Crow Horse

Just curious, but does anyone make their own recovery straps? I've made several of my own and they've worked quite well. I used some military webbing (probably used for aircraft or cargo), app. 1 3/4" wide with a very dense weave (much denser than kinetic straps). They aren't used for kinetic recovery. I started making a bridle with this webbing and doubled it. I have a commercial sewing machine that handled the task well. I realize this isn't the optimum setup but for my recovery needs they'll work and will do so safely. If I'm ever in doubt, I'll use an alternate method of extrication.

As for the bridle, it's 10ft. long, doubled except for the loops. I haven't decided as how I'll work out the safety straps yet.....

hankthetank

Cool. Now you just have to get them through some engineered tests to find out what your maximum SWL is and ultimate breaking strength. And that's expensive. I would just buy straps to get past all that.

Crow Horse

I'm not going that route as I'm not selling them.I did give one to my stepson and he pulled out a small dump truck that was stuck in the snow. He said it worked well. I've made slings and tree protectors for lighter rigging projects and they worked fine. But.... I inspect everything after it's used and any sign of failure, it gets retired. It doesn't pay to risk everything to save a couple of bucks...

tssguy123

I was expecting this thread to be a hack-job, but they actually look pretty well done. Nice.

Crow Horse

Thanks!

95Cherokee

I don't think I've never made anything I can buy at a store.

Crow Horse

I love to make things. Sometimes they don't always come out as nice as bought items but I learn a lot in the process and the feeling of satisfaction is priceless.....

95Cherokee

Yes, I know that feeling of priceless satisfaction, in high school I spent an entire semester painstakingly making a skateboard in wood shop. It was made out of fine Cherry wood, meticulously sanded and finished until it shined like a piece of art.

In fact it was more of a show piece even though it was fully functional, I displayed it on my shelf and always had a coat of lemon Pledge on it, I rarely took it out for a ride for fear of putting a scratch on it.

Left it in the driveway one day and Mom backed over it with the station wagon and destroyed it. I never built anything else again.

hankthetank

Doesn't matter if you are not selling them. If you use your home made slings to recover another vehicle, you are in serious trouble if your homemade sling breaks.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...-%20SLINGS.pdf

Crow Horse

I'm not too concerned about this, but it is a good point to consider. At this juncture, the only person I'll be pulling out is me....

Big David

What if a store bought sling broke? Then what?

1st words out of my mouth is, "we can try but I ain't responsible if something goes wrong". Cause it can.

hankthetank

Not picking up what you are putting down here. Liability is a word used by every American at some point in their life.

If you pull someone out of a ditch with your homemade sling and it breaks and somebody is injured, or property is damaged, you are liable. Plain and simple.

JWheeler

Same exact thing goes for a store bought strap.

investinwaffles

At least when you build it yourself, you know the quality of each and every stitch and dont have to wonder if some machine in China messed something up.

Nice straps OP!

black label

So the moral of the story is never help anyone.