Important

[wilson1010]

I've got a tow strap (not a "snatch" strap) with hooks on the ends. Is it advisable to cut the hooks off and use the strap, or toss it and buy a strap without hooks?

Tow straps don't have the spring or stretch in them like a recovery/snatch strap. Buy the right strap. Both have their uses, but the tow strap isn't used for offroad recovery.

Polyester webbing is pretty much all the same. There are only a couple of manufacturers and the product is pretty generic. Woven into strapping, it has a breaking strength of about 9000lb per inch of width, single ply. It stretches about 15-25% as it approaches its break point. No strap with metal hooks is usable for anything involving towing or recovery.

Here's a nice guy who will get you any strap you'd ever want:

http://www.starrrproducts.com/

 

[97XJ2]

Napa doesn't have them, Autozone has a replacement for $20.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Mine sucks. I just changed the wiper blade on it a few weeks ago, and the new blade (cheaper Bosch, maybe Anco?) binds on the clip, making a weak wiper worse. Probably need to clean the arm up a bit- the spring and hinges look a bit rusty on mine. It will clear rain, but not spray, snow, slush, or ice.

I've got a tow strap (not a "snatch" strap) with hooks on the ends. Is it advisable to cut the hooks off and use the strap, or toss it and buy a strap without hooks?

Check out the Keeper or Masterpull straps. Not sure on the price for Masterpull but my Keeper is 20k pounds and its 2"x30' and it was 40 bucks

 

[ChiXJeff]

Polyester webbing is pretty much all the same. There are only a couple of manufacturers and the product is pretty generic. Woven into strapping, it has a breaking strength of about 9000lb per inch of width, single ply. It stretches about 15-25% as it approaches its break point. No strap with metal hooks is usable for anything involving towing or recovery.

Here's a nice guy who will get you any strap you'd ever want:

http://www.starrrproducts.com/

I've seen straps that aren't woven polyester. Some other synthetic, some natural fiber. Okay, to be perfectly technical, they weren't straps, but more properly rope in that they were round in construction, not flat.

 

[wilson1010]

I've seen straps that aren't woven polyester. Some other synthetic, some natural fiber. Okay, to be perfectly technical, they weren't straps, but more properly rope in that they were round in construction, not flat.

Yea, I have two tow ropes that are Amsteel. I have a black 100 foot Amsteel rope 1" diameter and a 60 foot Amsteel 7/8." They have loop ends and the black one has break strength over 100,000lb. Don't ask me why I need a $300 tow rope. :confused1 These do not have any significant stretch so they wouldn't work for well for snatching.

Actually, a 2" polyester strap works really well for snatching because it will store the kinetic energy of the recovery vehicle and distribute it over a short time and therefor is less likely to break stuff than the 4" strap I always use. The 4" strap has 36000-38000lb strength so it probably doesn't start to stretch before the stuck vehicle is yanked out of the hole or the tow points have failed.

 

[ChiXJeff]

wilson, you *GET* the difference between them. That Amsteel should get treated like a winch cable, or a chain, there's no stretch.

I've managed to convert Dad over to recovery straps. We've always pulled stuck equipment out with chains. We've broken chains, but we've *NEVER*, ever, ever, got a running start at a chain. He's got a 3"x30' recovery strap now, and has used it to pull out a stuck logging truck with a 90hp 4wd orchard tractor. He said he got about 3 foot running start (NOT full throttle!) on that strap, it stretched, and popped the stuck truck right up.

I don't have a problem with the proper use of any of these. It's very important to remember which ones will stretch, and to not use hooks on those.

 

[wilson1010]

Yea, I'm all about recovery. I have every kind of recovery equipment there is and, practically the only reason I wheel is to recover some stuck vehicle. If I had a better right cross, I'd be a tow truck driver.

 

[seanR]

I pulled a Chevette, I just showed my age, out of a mud hole, I have no idea how they got there.
I handed the young lad one end of the strap, he hooked it to his tie rod.
I said, "I won't hook the strap for you, but I sure as Hell wouldn't hook it there!"
Finally I convinced him to hook it around the frame.
It would have been fun to watch though....

 

[kunaji]

Looks like Illinois has a new governor. Blago has been ousted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28894427?gt1-43001

 

[Rev Den]

Bout time.

Today I mounted 3 commercial TV antennas in a kitchen, on a 3' tripod screwed to the floor.

The roof mounted antennas won't be ready until next Friday....and I needed signal.

As long as a group of people don't loiter in the hallway, I am good.

Rev

 

[WB9YZU]

Bout time.

Today I mounted 3 commercial TV antennas in a kitchen, on a 3' tripod screwed to the floor.

The roof mounted antennas won't be ready until next Friday....and I needed signal.

As long as a group of people don't loiter in the hallway, I am good.

Rev

How do you expect them to cook when you "mount" tripod mounted antennas in the Kitchen?

 

[Rev Den]

it is "my" kitchen.

This particular suite that we lease came with a small kitchen. Good thing, now I got a place to put my antennas.



Rev

 

[seanR]

You are a nerd....
It takes one to know one...

 

[IllianaXJ]

Winched out a Chevy compact car this morning (Prism maybe?) It had factory tow hooks, but the hole wasn't big enough for a d-ring or even to loop the strap through. I just snapped the winch hook in and pulled him out.

Travis - I agree. 90% of the time I make them hook it up, with the exception being old people who have no business driving in snow let alone crawling under a vehicle. Good Samaritan laws don't cover vehicle extractions.

 

[WB9YZU]

You are a nerd....
It takes one to know one...

We're all a bit nerdy, though I stopped wearing my pocket protector and belt loop calc back in the 80's.

One of these days I'm going to find my hobby bench and get back to my Nerd roots

Antennas in the Kitchen... Kinky :attom:

 

[Prepmech]

Winched out a Chevy compact car this morning (Prism maybe?)

My wife used to have a chevy prism. It was junk, even though it was a re-badged toyota corolla. We called it a Toyolet (pronounced toilet).

 

[XJ&CHZ4ME]

I bought a Geo (Chevy) Prizm for $500 a few years back to commute to work with. After we moved clsoer to my work I sold it to one of my farm hands for $500 who then proceeded "allow" it to become property of the state b/c of using it to transport dope. damn, I sure know how to pick good help huh? But hey, for $8 and hour what do ya expect!

 

[ChiXJeff]

Oh, happy joy...... 2 positively ancient servers have crashed here in the last 24 hours. These machines were built around 1995, and are still running. Or rather, WERE running. Needless to say, the business unit isn't happy that they're down. We've only been telling them that it's only a matter of time before they die.

Did I mention that HP had to fly in parts overnight for the first server? They no longer stock parts for this class of server in the Twin Cities.

 

[WrenchMonkey]

But Jeff, why in the world would they replace them if they were still running?

(We deal with the exact same mindset at our chemical plant. "It's worked fine for thirty years, why should we fiddle with it?" Immediately followed by "Omigawd, what do you mean it's down? We need to ship tomorrow!")

Robert

 

[ChiXJeff]

Yeah, yeah, yeah......it works, why replace it?

Lessee...... the O/S is still in support, but only barely. The Oracle database is long out of support, and is unsecureable. The application is long out of support, and I'm not sure the vendor even exists anymore. There are quite a number of Sarbanes-Oxley notes regarding this system. The only saving grace is that the application should be decommissioned some time in the next year.