Equipment Priority

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWf6UcsIZ5E

At 29:12 it is recommended to buy max trax or other recovery board before buying a winch. The thinking is (as I understood what they were saying) that you will probably get more use out of the boards than a winch. Makes sense to me. (I don't currently have either)

If you were starting from scratch, in what order would you buy recovery gear?

 

Shackles. Snatch strap/rope. Winch. Boards.

 

Shovel first then boards

 

The cheaper it is, the more likely you'll have it first.

With a $30 shovel and maxtrax, you'd be fine getting out of most situations. Maxtrax can be used as shovels in snow and sand... Not so great in anything hard packed though.

Straps are good, just make sure you have something to connect them to. On the stock front, you have a hook, on the rear, as long as you have a hitch, carry a hitch pin and use that. If you don't have a hitch, figure out a way to get a point back there. I was beyond surprised when i realized that without a hitch, at least 2nd gens have no rear recovery points.

 

I currently have a shovel (a few actually). I had straps, let an in-law use them to get towed home after his engine quit on a trail, never saw him or them again. I have the shackle for the tow hitch. I have a high-lift, I have had that longer than I have owned my Tacoma, they are just useful for so many things besides vehicles.

Next I am thinking, 1) replace my straps (finally come to terms that I am not getting them back), 2) get some traction boards, 3) replace the rear bumper to get more high-lift jack points, 4) then get the front bumper and eventually a winch.

 

I think sliders are better for the high-lift jack points, but that's just like my opinion man

 

I have used my sliders as jack points before. It works very well.

 

Something to remember is the hi lift can be a manual winch with a few straps and shackles. I've used it before and it's slow but it beats having to leave a vehicle on the trail.



Sliders can be a side recovery point.

I off-road a TON, and have a ton of recovery gear, and sliders are my only upgraded armor.

Yes, i only have sliders as lifting points, front has hidden winch, rear is stock.

 

I had to do that once with my high-lift. A real PITA, but it worked well. It was many years ago, and my wife had parked her car (a very large mercury grand marque) in the back yard for a reason I don't really remember now. It started raining really bad, and by morning the car had sank to its frame. My son pulled his ford explorer into the back yard to pull it out. While getting my tow chain out of the shed, his explorer sank to the frame. In typical ford fashion, the electric shift transfer case wouldn't engage the 4wd. That's when I purchased the high-lift and tow straps. I winched the vehicles towards each other as there were no anchor point to be had. I got the explorer out first, then repeated the process for the car. Spent an entire day recovering vehicles from my own back yard.

Looking back the entire thing was comical to say the least, but at the time it was just a bad day.

 

Another thing to remember is that the 3/4" shackles are common and nice, but you can get higher rated 5/8" shackles that are smaller, but still rated for the 9k pounds that most of the common 3/4" ones are (all sizes have some different varieties and rated capacities).

http://amzn.to/2kWYxun

Why would you need such a thing... well they take up less space, weigh a little less, but also will fit places that 3/4" ones wont. If you have to attach to some recovery points on vehicles, good luck getting a 3/4" shackle through there... been there and wished I had a smaller one... then fixed that issue.

But before I had Maxtrax, I made sure I had two or three straps for using the hi lift as a winch.

So I'd suggest the minimum of two straps, a tree saver, a few shackles, shovel, hi lift.... in an emergency, you can always bring pieces of 2x4 that you can ratchet strap to the tire to give you grip.

I currently carry:
2 - 30ft straps
2 - tree savers
1 - 30ft kinetic strap
1 - winch extension
2 - snatch blocks
probably 6 shackles.. lost one on the trail the other day when it fell out and i forgot to pick it up.

shovel, hi lift, winch, frame keys, extra hitch pins, maxtrax and I'm sure I'm forgetting some... chains if I'm heading out to play in snow. gotta be prepared!

 

I dont mess with China shackles. Get CM or Crosby.

I'd rather have usa made straps as well.

I have waffle boards and I pretty rarely carry them. They do work but they take up a lot of room and they kind of suck to use. Gotta fish em back out of the soupy nasty hole you were in, when your tires push em down in. Idk, they're just my least favorite option but can be effective in the right circumstances.

Ive used my winch infinitely more times.

 

Used to live in Augusta... in Evans actually, went to Lakeside but uhh there are trees everywhere out there. No shortage of trees to winch to. Lots of nasty red clay too. Winches are pretty useful in that terrain.

 

True...
Expensive and or USA stuff is nice, but I'd rather see people have good rated "Chinese" stuff rather than nothing at all. Shitty rated dollar store stuff on the other hand... I'd say you're better off going without anything.

Half of my stuff is original stuff... Cheaper brands, other half is ARB. I still have only used my shittybilt snatch block vs my ARB, just because the shittybilt is easier to access in the truck. Slowly replacing it all with better stuff.... But being that i now carry a good $1000+ in recovery gear, not counting the winch... It's a slow process.

The good thing about it, is it's an investment that can be moved to any rig.

We also have a great volunteer emergency vehicle recovery group out here which helps justify carrying so much, and it all gets plenty of use.

 

Also useful in GA are bow saw and axe and hatchet.

Your probably on private land at any rate and then you could always hilift and use branches etc under the tires.

 

I would get a hi lift and a winch before i wiuld ever get those boards. Around here those would be useless and a waste of time, however i could see them useful in sand or something. You will eventually get a truck out with a hi lift, either dumping crap in the hole under the tires, driving off the jack while its in the air and over something or as a winch (takes forever!). A bumper mounted winch is worth evrey penny though!

 

Does anybody on here roll with 2 spare tires?

 

Only ones I've seen are the long travel guys with caged out beds.

 

Shovel. Axe. Boards. Strap(s). Hi-lift. Winch.

 

For me it is, in order of most use:

1. Shovel
2. Snatch strap/Shackles/Hitch Shackle
4. Winch/tree saver/snatch block (self recovery)
5. Axe/Bow saw
6. Hi-lift

I have planned on getting traction boards, but after seeing friends use them, I am less than impressed.

 

Here's the order I went with:

1) tow strap, D rings and receiver shackle, shovel, gloves
2) hi lift, lift mate, another tow strap and a chain
3) kinetic rope
4) sliders, winch and bumper with recovery points, snatch block, tree saver