Basic Vehicle Recovery for Off Road or Overland Driving
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ย. 2020
- Join us in taking a look at the basic skillset necessary for safe and successful off road vehicle recovery. This video covers one of the most important aspects of vehicle recovery: how to roughly calculate the forces necessary to extract a stuck and/or damaged vehicle. All you need to estimate the pull required to move a vehicle is the weight of the vehicle, roughly how stuck it is, what slope you are on, and if the vehicle is damaged or not. This basic information will allow you to calculate the minimum force required to move the stuck vehicle, and from there you can look at the recovery points on the vehicle and any winches, straps, shackles, and other equipment that will be used in rigging the recovery pull.
It is critical to know how much forces will be involved with a recovery situation so that you can stay within the working load limit of all recovery points and equipment. This will ensure a safe and hopefully successful recovery. Any equipment that you plan on using should have a known working load limit (WLL) and minimum breaking strength. When you are working with questionable tow straps, hooks, or recovery points, it's necessary to know what the weak link is is the system and ascertain exactly HOW that weak link will fail if it is overloaded. This will allow you to move personnel to safe areas, rig safeties into the system, rig multiple straps or bridle recovery points together, improvise winch blankets or other weights on recovery lines, and generally recover in a safer and more thoughtful way.
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A off-roaders was recently killed. A tow rope was used on a drop-down tow hitch ball. The tow hitch ball came loose went through the windshield and killed the poor person! So yes safety first proper gear is super important. Your life does depend on it!
Same as others here. DO NOT use a tow ball or use the hitch pin.
1. Tow ball ratings are rated for the weight of a free moving trailer weighing xxlbs. Not a 5k stuck vehicle. He said it before you double weight.
2. Using just the hitch pin only 1 side has to break for the strap to release. With a receiver there is a double shear factor meaning both sides must break for the receiver to pull out.
Get the CORRECT gear to do it or DO NOT do it.
seriously one of the best recovery videos out there. maybe THE best.
Another home run, Wyatt! You manage to pack everyone of your videos with a ton of great, valuable, usable information. I've learned a ton of practical information watching your content. I genuinely believe this type of information will save a lot of lives and vehicles. Tremendous thanks for all you do!
Hey thanks!
Excellent presentation!
Really enjoying trail craft.
Awesome video, first I've seen to cover all of this in one video. Would be great to see you cover rigging things using tree savers, snatch blocks, bridle straps, kinetic recovery ropes, just all the different ways to achieve a pull, and the right time for each of them
Great video! First time seeing guidance on estimating pulling forces.
Awesome video! This is becoming my go-to channel for off-roading.
This was incredibly useful, helpful, and concise information! Thank you!
Excellent video Wyatt, tons of good information presented in a safe but pragmatic way. I think another video showing recovery methods of the various vehicles around the rally school that DON'T HAVE good recovery points would be very interesting. Most of the time if a vehicle is stuck in the snow or in a ditch needing some assistance, it isn't a lifted Wrangler with off-road bumpers, it is more often a Crown Victoria or a Fiesta or something similar. Really appreciate the content!
Thanks for the kind words!
We will definitely do this video at some point, as well as kinda "improvised recovery equipment" like if you don't have a strap, or you have a winch but nothing around to winch from
I learned a lot. Thank you!
great video. thank you for putting this together
Nice job!
Thanks.
Thanks bro! I really learned a lot from your very well done video!! Awesome!!
Great video
Great video, thanks- I think every recovery kit should have a shackle hitch reciever too!
Good info.
Great video. Thanks. IMO I would always first try and dig out. Then use your traction boards. Last resort is to pull.
Great video...
Thanks Jim!
I saw the thumbnail and I was like "absolutely not!" Lol. So I'm watching right now and I'm like.. this is Excellent information. I daily a jeep renegade latitude that has a screw in type shipping hook and that's it. No trailhawk style hooks. Nothing. I added 2 "tow straps" (the short jdm style ones) that are about 2000lbs and they attach to the frame with grade 8 bolts. I intend to put a d ring into both loops and use them as carefully as possible . I don't feel good about it and I know it's dangerous. But it's all ive got for acceptable options.
One option worth mentioning for the rear of a vehicle is to unscrew and remove the hitch ball out of the hitch ball mount, and use the hole of the hitch ball mount for a shackle. This probably won't be as strong as a dedicated recovery point but should be better than most vehicles' tie-down points and certainly much safer than going off of the ball itself. It's still not great for side pulls, but I've ran into the issue several times where a thick kinetic strap just won't fit into the hitch receiver, much less with enough space to fit the hitch pin through. In my opinion it's probably the best option if you don't have a dedicated recovery adapter for your hitch receiver.
Doable if you have the tools handy to unscrew the hitch ball (like a 900 ft-lb cordless impact with the correct socket).
That's bad advice.
Don't pull off of any hitch considering I can show you videos of people who died from it
Another excellent video! A side note is that SAE rated hitch balls have a breaking strength of 3x the rated load. In your example the rating of the hitch ball was 5,000 lbs and in order to be rated at that it would need to have a minimum breaking strength of 15,000 lbs. That's pretty much in line with the Warn strap you showed at the same time.
I'd still be pretty wary of that. According to this document www.trailer-bodybuilders.com/archive/article/21737137/jack-and-coupler-standards class I - IV hitches only need to withstand 1.5x the rated force longitudinally, and 0.5x the rated force in a transverse or vertical direction.
@@dallasvanwyk great point, I was talking solely about the hitch ball, but the ball mounts aren't rated nearly as high and many will break at the rated load. SAE testing calls for roughly .6 of the rated load but in two directions (tongue weight and pulling back) and the ball mount can only bend up to 5 degrees. Not including the jerk from reaching the end of a rope this more than covers the need for trailers, when adding the jerk of a static tow strap loads will quickly exceed the ball mount's rating.
@@dallasvanwyk along with that, the strength of a 5/8" hitch pin is roughly 30,000 lbs in double shear, obviously depending on the material.
@@EngineAdventures It sounds like you have more expertise than I do on this subject so forgive me if I'm missing something, but what you're saying doesn't make sense to me. If hitch balls are stronger than the mounts that connect them to the hitch receiver, why is it so common for a hitch ball to break off in a recovery and so uncommon to experience a hitch ball mount failure? I've been an advocate for unbolting the ball out of the mount and using a shackle through the mount hole for recoveries; you remove the ball as a potential point of failure and source of projectiles, and the mount by itself is typically made just as strong as the hitch receiver it's connected to.
I suppose just because a hitch ball mount is only tested to a certain force, doesn't mean that it can't be several times stronger. Perhaps the answer lies in the loading: The hitch ball is loaded predominantly in bending in both towing and recovery scenarios, while the mount experiences both bending (tongue weight) and tension (pulling back) loads with towing but predominantly tension with recovery. If the mount is tested and rated for loads under bending (a vertical direction force as you said), then it should be able to withstand significantly more load under tension. Whereas the ball is rated under a bending load, and also experiences entirely bending load when used for recovery.
A couple more minor points:
Given that most ball hitches are made of chromed steel, I'm not sure I'd want trust one after it has bent 5 degrees; the neck between the ball and bolt would concentrate stress there and experience the most strain.
Just to make sure we're on the same page, you are referring to this as the hitch ball mount, right? www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch-Ball-Mount/Draw-Tite/2923.html
@@dallasvanwyk Yup that's what I was calling a ball mount, hitch sometimes gets confusing with the receiver hitch on the truck side.
There could be a lot of reasons for why a hitch ball would break and not the ball holder. For sure how the pieces are loaded definitely plays a huge role. You are also correct that just because it is rated at a certain number doesn't mean it isn't stronger than it's rating. Almost all of our towing equipment significantly exceeds what we rate it for (leaving out the company name because this conversation is my opinion and not the view of the company). Hitch balls are quite brittle because they are typically high strength (the stainless steel ones seem to bend a lot before breaking) so they will often break without much warning of a bend. Hitch balls are tested until they break whereas ball mounts are tested until they are permanently bent 5 degrees. Ball mounts will often bend quite a bit further than the 5 degrees before breaking. Another reason the hitch balls could break first is that they aren't properly torqued, many hitch balls need to be torqued over 400 ft. lbs. Most people don't have a torque wrench that goes that high, so they call three nugga uggas on the impact wrench good enough.
Not that it matters, just a clarification. A properly torqued hitch ball will break just below the ball portion, it flanges out at the base where it meets with the ball holder and is typically stronger there. I don't know for sure that this is true of the hitch balls with 7/8" or 1" posts, but for 1-1/4" posts break there in my experience.
I love having an honest conversation with logical points brought up on TH-cam!
1 caveats to the safety strap to stop a flying shackle
If you're doing a dynamic pull (running start and bumping the strap) and that recovery or anchor point breaks, whatever your safety strap is tied to, will VERY likely become your new anchor.
Why? Well, your momentum will very likely carry you forward past the end of your safety and start pulling it.
If it's hooked to "whatever", it's likely to rip that off too.
You have a death wish if you use the towball as an anchor point for a recovery!
Ty
Another nice video.
Do you plan to add the off road videos from Team O'Neal channel here?
We've talked about re-uploading them all here, or re-shooting a few with some updates.
We were on the fence about it, what do you think?
I lean toward re-shooting the older ones for sure, but some of the newer ones were pretty good quality
@@TrailCraft I personally wolud love seeing the content being transfered here. As for the re-shooting, I think that everyone will enjoy a re-shoot, given the fact that you've raised a lot the level of performance and video editing in the past years. I hope I've being helpful :)
Dude! I had no clue you were based in NH. Are you ever running clinics for off road beginners?
I have a question, if I have to pull a car or SUV with a recovery rope, in which shift gear I have to set my car exp. can I use D or do I have to be in H4 or L4?
I've just watched you suspension set up vid for race cars. Is there any chance that you and your crew would be willing to do something similar for 4x4s?
Hey John, we could definitely make that happen!
@@TrailCraft id be keen t see it. Cheers.
How about recovering vehicles in the snow? Winter is on the way and it's really common to have to pull someone out of a situation.
All the same math basically. Depending on the temperature and snow pack, snow can be VERY different but it you use what this video says you'll be safe.
kick butt Land Rover!
Thank you for the information, but all I got from this video is to be safe. I was looking at how to recover a vehicle and your video did not help because you stirred doubt on even built in recovery points from the manufacturer.
Jokes on you if I get stuck I can just pick up my car. Geo Metro baby
I think you need a crane for all the way to the hood 😂😂 JK
The hitch ball is rated to 5,000 pounds. Is that the weight it will sheer off sir snap?
I don't care what he says, don't use the ball at all. If you think you can and the bogged vehicle moves a little then drops down into something
You didn't see, then you have possibly exceeded what you calculated. Down load force is what is stamped into the ball, sheer is a whole different matter and a lot less. Please don't load your slingshot with a marble it can go clean through your hood.
absolutely do not use hitch balls, unless you want to die, vid should not have said you can use them
You just gave bad advice
Never pull from a hitch ever yes they have a load point but not 1 of them are designed for a kinetic load.
Dont believe me look up the guy in Arizona who died from one.
Wasnt the ball the welds let go.
So again NEVER HOOK TO A HITCH.
NEVER NEVER PULL FROM A TOW BALL! Stopped watching this BAD info at this point!
Do you mean that you should never even pull your trailer from the tow ball, surely not. If my vehicle is rated to pull 3500kg through the forged tow ball(UK spec) then why can I not apply a gentle 100kg pull to drag a vehicle out of a muddy field. I think the point he made was that you can use anything as long as it's within reason and safe.
@@briancrossley1710 Tell this to ALL the people that have been KILLED or injured from pulling OUT when a chain or Rope connection failed coming off a TOW BALL!!!! We are not talking about pulling a properly fastened trailer hitch!
Talk toi much
Poor dog I liked my own commet how sad.