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Thanx Allan, just saw that on earth and was going to put up the same photo. Great news that the young fella is going to be ok

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Glad to hear and see the great news. One very lucky young man.

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Great news.  Considering what could have been, that is one lucky bloke (should take a tats loto ticket). 

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Great news guys.

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Lucky guy. Glad that he's recovering and sure that's an expensive lesson for him. :)

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I guess the publicity of what happened to this young guy has highlighted the potential dangers that can occur during a recovery. I still find it difficult to understand how some will either use a towball or attach 2 straps together with a shackle whilst performing a recovery, but it still happens on a regular basis..

But back to snatch straps. Some will say use as a 'last resort', which I disagree with. The main problem is that most of us will tend to use one as the 1st option, mainly due to convienience. Easy to get out & attach and all going well will do the job in most cases. All good if it is a GENTLE pull where you might only need a metre at most of slack to free the vehicle, and in a lot of cases that is all that is required. The big problems occur when excessive force is required, such as when the vehicle is stuck in a bog hole etc. Just have a look at youtube videos and see how much force is put on the snatchstrap when trying to recover some vehicles in this situation.. The recovery vehicle is more often than not at 'full noise' with at least 3 or 4 mteres of slackness in the strap. Is totally understandable how something, whether it be the strap, shackle or recovery point can give way.

Everything being equal, (which is often not the case), I will always look at using a snatchstrap as 1st option. In saying that the first attempt would be a gentle pull & if not successful, straight to a winch recovery. Matt mentioned a incident that happend not so long ago, which by the way I believe he was a little harsh towards those of us who performed the recovery, but all good. The vehicle was stuck on a rock & 1st few gentle snatches were unsuccessfull, the 3rd freed the vehicle but the a snatch was not at excessive force & did not cause the rollover. I guess in hindsight we could have used the winch from the beginning, but I can say those involved did nothing irresponsibly..

So I dont have an issue with using a snatchstrap as 1st option in a recovery IF it only requires a gentle pull. If after 2 attempts max it does not work, straight to winch recovery. The big problem is that many attempt the snatchstrap recovery many many times continually increasing the speed/force each attempt & as a result, that is often when it all turns to shit.

Just my opinion.

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Maybe I didn't word my post really well, and have edited it, all I was pointing out is the fact that even seasoned 4wders can make small errors in judgement and several poor descissions all of which may have no consiquence on there own can add up to a nasty situation if all worse case cenarios come together.

Accidents can and do happen to the best prepared but we all need to be very carefull because a few bad descissions can be life changing.

Believe me I know and have had a couple of very lucky escapes, some of which people here have witnessed, nearly drowning the Disco only after 1 month of putting the new motor in and nearly going end over end and still managing to do thousands in damage after attempting a track that I should have never even considered and thats only 2 in a life long list of near misses

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It was the top half of Tehans 4  track Mark.

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I was watching some youtube videos today and came across these bogans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GO6uMJoJLo

Check out @2.36min, dodged a bullet there!!

Then @19.20min they seem to not know the concept of "tread lightly" by tossing their windscreen down the hill.

Then have a look at this clown @10.35min, lucky that tree wasn't full of termites or something else didn't break!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGILlz4fA-U

Ha ha, and that's their club president

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My near drowning, which wasn't that bad as 4 cars all made it across, I was the first and took slightly wrong line and was close to getting washed down stream from the exit and the car did float a bit , that was at Merringtons but after HEAPS of rain and it was flowing pretty fast. The near roll over where I did heaps of damage by going backwards of the track and down a streep hill and over a tree stump, well not sure what track, it was a short cut out near Licola, Allan Mac will know that one and the last near roll over was Old Bluff taking on the hard line...

Ah love a challenge

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Yes, I remember the river crossing well Matt. Will never forget the 1000 knives going through my legs as I attempted to walk the crossing.....

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Ah the memories

In a way can't wait till the big trip is done so can get out a do some weekend wheeling

Another hold up with the Disco, was sent the wrong heavy duty axels for the front diff grrr

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