Home Automotive A Step by Step Guide to Buying and Using a Snatch Strap

A Step by Step Guide to Buying and Using a Snatch Strap

The ability to get out of a pickle while hundreds of kilometers away from civilization is one of the most important aspects of off-roading. There are many ways to recover your vehicle when getting stuck in a rut, such as recovery tracks, winches and snatch straps. Ideally, you should have at least two of these tools, but if you have to pick, I’d personally go with snatch straps. Snatch straps are much easier to use than winches, and they’re extremely compact and lightweight to carry.

Recovery kits typically include one or two snatch straps, and all you need to use them are shackles and a tree trunk protector. Sometimes, these pieces of hardware are included in the kit, while other times you’ll need to purchase them separately. The right snatch strap should have the load capacity to pull your vehicle’s weight. That being said, you first need to figure out how much your vehicle weighs while loaded, and then ignore that number and go for a snatch strap that has a capacity of at least 1.5x that number.

snatch strap

This is because you’ll inevitably come across a poor lad that’s stuck in the middle of nowhere, without any piece of recovery gear. It’s off-road etiquette to help a fellow off-roader, however, there’s a good chance that his vehicle will weigh more than yours. Additionally, you want to make sure the snatch strap you have won’t be near its breaking point even when towing your own vehicle.

Furthermore, ensure that the vehicle doing the recovery and the vehicle being recovered both have rated recovery points. If one of the vehicles doesn’t, you might be better off using recovery tracks and dig it out. If the shackles from the snatch straps whizz through the air, it can be extremely dangerous for everyone nearby. Additionally, you should inspect the bogging and see whether its ground clearance or traction is stopping the vehicle from moving. If its ground clearance, then you should use a shovel to dig around the tyres.

Clearing the track ahead of the wheels to make forward movement easier ensures that there’s less stress placed on the snatch straps and the recovery points, thus making the entire recovery process safer and easier. Once you’ve done all of that, attach the straps to both vehicles through the eyelets and ensure the bow of the shackle is against the recovery point, with the strap eyelet being laid against the pin. Once that is done, tighten the pin and back it off half a turn. This will prevent the bin from binding in the shackle, which would make it extremely difficult to remove.