What does your recovery kit include?

[TheGuardianJLU]

Interested to see if recovery kits vary for the desert troopers... coming from a rock crawler background... we have trees and large boulders that give us an advantage to use our winches during recovery. What does your recovery kit include, and why? What are the most common recovery strategies you have found on the dunes?

My Personal Recovery Gear includes:

• 3 snatch blocks with synthetic shackles light weight aluminum style pulleys
• 1  steel snatch block
• 2 aluminum shackles
• 4 soft shackles
• 1 long soft shackle
• 2 tree savers
• 2 chafe guards
• 2 line dampeners
• Kinetic recovery rope
• Tow straps
• Fast fid rope (rope splicing tool)
• Gloves (we use gloves at all times, I have had to recover someone's finger off a trail to the hospital/assist with a Member that accidentally spliced their finger too)
• Hand-held GMRS radio
• Well-functioning winch/winch controller/free pull available & synthetic line

 

[Looper]

I have following.

Bag 1 - 1 kinetic rope, 2 soft shackles and an extendable shovel that I keep in one toolbag.

Bag 2. It’s a Amazon Basics tool back pack. In this I have sets of compbination spanner’s, screw drivers, wrench set, adjustable wrench, ratcheting wrench different types of tapes, epoxy etc. a mechanics kit if you will.

Bag 3. with air hose, air nozzle blow gun, air pressure gauge. Gloves. 

Bag 4 This is used for long duration drives, (where I go for overnight camping + drives) this kit is not a camping kit but has ancillary items I would need for emergencies or general purpose use, This kit includes garbage bags, heavy duty zip ties of different sizes, some paper towels, flag suction cup. Portable air pressure kit. Fluids (wd40, coolant, some engine oil), vacuum and some other items.

2.5 ton Jack, Jack Board and water bottle. 

one flag, 2 rechargeable radios. One torch light. 

a cool bag with water and energy drinks and some cool drinks.

Action camera kit + mounts & dslr 

[TheGuardianJLU]

1 hour ago, Looper said:

I have following.

Bag 1 - 1 kinetic rope, 2 soft shackles and an extendable shovel that I keep in one toolbag.

Bag 2. It’s a Amazon Basics tool back pack. In this I have sets of compbination spanner’s, screw drivers, wrench set, adjustable wrench, ratcheting wrench different types of tapes, epoxy etc. a mechanics kit if you will.

Bag 3. with air hose, air nozzle blow gun, air pressure measuring tool. Gloves. 

Bag 4 This is used for long duration drives, (where I go for overnight camping + drives) this kit is not a camping kit but has ancillary items I would need for emergencies or general purpose use, This kit includes garbage bags, heavy duty zip ties of different sizes, some paper towels, flag suction cup. Portable air pressure kit. Fluids (wd40, coolant, some engine oil), vacuum and some other items.

2.5 ton Jack, Jack Board and water bottle. 

one flag, 2 rechargeable radios. One torch light. 

a cool bag with water and energy drinks and some cool drinks.

Action camera kit + mounts & dslr 

Just for my clarification, when you mentioned a shovel... did you mean a ground anchor to aid in recovery or a regular shovel? Both will provide their own benefits. More my curiosity here...

Thanks!

[Looper]

Just a regular shovel. it is used to remove sand from under the car. Mine is AOR extendable shovel. I disassemble it into 3 pices and store it in the bag with ropes. I find it nice and tidy. While it is not large but it does work most of the times. Ideally you want to get one with a long handle so that you can reach underneath the car from all directions.
 

[RiadJL]

33 minutes ago, TheGuardianJLU said:

Just for my clarification, when you mentioned a shovel... did you mean a ground anchor to aid in recovery or a regular shovel? Both will provide their own benefits. More my curiosity here...

Thanks!

Normal shovel. This is basically our most useful tool in desert driving. In 95% of recovery situations in the desert, a sturdy shovel will get you out.

I know in the US winches are used along with tree straps etc to self-recover. Winches aren't very prevalent here as a self-recovery tool since we very rarely have something to strap on to in the desert. Land anchors for sand tend to be large, heavy and impractical and I've only ever seen a handful of people with one

There are quite a few people who have winches on their rigs here but they are mostly used to help recover someone else

 

 

[TheGuardianJLU]

1 minute ago, RiadJL said:

Normal shovel. This is basically our most useful tool in desert driving. In 95% of recovery situations in the desert, a sturdy shovel will get you out.

I know in the US winches are used along with tree straps etc to self-recover. Winches aren't very prevalent here as a self-recovery tool since we very rarely have something to strap on to in the desert. Land anchors for sand tend to be large, heavy and impractical and I've only ever seen a handful of people with one

There are quite a few people who have winches on their rigs here but they are mostly used to help recover someone else

 

 

Great. This is what I was looking for. Thanks for the insight!