| Author |
Message |
    
Rob
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 03:10 pm: | 
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I have a transport grade 7 tow chain that I bought from home depot a couple years back. I have use it only once when I pulled out a tree stump with my old Chevy. Now that I have a Land Rover (the best truck I have ever had) could this tow chain be used to pull another land rover or truck that is stuck or should I get a tow strap as a supplement? The chain has a slip hooks on the end as well. I have shackles and all the other gear required. Thanks for the help |
Marty koning
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 03:27 pm: |
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The tow chain is good but I would still invest in a quality tow strap or spend the bucks on a kinetic strap. Chains are a pain to use while in the mud. Chains do have their proper place to be used so I wouldn't leave home without it. |
Paul T. Schram (Paulschram)
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 04:05 pm: |
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Rob:
I used chains exclusively for many years around the farm and deer camp. Keep the chain and use it carefully. That said, I must recount an experience I had that saved my ass. After using the same chain for years, I happened to look closely at it one evening on the back porch. Many of the links had been damaged severely to the point where they were almost broken in two! I sawed it into small pieces and trashed it and bought a new one.
That said, I also have a recovery gear bag full of climbing webbing, carabiners, and pulleys.
With regard to kinetic ropes,I am not a fan of them as I fear they could become deadly very quickly. "When the wind blows and the storm flies, go on at a steady pace" yet another line from a Dead tune with relevance to Rovering. A steady pull is far safer than a quick snatch. I have broken many things with snatches, but rarely break anything with a steady pull.
YMMV, IMO, use with parental supervision, yadda, yadda, yadda
Paul |
Greg P. (Gparrish)
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 04:38 pm: |
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Rob,
I have the same type of chain purchased from Lowes. I bought it some time back and carried it in the rover for a while. I finally invested in a super yanker from Master Pull rated at 33,500 lbs, and have since dropped the chain. One of the main reasons I no longer carry the chain is due to weight. It adds an immense amount of weight to the rear of your truck, when a web strap would do the same job for a small fraction of the weight. I will probably suppliment my recovery gear with a strap at some point, but find the rope I purchased to fit the bill for now. |
Blue (Bluegill)
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 04:45 pm: |
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chain serves another purpose - you can chain the Disco to a tree or rock as added theft deterrent when you're way out in the field. Also good for chaining up cars that park in my damn parking spot here at the office...hehehehe... |
Rob Davison (Pokerob)
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 05:02 pm: |
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a good reason to use chain is that it doesnt stretch much, otherwise i think it's a PITA to use.
rd |
Will Bobbitt (Rkores)
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 05:53 pm: |
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If you don't have a winch, get another chain and use it with a High Lift as a hand winch. This method is slow go, but it works pretty good.
Will |
Kyle
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 06:09 pm: |
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Chain is better then cable in most situations as an exstension because it is adjustable. Its just heavy and bulky to carry.....
Kyle |
Andrew Clarke (Aclarke)
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 06:27 pm: |
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To agree with Paul...
I certainly would never use a chain as a recovery tool by choice. Back when I was a teenager I was helping some guy do some logging and he was using a chain, jerking some logs along. The chain snapped and one of the links flew just about a meter from my head, probably going 50+ miles an hour. That was a pretty scary moment.
The advantage to webbing or cable over a chain is that you can easily tell what state it's in. A cable can fray, but a chain cannot!
Anyhow. |
Rob
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 08:21 pm: |
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Thanks a lot guys for your advice. I will keep the chain then, and your right for it being heavy. I will get a strap though. |
BW
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 09:10 pm: |
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In many instances a strap is better to use than a chain; however, you will likely find a chain the preferred recovery line when using a Hi-Lift Jack; otherwise, you'll only get about half a foot of "pull" because of all the slack you'll initially pull out of a strap. Been there, done that.
BW |
Bill Bettridge (Billb)
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2002 - 08:52 am: |
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Besides what was said above - the other good reason to carry chain is to drag shit out of the way - trees, etc. It won't hurt the chain to drag, but you'd ruin a strap in a heartbeat.
Bill |
Ken Dunnington (Ihwillys)
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2002 - 09:46 am: |
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Not particularly germaine and not LR, but amusing anyway(atleast to me, sorry if I bore). When I was a young lad, 14 to be precise, I got myself stuck in a ditch(more than once but this story is about the first time). I got myself in the ditch by attempting to miss a bounding deer on a snowy dirt road at night going 60 mph(I was 14). It was on this occasion that I learned to get on the gas when in a ditch, because I didn't and was rather stuck in my RWD '72 Chevy van(one very strong SOB BTW).
I walk down to a nearby farm house and hope someone's awake. No go, all lights off and no one in sight. Well, I get back to my stuck van to find one of the guys from a local garage there stopped in his lifted F250 4x4. He's quite drunk but offers to get me out. He drags out a LONG chain and gets down under the front, gets back up and saunters off to his truck. Now, in the dark I take a quick look and it's around the front frame crossmember so I figure it's all good.
So into the driver's seat, start 'er up and wait for him to ease out the large amount of slack in the chain. Well, ole Bob just floors it. You know that time of "oh shit" in your mind that seems minutes long but is actually less than a second.
He got me out of that ditch, into the one on the other side of the road, then back onto the road. Yes, the chain was around the frame member, but was also around the lower radiator hose so now my radiator was missing the lower nipple. Crap.
Lessons learned...
Ken |
Lance
| | Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2002 - 03:00 pm: |
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skim down the page there is astory about chain with pics of the guys face
http://www.wayoffroad.com/stuck_carnage.htm |
Paul T. Schram (Paulschram)
| | Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2002 - 03:52 pm: |
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Lance:
If that had been a strap, the fellow probably would have lost far more than a few teeth.
Life is dangerous. Don't run with scissors and try not to get stuck. |
lance
| | Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2002 - 04:01 pm: |
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I do not think a strap would go as far as chain would. I stand pretty far away from any recovery just for those reasons. |
Bill Bettridge (Billb)
| | Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2002 - 04:21 pm: |
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Never had a chain break, but I have broken a few straps (doing stupid things BTW) - that broken strap recoils with some serious force - I used to have an F250 with dents in the tailgate about 1/2" deep to prove it - and yes that was a nylon strap that did it with no shackle or other bit of metal on the end.
Bill |
Blue (Bluegill)
| | Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2002 - 04:28 pm: |
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long story short - if you don't want to deal with dangerous recoil, don't get stuck. Be smart and chain or strap will do the job. |
Rob
| | Posted on Friday, October 25, 2002 - 09:22 am: |
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Well I have now thought of it this way, if I ever need to use a chain or strap I'll just cover the shackles, or whatever its attached to, at both ends and somebody told me once put something like a jacket right in the middle. |
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