1) Good recovery equipment should not have the braking load noted. Only the WLL.
Why? because you should never exceed the WLL. Exceeding the WLL leads to a decrease of the breaking limit (and the WLL) everytime you use it and that is something you never want to have! If only the WLL is noted (what is the case on proper forest equipment for ground based pulling), you have you absolutely limit noted. Stick to it. Therefore the breeaking limit is absoluteley unimportant. Why should I need to know the braking limit when I should never exceed the WLL. See 2)
2) If you look for equipment with a higher safety margin you only get a lower WLL with the same breaking limit. If you want to have the proper WLL with a higher safety margin you end up with equipment you can't handle anymore. 2 x WLL is the proven and normal safety margin in forestry. Higher safety margins are found only with hanging weights to compensate forces added while the load is swinging.
Example: If you need 5 t WLL you can absolutely safely work with a rope which has a 10 t braking limit. Otherwise you end up with a rope which has 7 x WLL = 35 t. Please check what kind of monster a rope (or other equipment) is with a WLL of 35 t (except steel shackles).
3) At least in Germany there is a new standard for forestry. called FTF (Forest Tractive Force). This standard helps you preventing errors, because you just look at your highest winch pulling power and choose the next FT level. If your winch pulls 5,4 t for example, choose FTF 6. All equipment labeled with FTF 6 is able to cope with the winch power at its maximum. With WLL you may have to calculate a little bit.
4) The winch is the weakest part of you recovery gear. If all is in best condition, the winch will stop pulling before something happens. Why? Because in most installations it will never get the DC power it needs for full pulling power as the cross section of the cable almost always too low. The largest I saw was 100 mm2. Even that is too low for a Warn Zeon for full pullling force. The second reason is, all equipment (if it fits to the winch power) is able to cope with the miniumum of the double pulling force of the winch. No chance to break it by the winch. If something brakes, the equipment was misused or it was in a bad condition already.
5) I do not like synthetic ropes for untrained people and if not in a competition. Synthetic ropes do not "tell" the user that he is about to do a mistake like steel wires do. You can't recognize damages in the ropes as easy as with steel ropes. I am very astonished that Ineos, as a company which produces polyethylene, offers pulleys with friction for synthetic ropes. Ff these ropes do not like one thing, it is friction and temperature (and in addition via a small radius). But these pulleys are cheap. That is another eason why I work with steel. Synthetic ropes are much prone to damage in harsh environments than steel and it ages much quicker. In a competition, it is good to save the weight as it speeds up things and it is good for the winch monkey pulling the rope again and again. But if they sense the rope must be changed, they just do it without crying about the 150 Euros. Private 4x4s tend to keep the rope, because it hast cost some money. Of course, if your gear is proper, there is no risk with synthetic or steel ropes, both do their job flawless. But if stuff gets used, I always trust the steel more.
6) I always prefer steel shackles. If all your gear is in a proper state, the steel shackle is another increase in security. because it does not just brake. It becomes distorted before it brakes noticeably but it is absolutely able to take any penalty and harsh handling. If you used it accordingly and you cannot open it, it tells you that it has suffered to much load. Time to throw it away, which is done easy because they are so much cheaper than synthetic shackles. With synthetic shackles, like with synthetic ropes it is more difficult to detect damages (cause by shock loads for example, when your trapped winch rope gets free and you car takes on speed for a second). if they break, they do that very fast. The only exception where I do not use steel shackles if I connect ropes.
7) The most risky part in a recovery is not the gear, if it is in a proper condition. It is the mountimg point on the car. Almost no 4x4 manufacturer tells you how much load the car can take (lucky, it is alway enough). Especially if it is not your car, you'll never know the condition of the mounting point. We pulled out cars which has a fat, big shackle atteched to the frame, just to find out a few weeks latter, that the frame where the shackle was mounted was only rust, falling aparat. We just had luck that nothing has happened. So, there can be hidden weak parts you do not know and do not see, so be careful. If these parts break they become dangerous. There is no benefit of having a soft shackle, if the car wents downhill, because its mounting point breaks and no one was standing in the risk area to save with a soft shackle.
That's why I only use my own equipment as I know its history and if it was used properly or not. If I help others, then only after thoroughly checking the mounting points. A rest of risk will always remain. If everybody around sticks to the security rules, the risk that bad things happen to persons will reduced considerably.
The interesting thing is, that you need for almost every danger thing you do in profession an education and a test to proof that you can handle that. In 4x4 you can by a 12 t truck, get it stucked and start to hang this load on a rope and start the action without any knowledge what you're doing. I strongly recommend to get a proper education on this, if you plan to do recoveries. There are a lot of experienced people around. I had the opportunity to learn a lot from a forestry guy who is responsible for all the forest gear in his section and who participates in tests and development of forest equipment. I'm glad, that I could experience from his theoretical and practical knowledge. Another bunch of good people are the one who do trophys etc on a regular basis or maybe on a professional level. Look out for such a guys, because your 70,000 € car may hang on a 50 € rope sometimes in the future....(considering you got you familiy out of the area of risk already, because thy are priceless, of course)....
BTW, you should look at information on how to estimate the real load you need to pull depending on where you get stuck. There were measurements of the real load available for different situations and at different angles. You'll see, looking at these numbers, that you have less weight to pull as most people think.
Cheers
AWo
.. but can you wind it on the drum of your winch? It does take up some space, doesn't it?
