Sad and Tragic Recovery Accident in AZ.

[California]

Most everything has been covered in this thread. Here's one more point I learned reading an old edition of Moving The Earth: The Workbook of Excavation.

Nichols says no one appreciates how easy it is using heavy equipment to pull a heavy vehicle out of a stuck ...while leaving its axles behind.

And I haven't seen in this thread much emphasis on another technique, particularly when offroading alone: use a Farm Jack to lift. Then put some material under the tires, to get moving again. Or another favorite back when I had a Willys Wagon: lift by the back hitch, clear to the top of the jack, then tip over the jack to drop the tires to undisturbed ground next to the ruts.

 

[Furu]

There maybe disagreement on this comment as one poster said to never do it and another said they do it all the time but you have to be careful. Every time I have watched some idiot do the slack rope and drive and snatch technique I have cringed. It is beyond stupid! The shock loads are such that they can't be calculated or even estimated in the field because even as little as 6 inches more slack can changed the load put on the equipment by a phenomenal amount. In the ram video on the previous page who would have thought the kid would have done what he did. Never trust anyone you do not know VERY well to have anything to do with a recovery operation as their lack of predictable actions can and will kill you.

 

[dodge man]

A lot of it depends on the rope or tow strap. I have a tow strap and it doesn’t stretch that much. I’ve seen some, usually a rope, that stretch a lot and almost act like a bungee.