumber and feed thruogh its own loop. The first thing it did is pull tight around the bumber and made it as small as a 2" pipe. On the second jerk the whole bumber came off and flew at the Ford to get the back right corner and tailgate. $4000 damage to Ford.

I have many times used two 25' 6" straps with one looped through the other without any cleves in the middle. Backed up to within 5' and other truck and nailed the gas for all it was worth, may doing 30mph before a was simply forced by nature to recoil backwords when the anchor was heavier then me. That makes for a hairy ride, you got the go from gas to break quick and hold your breath. The dentist said I didn't really need those teeth the streering wheel knocked out anyway.

I have jerked on an old Yota with 38" tires struck up to the frame. After a jerk with no result the Yota guy said I knew the Ford coundn't get me out. I said I can get you out but she is really stuck and we might want to rethink this. The Yota guy said was just my sorry truck so I told him to hang on and pray for the best. The best I could do was bring the frame and body 20' on the next strong pull and both axles and springs with tire were in the same place. He did shut up after that.

I used a ****** block (pully) to winch a Ford out around a 90 degree turn. When the cable broke it came back and wraped around and into the anchor tree about 2". I had to come back with a chain saw and tourch to get my cable and block.

I watch my brother use a winch at a angle with the truck in such a bind that it twisted the whole chassis and the doors would not shut again. 2x4 F100 with a 15,000lb winch, Ha,Ha,HA!

Remeber is your truck weights 7000lb and it is moving at 10mph then 70,000lb of force is on the thing hooking you together.

The best way to do any of this is with a wet blanket drapped over the strap, cable or chain. Any energy is used in trying to wave that big surface area of a heavy wet blanket around in the air with stops them cold most of the time.

Blessmud, evidently the barn wood was flexing some and built up some energy that needed to return to its nature shape that caused your example.