Bad Recovery Technique and he paid the price for it!

[Mighty Mike]

Well this had FAIL written on it from the word go and the H3 driver paid a heavy penalty for his carelessness.

Towing strap was useless and even visibly not sturdy enough for the job

The patrol from the looks of it, could have just steered downhill and with a little effort driven down the slope, nose of the vehicle was already pointing downhill and he had gravity on his side. 

Even if this was not possible there is no way you could pull the heavy patrol up and over the ridge this way, the way the H3 was trying,  Better to go with the force of nature rather than against it as mentioned above. 

Should have been pulling from the front for best chances of recovery. If not possible from the front then at an angle say 45 degrees. Many a times I have recovered cars in such situations even at a complete 90 degrees, when the slope is not too severe and the vehicle is not dug in on its side. A gentle tug is most of the times is what is needed. OR worst case scenario get your lazty behind out and dig ! 

And finally, nothing on the strap to dampen and absorb the kinetic energy force of a snapped strap just like in this case.

Watch till the end for the aftermath of this "accident" 

And after car being trashed and he himself physically, he says Thanks God!!! What a tosser!
 

 

[shadow79]

the hammer could actually had nudged the car from behind and be on its way...

[Barry]

There is another video, I won’t post it. But it’s a stuck jeep, same thing, snapped rope, came back through the windscreen. The aftermath was a guy rolling around on a hospital bed with half his jaw missing. I detest towing people. Last time I did the guy hit the back of me and wrecked both our cars. 

[Gaurav]

There is always a way to recover desert stuck with complete safety but only without ego / stupidity.

90% failure I have seen in recovery caused by either ego - how come my car can't do that, let me show the crowd how strong my car is and boom. Or simply stupid - with half or no knowledge of how to conduct a recovery safely. Only 10% cases were pure bad luck and when someone is really destined for some mishap.

In above scenario, the biggest FAIL was to recover 3-ton car uphill and that too with one car and single strap without the safety straps. Nissan Patrol would have easily recovered from another side with one gentle tug, as it was already pointing down on another side.

If for some reason they cannot do the recovery from another side, then dig behind the rear tire of Patrol and clear that top area of the dune so that it can roll backward easily - max 5-10 min digging and towing effort will be divided by half or one-third.

Third, if Hummer has failed to even move Patrol by an inch in three tugs that means something is terribly wrong so get out and get an idea how you can relieve the situation and start again with a gentle tug first and slowly apply the force than going full on. 

Fourth, if you really have to give that hard tug then you need a better rope - probably double strength strap of 12 tons rating or more. And also secure rope with sandbags, and secure shackles with supporting straps on both cars and move all the people away from the diameter of rope length. Such hard stuck better off to recover with two cars with perfect coordination as to when 3-ton car dug deep inside become easily 5-6 ton in weight and dragging that uphill require real towing strength. Even the 12000 lbs winch might cry in such situation that you need higher strength winch to pull uphill.

[Srikumar]

Also one more thing that can be added that in the event that they were forced to do such a recovery the Hummer should have at least used his rear recovery point instead of the front. He would have still had a smashed windscreen but the personnel injury could have been averted.

[desertdude]

5 hours ago, Barry said:

There is another video, I won’t post it. But it’s a stuck jeep, same thing, snapped rope, came back through the windscreen. The aftermath was a guy rolling around on a hospital bed with half his jaw missing. I detest towing people. Last time I did the guy hit the back of me and wrecked both our cars. 

Thank God Mike didn't post that one, I've seen that and its super gross! And a very stern warning not to play the fool when recovering vehicles and that it is a very serious and dangerous business. 

But on the other hand, I worked for donkey years in the Safari business and really stucks and recovery was not a big deal at all! Mostly because the Land Cruiser has strong solid towing points front and back from the factory that dont need any shackels. 

All of us just had a good sturdy strap with reinforced eyelets on both ends, anyone got stuck, quickly unroll the strap, fix the eyelets on the Nato style pintle hook on the rear or the open hooks in the front and 9 times out of 10 a gentle tug was all that was needed. T 

Its only after I retired safaris and starting going on "private" trips did I see all of this. 

Maybe in the interest of safety, I think people should stop using metal hooks and shackles and modify their towing points to be able to take straps. Just a suggestion. 

[Gaurav]

3 hours ago, skumar83 said:

Also one more thing that can be added that in the event that they were forced to do such a recovery the Hummer should have at least used his rear recovery point instead of the front. He would have still had a smashed windscreen but the personnel injury could have been averted.

Totally agree with Sri suggestion which I forgot to mention. Use the rear end in such hard recovery when no options are there.

I remember last year I have to give the strong tug to Ford pickup on top of Iftar bowl and used my rear end with more than 30 tugs to straighten out the face of Ford pickup.

1 hour ago, desertdude said:

Maybe in the interest of safety, I think people should stop using metal hooks and shackles and modify their towing points to be able to take straps. Just a suggestion. 

 

This one is also a good point, but these days you can also opt for soft shackles instead of modifying the hook to take the strap. Less involved job.