tow straps and recovery

M

motoguy13

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Illinois
ive owned my jeep for about a year now. and now that im getting it how i want, and the winter months are upon us i had a couple questions about recovering vehicles with tow straps. i know that straps with hooks are a bad idea and to only get ones with loops. but my question is how would you go about hooking that kind of strap to say a car that doesnt have any hooks when trying to get it out of a ditch?
 
Well, for starters...... in IL, you want to be careful about that. You can actually be ticketed for pulling someone out if you don't have a tow operator's license.

Like Brian says, use d-rings, or loop the strap back through itself around an attachment point.
 
Another tip - let the stuck person physically attach the tow strap. You can tell them how to do it, but have them actually do it. This kind of relieves you of the liability of attaching the strap should something go wrong.

Edit: and make sure they know the risks involved beforehand. You don't want to go from Good Samaritan to a lawsuit.
 
thats kinda what i figured would be the best way to do it. i didnt know you could get a ticket for that thanks for the heads up. it was more for just if i need to get my friends out of the ditch or if they are stuck in a parking lot or something.
 
I don't know of anybody who's gotten busted for it. As long as you're helping your buddies out, you're probably in good shape. I wouldn't go looking for trouble, though.
 
TellicoReadyXJ said:
Another tip - let the stuck person physically attach the tow strap. You can tell them how to do it, but have them actually do it.
Edit: and make sure they know the risks involved beforehand. You don't want to go from Good Samaritan to a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

x2
 
ChiXJeff said:
I don't know of anybody who's gotten busted for it. As long as you're helping your buddies out, you're probably in good shape. I wouldn't go looking for trouble, though.
Click to expand...
it's the same way in Ohio. I've done it, even had a sherriff pass me while I was pulling a friends wife out of a ditch. He asked what was happening, we told him and he was on his way. As long as you're not charging money I don't think you'll run afoul of johnny law, but it is possible.
 
I would imagine that law is to stop people from trolling in a storm, looking for people to pull out for $.
 
ChiXJeff said:
Well, for starters...... in IL, you want to be careful about that. You can actually be ticketed for pulling someone out if you don't have a tow operator's license.
Click to expand...

I have done this twice in front of a cop
1 time( sunny day not like in a snow storm or anyhting) in orland a lady hit my buddy put her excursion 4x4 in the ditch. buddy called me said you want to make 40.00 come pull this lady out( I was bored). Orland park police was on scene and stopped traffic as i snatched her truck out of the ditch with a 4" strap with my super duty.
2nd time(winter time) another buddy put his plow truck in center ditch on i-80 he hit black ice.
the state trooper had his lights on as i stayed on the side of the road pulling him out.
and my buddy got a ticket for too fast for conditions.
At one point i asked the cop to call a tow truck because he was really stuck, the state trooper said what you dont think you can get him out? and it was 1 am. 20 minutes of pulling on him with the strap I got him out.

on my way to get him i saw 2 guys trolling with a s-10 blazer and a winch in the back of the blazer. they were pulling one guy out as i was on my way to get my buddy after i pulled him out they were pulling someone else out down the road further the state trooper just went on by.

I'm sure if ssomething went wrong when doing it( you hurt someone caused an accident or damaged the persons car) and they called the police then you could possibly get a ticket for it. but otherwise the cops seems to be good about letting other people pull people out from my experience.

oh and when i pulled out the excursion i used my front pull points( OEM) and used my pintle hook reciever in her hitch. you could use a d-ring reciever in a hitch too other wise strap the axle.
 
Last edited:
I do it all the time in ND. I actually pulled 3 cars out last night alone in 20 min with the cops at each one. They thanked me for doing it as it saved them time to wait til a tow truck got there to pull the car out. The cops love people around here that do it to be nice, not for money. I dont charge people, i just do it, if i get a tip its even better, but i never ask for money. Im on the good side with the cops around here tho so that may help. They know me and know i like to help people out so sometimes they call me, they even know i have a scanner hooked to the police channel.
 
if someone dosent have a tow point where is the next best place to tug on thier truck. about 2 months ago some friends of mine pulled a rodeo out of the mud and the strap was hooked to the rear leaf springs. i was thinking that there had to be a better place to put that.
 
well, probably not.
anything else is going to get torn off.
strapping the axle is the alternative to proper tow points, and that's why it's a requirement to have tow points if you come wheeling with us, because strapping a suspension component sucks.
 
87manche said:
because strapping a suspension component sucks.
Click to expand...

Umm ya
JUST SAY NO TO STRAPPING SPRINGS.
a friend tried to help a guy out. gave him the end of the tow strap and said you hook it to your car ill hook my end to my truck and ill pull you out..
So the guy hooked it to the spring my buddy gave a yank to free him except the car didnt move and the strap did..
buddy get out looks at the end of the strap sitting on the ground
attached to the strap was the guys coil spring :doh:
he wrapped the strap to the coil spring and my buddy didnt pay attention to what the guy was doing...
there was also some wires hanging from the car.
buddy tells me he hooked to the axle got him out akll his lights worked and the car ran so they were unsure what the wires were for and the guy said thakns and left...
 
What if you're pulling out a woman?

Good luck getting her to put the strap on her own vehicle.

But yeah loop the strap through itself if they don't have a recovery point. A d-ring might work as well but I've always hears it's a bad idea to tie straps together using a d-ring (say if you need two straps together, don't use a D ring to connect them together)
 
motoguy13 said:
..but my question is how would you go about hooking that kind of strap to say a car that doesnt have any hooks when trying to get it out of a ditch?
Click to expand...

The last SUV I pulled out did not have any recovery gear. We used a nylon strap and clevis on the XJ (homemade bumper with tabs for clevises) and had them install a receiver drop and ball upside down in their hitch. No law enforcement present but an off-duty fireman helped direct traffic around the incident, two-lane road near a ski hill.

For once I got to pull instead of being pulled...
 
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