What is Recovery Equipment

When it comes to vehicle mods, there are few that are more important than recovery equipment. It's what you use when things have gone pear-shaped, the terrain has become undriveable, or you have run out of talent. Hey, it happens to all of us at some point.

While recovery equipment itself has changed quite a lot over the years, with new materials, designs and options popping up all the time, its purpose remains the same. That is, safely freeing a stuck vehicle from any given predicament without causing damage or injury.

There are a multitude of ways you become stuck too, from sinking into soft sand, not having aggressive enough tyres to overcome soft mud's suction, diffing out in deep ruts or simply not having the momentum, articulation or traction to scale a tough climb. If you go four-wheel driving, whether it be touring, hardcore wheeling or the occasional camping weekender, sooner or later you're going to need some recovery gear.

Why Recovery Equipment Is Essential for 4WD Driving

Driving without recovery gear could be compared to entering a marathon without running shoes. Sure, you can run with bare feet, but it won't be fun and will likely end up being the proverbial pain in the you-know-where. It's similar with off-roading. Sure, you can head out without any recovery gear, but the chances of it ending in tears is almost guaranteed. You may not be the first or last person to have to walk kilometres in the dark over inhospitable terrain to try and find some help, but if you have to do it you'll be spending most of that time wondering why you didn't spend a few bucks and get some proper recovery equipment.

Of course, that's the best case scenario. There's no shortage of horror stories of vehicles and people being incapacitated, or worse, due to not having any gear, or even having the incorrect recovery kit on board. It doesn't take a genius to combine inadequate preparation with Australia's notoriously unforgiving terrain and extremely remote locations and come up with a story that'd make Stephen King nervous.

In case it's not abundantly clear, you need to have the right stuff with you to tackle any off-road track or trip. More than that, you need to carry the gear that's tailored to your 4X4, is rated to handle the forces and loads you may place on it and has the inbuilt safety margin to ensure you're never in more danger than absolutely necessary. With Superior Engineering's long history of focussing on strength, rigorous testing and safety mindedness, you know that when you find yourself in a jam, you're in the best possible hands.

Common Types of 4WD Recovery Equipment

There are more recovery aids on the market than ever before, but as always, there are the main few which remain the chief accessories you'll be reaching for when you find yourself sill-deep in the muck.

Recovery Points

First things first, you'll need some recovery points fitted to your vehicle. These are where you connect your straps, shackles, winch hooks and equaliser straps to your vehicle. It's vitally important you DO NOT use the factory tie-down points, which secure your vehicle to a container during importation. These are not designed for the dynamic loads seen during a recovery and have the potential to become a lethal missile when they let go. Same goes for your towball. It's all too tempting to simply loop a snatch strap over the ball to perform a quick extraction from a bogging, but all you're doing is endangering yourself and everyone around you.

Recovery points should also be rated and are often vehicle-specific. The static and dynamic forces that act on these points during a recovery can be massive, so having them tailor-made to your 4X4 will ensure they're strong enough to handle the loads as well as fit with a minimum of fuss.

Superior Engineering stock a huge range of rated recovery points that are made to suit your rig. Jump on over to our website to find the best options for you and your set-up.

Recovery points should ideally be fitted to the front and rear of the vehicle, however, if you can only fit them at one end the rear is commonly seen as the preferred option. It's generally considered easier and more practical to pull you out backwards rather than pull you forwards through the remainder of the obstacle.

Snatch Straps

Snatch straps or kinetic recovery ropes both work on the same principle. The bogged vehicle is hooked up, via the snatch strap, to a second vehicle with plenty of slack left in the strap. As the mobile vehicle takes off and the strap is tightened, it stretches elastically, storing the kinetic energy then using it to tug the stuck vehicle free. They're an excellent recovery tool for sand and mud boggings or when forward momentum is lost on a slippery surface.

Despite the fairly simple concept, these recoveries can have a surprisingly high number of things going wrong with them. As mentioned, it all starts with the recovery points. The snatch strap is connected to them via a rated hard or soft shackle (more on these in a minute).

As the recovery vehicle drives off, everything is placed under significant loads, which can be more than the weight of the vehicle. These loads can be transferred into lethal force if something lets go, so it's imperative to keep everyone clear, have only the two drivers communicating with each other, and preferably have people with experience calling the shots.

People have been seriously injured or even lost their lives when snatch recoveries have gone wrong due to faulty equipment or a lack of experience or knowledge, so make sure you know what's happening at all times and are familiar with the correct procedure.

How to Recover a Vehicle Using Snatch Straps

• Reverse the recovery vehicle up to the stuck vehicle so there's plenty of slack in the strap when hooked up to each vehicle
• Attach the strap to both vehicles using rated shackles and recovery points only.
• If recovering from the stuck vehicle's front end, run an equaliser bridle between each of the points on the chassis rails to evenly distribute the load
• If the stuck vehicle does not have rated recovery points on the front, remove the rear tow hitch and run the strap to the hitch pin, or preferably a dedicated recovery hitch
• Attach a strap dampener to the mid-point of the strap
• Clear sand away from in front/behind wheels in direction of travel of the stuck vehicle using long-handled shovel
• Ensure all bystanders are clear of the area by at least double the length of the snatch strap
• Recovery vehicle driver communicates with stuck vehicle driver via UHF to put vehicle in second low and gently begin accelerating
• Recovery vehicle also takes off in second-low
• Snatch strap goes taut and (hopefully) plucks the stuck rig out

Winches

Where a snatch recovery utilises kinetic energy to free a vehicle from being stuck, a winch recovery relies on simple brute force. In many cases a snatch recovery may be preferable, especially when there's a lack of winch mounting points such as on the beach or in the desert.

However, in steep terrain or when travelling solo, a winch recovery is often your best, and in some cases only, option.

As with all recoveries, the danger from winch recoveries comes from inexperience or incorrect gear. Given you can buy comprehensive recovery kits these days, there's very little excuse for having the wrong (or no) gear onboard.

Nevertheless, you need to be able to rely on the strength of your recovery points, your straps/ropes (winch rope, tree trunk protectors, equaliser bridles and shackles) and even your 4WD's chassis and barwork in order to perform winch recoveries safely. Every piece of recovery gear, from straps to shackles is a wearable item, so ensuring it's all in top nick and replacing it if there's any doubt is important.

How to perform a basic steep terrain solo winch recovery:

• Safely secure your vehicle and ensure it's in no danger of rolling backwards
• Flick your winch isolator so the winch is powered and unspool your winch cable/rope
• Find a solid tree or anchor point and secure your tree trunk protector around its base close to the ground, then attach the winch cable to the protector using an appropriately rated shackle
• Attach a dampener to the winch cable roughly midway along its length
• If using synthetic winch rope, make sure it's not going to abrade on rocks or anything that could damage it during the recovery
• Return to your vehicle, check the winch clutch is engaged (not in freespool position) and use your remote to take up the slack in the cable
• Begin winching. You can gently aid the winch with second gear low and a soft touch on the throttle
• When back on solid ground, apply brakes and put in gear then unspool a little slack and retrieve your gear

Safety Notes:

• NEVER wrap your cable around a tree without a protector
• NEVER let your hands get less than a metre away from the fairlead when winching in
• NEVER let people get too close to the recovery in progress or step over a taut winch rope

Shackles and Soft Shackles

These days, most manufacturers of recovery gear offer some sort of soft shackle. These are a short length of synthetic rope that can take a certain amount of force before breaking. This is quite different to a traditional bow shackle, which is made from steel and were 'borrowed' from the rigging industry for use in 4WD recoveries.

There are arguments for both, and arguments against both. Steel shackles are essentially indestructible, are as reliable as gravity, are cheap and are often the strongest link in the recovery chain. Soft shackles are lightweight, float during water or mud recoveries, are much safer in the event of a strap or cable breakage and can be used to safely join two strap together.

On the down side, steel shackles are heavy, will sink in water or mud recoveries, are relatively cumbersome and are much more dangerous should a strap or winch cable break. Soft shackles are relatively costly, can be cut if the recovery point edges aren't rounded off, are not generally as strong as steel shackles (although there's very little in it).

As mentioned, steel shackles come from the rigging industry and are stamped with a Working Load Limit (WLL). The most common one found in recovery kits is the 3.2T WLL. When compared to a 14T soft shackle this may not seem like much, but the WLL is usually a minimum requirement, and the actual breaking strength is often many times that amount. In testing, the actual breaking strength of a 3.2T WLL steel shackle is closer to 20T. Soft shackles do not come with a WLL figure but do have a couple of advantages over the steel shackles: Namely weight and the comparative lack of danger should one inadvertently become a projectile.

Which one should you pack in your recovery kit? It mainly comes down to personal preference as both will work well. We like to have a few of both on hand so we can tailor the usage to the recovery we're undertaking.

Recovery Boards

Recovery boards are excellent for solo adventurers and offer a quick and straightforward means of getting yourself unstuck from sand, mud and snow.

As you can imagine, they really shine in solo recovery situations as you don't need anything else, be it another vehicle or a winch anchor point, to help you. Simply dig out the mud/sand/snow from under your wheels and slot the recovery board under your tyres. Some gentle acceleration later and you're free to keep moving.

They're an excellent tool for anyone's recovery arsenal and carry next to no risk compared to a kinetic or winch recovery.

Recovery Equipment Safety Considerations

As with many accessories, there is a huge amount of recovery gear on the market and not all of it is up to the task. In fact, a lot of it is unrated and frankly, unsafe for its intended use. Be sure to only buy quality brands that have been put through extensive testing for safe use in extreme conditions.

Even the good gear is open to wear and tear and inspecting every piece of your recovery kit before and after every trip is good practice. Make sure to wash and properly dry your straps and ropes, keep your winch serviced, inspect your recovery boards for damage and check your recovery points and chassis for any cracks, particularly after a trip that featured high-load recoveries.

It's also important to ensure the area around your recovery is kept clear. The general rule is a clear area with a radius of double the length of your kinetic recovery strap or double the length of your taut winch line. Accidents can and do happen, and just because you've done it plenty of times without incident before is no cause for complacency. Superior have long been the industry leaders of having an engineering-led approach to recovery safety, and our record speaks for itself.

Choosing the Right Recovery Equipment for Your 4WD

As with all accessories choosing the recovery gear that's right for you means taking several factors into account. The vehicle weight, modifications and intended use all play a big role in determining your choices.

A touring rig will have a different recovery kit to a hardcore rig. Rock-crawling generally features a lot more winch-based recoveries, so having spare dampeners, shackles, tree trunk protectors and extension ropes becomes more important. Solo touring rigs may need a second set of recovery boards and perhaps more shackles and a pulley block to affect an extended solo winch retrieval. Those travelling in convoy will need more kinetic straps and a designated recovery coordinator should more than one vehicle get stuck at one time. It's all about tailoring your gear to you individual needs.

It goes without saying though, that having gear that's specific to your rig is essential. You Suzuki won't need a 20,000lb winch, just like your LC70 and caravan combo will need something a little higher rated than a 4T soft shackle. Let's not even get into why trying to bolt on a set of Mitsubishi Triton recovery points onto your Navara is a bad idea.

Get in touch with Superior Engineering today to discuss your vehicle and needs. We have a 4WD-specific design philosophy that's evident right across our huge range of accessories and modifications, so we'll have the right gear for you.

Why Quality Recovery Equipment Matters

Simply typing "4WD recovery accident" into Google will give you plenty of reasons to steer clear of cheap and untested gear. We're literally talking life and death here, and the consequences of failure are high. At best you may walk away with some vehicle damage, but it gets much worse very quickly after that. Serious injury and fatalities are sadly not uncommon.

That's why you need a Superior Engineering recovery solution. Our in-house products are designed, engineered, tested and compliance right here in Australia to the highest standards and are capable of tackling everything this country can throw at it.

Make sure you discuss your next recovery purchase with us today!