I've been doing racing recovery for a few years now along with sinking things to the frame for the last 30 years.
soft shackles are fine, I've slowly been moving towards them for ease of use but for on my recovery rig it is solid mounts with 3/4 bow shackles.
The real understanding of recovery is your weight, your recovery vehicles weight, and how stuck is it, whether you are fighting gravity (uphill) or stiction (mud snow rocks terrain). Ideally you'd like a static strap and to use your vehicles low range and torque converter to just gently overpower your recovery in a static fashion. You aren't always that lucky and that's where kinetic straps and momentum pulls come in.
Ideally you want to use the least force possible, shock loading is the worst and destroys poor rigging and drivetrains as been mentioned here.
Another thing to mention is if you are pulling things in reverse, you are at the most disadvantage on your drivetrain because it is the weakest way to mesh your ring and pinions.
It really comes down to knowing what you're trying to do and not getting ahead of your skis. Piss with the dink you got.
Ideally you want a "closed recovery system" where everything is mechanically locked together (bow shackles or soft shackles, no open hooks), and then you want a load damper such as anything that will stop the momentum if something fails, aka the chinsey recovery points people use. Throw a floor matt or a coat over the strap to dampen the force WHEN the rigging fails. Loops around tow balls are a no no. Over rate your rigging as much as possible.
Factor55 is a US company that makes some great (spendy) gear, but they're at the pointy end of doing it right and have a blog with great info.
The terms “tow strap” and “recovery strap” gets thrown around a lot. Similarly, when to use a tow strap, and when to use a recovery strap/kinetic rope can often be confusing. These are very different items, and using the right ones can be the difference between getting recovered or not. Plus...
www.factor55.com
What does “Country of Origin” mean on vehicle recovery products? Well, pretty simple actually – where it’s made. All companies must provide this information on the product packaging, it’s the law. If it doesn’t say “Made In USA”, its not. We take pride in employing a local staff here in Idaho...
www.factor55.com
and probably more relevant to the original question but I have a habit of waxing poetic:
Thanks for your patience on this. Here is the video of our soft shackle knot position test that many of you asked for. As mentioned before, we take the average breakage data from many sample tests completed. This video is typical of a single sample test. The first test is of our 10 inch soft...
www.factor55.com
You can save some money and use cheaper gear, I have plenty of harbor freight stuff, but you have to have some idea of what you are doing. Are you using a huge tractor pulling out a stuck ATV or a 6k truck pulling out 3k cars. are you on a flat surface or are you towing things up a grade. The understanding of nuance will be your biggest benefit, if you cant do that, you need to just buy way over your weight ratings and WLL so you don't get you or someone killed.
This is your entry level name brand kit. Has bow shackles, a kenetic strap, and a static/tree strap. plus a pulley.
Buy ARB RK11A Essentials Offroad Accessory Recovery Kit S2 Ideal for unstocking Your Vehicle from mud, Sand Desert and Beach: Recovery Straps - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
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