First... Welcome! Good first post.

Second.. What part of Northern Illinois??? We have a number of members here in the frozen northern reaches of Illinois.

Realistically its not our weather that makes our roads dangerous., Its the unbelievable quality of our snow plow drivers...

Take a read here, some basic info on straps....

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f30/basics-tow-straps-7558/

I love that video ROFLMAO

The ebrake trick is to help those of us that don't have lockers yet! Cause torqe takes the easiest rought out of ur axel, so by useing ur ebrake it holds that tire from spinning freely & transfers some of the torqe to the other wheel!
I just learned this trick also & it works great for not being that bump wimp guy!!! Lol

I feel sorry for the car owner...
That video can be part of the towing disaster compilation...

well judging by that first video i now no wat 600+ftlb of tourque will do to a dana 30 lol

Wow guys, so many opinions. Thanks for everything! Im not planning on pulling anybody out if i even have the slightest feeling that something is going to go wrong. I guess i haven't made myself clear enough. When i meant pulling people out of ditches, i didn't mean ditches like in the video. All i meant was like if one of my friends hits a patch of black ice and slides into a drainage ditch and doesnt have enough traction to get out, or if the cars Posi-track system kicks in and wont let him spin his tires fast enough. Either way, i know you never want to hook your strap up to something as flimsy as a bumper, common sense...or so i'd hope Thanks for the tip on having the person who owns the car hook it up to their car, that makes a lot of sense.

Ohhh and i live in the Orland Park area of Northern Illinois