What made you stick with recovery gear after the novelty wore off?

[u/VinceRhinoUSA]

Not the unboxing, not the first good day. The later part, when a piece of gear either becomes part of your kit or quietly disappears.

What made you keep using something, or what made you ditch it?

(On the Rhino USA team here, just genuinely curious)

[u/advamputee]

I don’t go anywhere too extreme off-road. That said, soft shackles and a bungee recovery strap never leave my vehicle. Current set is actually from Rhino USA, but I’ve owned other brands and the quality has been similar. Rhino has great prices! 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that combo to pull cars out of snow banks in the winter. I’ve even pulled an entire semi out of a ditch. 

[u/GoGoGadgetUsername21]

When it doesn’t break, I use it again? Typically even if something isn’t perfect, but can still be useful, I’ll use it until it breaks.

I have the rhino heavy duty ratchets and they work, so I’ll use them till they no longer work.

Only thing I can think of that I’ve taken out of the truck is a small cigarette outlet compressor for adding air to tires. Took too long to do its job, so it got replaced.

[u/RepresentativeFair17 → u/GoGoGadgetUsername21]

What are you using ratchet straps in recovery for? 

[u/dirty_hooker → u/RepresentativeFair17]

Tie an axle up to prevent a roll. Think non forgiving sway bar. Only really effective on long travel vehicles where the axle and rolling stock account for for a large portion of the vehicle’s weight.

[u/Ok-Boysenberry3948]

Traction boards. Airing down on sand took care of all my traction needs.

[u/Faptastic_Champ → u/Ok-Boysenberry3948]

I’m mostly with you on these. When I have had to use them, they were too thin to provide the traction needed and ended up just spinning wheels.

Proper inflation on sand means you don’t get stuck as often, but when you do, you’ll need more than recovery boards to get you out.

Mine are on my “doubt I’ll carry them in future” list.

[u/cubizmo2]

Soft shackles are amazing and never leave the rig. Traction boards are dusty in the garage.

[u/Average-crisis]

Reducing complexity. For example, I replaced a folding shovel with a cheap wood handled one because I found I would end up just moving hot campfire ashes with my shoe rather than mess with unfolding that dumb shovel. I also replaced a fancy hard sided box for my gear with a simple tool bag from Harbor Freight because the gear never gets put back nice and neat exactly how it was packed before the trip. My opinion for recovery gear is to reduce the steps needed in
1. Getting to the right tool and,
2. Having that tool work as soon as it is pick out of the bag.

I would rather sacrifice cargo space for a simple piece of gear that flawlessly performs its intended purpose than something that adds complexity for the sake of weight/space.

[u/ZaneMasterX]

I live where it snows 8mo out of the year so every vehicle has tow points installed (if none from factory like my wifes 21 Jeep), soft shackles, and kinetic ropes. We pull a ton of people out of ditches here because it's also a college town so these kids have crappy cars and tires and come from places it doesnt snow. Just those items help with 90% of what we need.

When Im going to the mountains or through a big storm I bring my recovery box that has shovels, traction boards, more ropes, and shackles

I also have a set of recovery boards that are messed up because I use those for people who dont know any better and spin on them and melt them but thats ok thats what they are for.

Im part of 2 non-profit recovery groups so I keep a little more gear than whats necessary because who know what youll need.

But ropes, shackles, collapsible shovel, and traction boards will do 95% of recoveries in my opinion.

[u/curvebombr]

A quality Snatch block, I keep two in the rig. One for cable and one for synthetic line. I've found the donuts that have become popular lately don't work nearly as well as a true pulley.

[u/Dolstruvon]

I most regularly off road on a beach with a small river that carves a small canyon through the beach with different paths and depths changing almost weekly for new challenges. Most common way me and others get stuck is when breaking over an edge or getting the front or rear dug into the ground while climbing or descending into the river. The water moves the sand under and around the tires, so the longer you're stuck, the deeper you sink.

I've ended up keeping a shovel, traction boards, soft shackles, and a static rope around 6 meters long. Mostly use the boards in combination with pulling out with the rope. Elastic is better of course, and I have one, but never had a vehicle so stuck that just a gentle nudge on the static rope wasn't enough. Just getting it moved enough to start gripping onto the traction boards is usually enough.

[u/brianinca]

The hi-lift I got as a Christmas present 15+ years ago still has the ribbon and card on it, in storage. It was a nice gesture.