That is the perfect scenario for a winch blanket as plasma rope has virtually no weight and very little stretch, but if a factor 55 or a UltraHook or a snatch block was involved in the breakage it would still be catastrophic, and the bit we didn't see in the filming was how hard the snatch block etc flew in the other direction. If a snatch strap or kinetic rope breaks a winch blanket is something els to take your head off.
Sounds sketchy, for sure. What brand of strap are you seeing these failures occur with?
First snatch strap I broke was a warn brand one in 1979 trying desperately to save a couple of year old L/C at the Murray Mouth South Australia we eventually got it out the next day with a PTO winch and a lot of cable from an elevated position, the tide had come in and did a fair bit of salt water damage. We cleaned it up with a lot of fresh water towed it back to Adelaide and got it going after pulling the starter motor and alternator apart changing the clutch, rebuilding the carburettor and brakes all oils etc putting it in a spray booth under heat lamps for 3 days, after that it was as good as new.
Yeah, understandable. Thanks for those details, I did carry an ARB but I’ve never used it in anger - the DS has staunchly refused to get stuck.
I have used an alloy winch ring on the SA / VIC Border Track towing my Nephews modified Mitsubishi Delica up a couple of dunes, they seem to work very well, all the old heavy gear is in a box in the corner of my shed with the old steel snatch block, Turfer hand winch and chains etc probably never to be used again.
Yep, I have shifted to the newer lighter kinetic ropes instead of snatch straps, but will still avoid if at all possible, now have soft shackles, alloy rings dyneema winch rope, maxtrax and a solid long handle shovel. Order of usage/desperation goes 1. shovel and track building 2. Add maxtrax to 1, 3. Straight winch, 4 double line winch pull with a winch ring. Kinetic rope snatch comes only after 1& 2 and only if winching isn’t practical or available.
Makes a lot of sense. I’m a believer in using the high lift jack early and often, as a preferred alternative to digging. That said, I forked out on one of those hydraulic ARB Jacks so I need to realise the business case for it.
I‘d read that you can only store those ARB hydraulic jacks upright, lest they leak. Any truth to that?
There’s a thread here somewhere where this topic is handled. Some member explained why this is not true at all.
Nope. A bit of legacy bullshit from a US forum.
Unfortunately it seems that you are not able to pull the rope all the way in for these winches so that’s not going to work. You have to leave 250mm outsideMaxtrax winch widget... $11 AUD
Could be but I’m determined to have a bit of a tinker with it before accepting this procedure.
