Death caused by hitch ball recovery attempt

If this topic has already been addressed, it's worth repeating. Gil
https://www.exploringoverland.com/o.../another-hitch-ball-recovery-another-fatality

 

I've been waffling on buying a "Yank-Em" kinetic rope. After I saw this incident on another website, I ordered a rope.

 

Horrific, even worse that his family was in the vehicle with him.

 

Terrible story, but a good lesson. Thanks for sharing.

 

Anyone know what the factory hitch receiver is rated (for using a product such as the Factor 55 Hitchlink)?

 

How the fuck is an "experienced" off roader so careless?? How could an "experienced" off roader not have proper recovery gear?? Seriously, what the fuck???

Sorry, this shit just pisses me off.

Thank you for sharing. What a tragedy for the victim's family.

 

Matt’s off road recovery most certainly sold me on one

 

Terrible tragedy. Thanks for Posting.

 

It’s hard to understand how somebody can miss the leverage action going on with the drop-hitch.

But then again, I was surprised to see the tongue fracture! Honestly, I would have expected to see some level of bending. I suppose, the that tongue needs to be hard AF to do it’s job (which means brittle). Lesson learned. Either way, doesnt seem like the guy thought of either bend or break scenario, both of which would have ended badly.

I guess that’s the main lesson for me here. When shit breaks, it’s gonna be unexpected. This stuff should not be done in a hurry. Each recovery situation is different. Gotta give yourself time to imagine how somebody might get killed, and time to double check that you are using the right straps (I can imagine grabbing the wrong strap in a hurry.

 

I'm not an off roader, so why is a kinetic rope safer? From what I read they stretch, so wouldn't they store a lot of energy and in case of a failure it would cause the rope/what it's attached to whip like a rubber band toward the truck? Educate a brother.

 

@Thatbassguy this is why I was saying to leave the hood up. What a tragedy for his wife and kids. Also I have so many questions. (eg: where was the line weight? Why wasn’t it kinetic rope or at least a recovery rope? Did anyone have a winch?) Although questions will never take back what happened it is something I think we should never want to ask ourselves. Another option for you all is the Ironman kinetic rope (what I have). It is a lot cheaper than Matt’s rope/yankum ropes. Just throwing that out there.

 

Like @Spare Parts mentioned, in a kinetic recovery you're using momentum to move the stuck vehicle. A kinetic rope allows the vehicle doing the recovering to gain a little momentum before it stretches and transfers that energy to the vehicle being recovered.

A regular tow strap is perfectly safe when it is used properly. But, tow straps and chains should never be used to jerk another vehicle.

Actually, there is a video floating around the internet of a Jeep recovery in which they were using a chain to try to jerk a stuck Jeep out of some mud. The chain ended up going straight through the windshield of the stuck Jeep and seriously injuring the driver.

Good point about keeping the hood open! I have been leaving mine open when I use the winch. If the guy in the story had opened his hood, he might just be buying a new hood right now.

I will have to look into the Ironman rope. How does the price compare to a Bubba rope? I currently have a snatch strap, but I thought I had read that the round robes were nicer.

 

in this cases, always put the hood up. this is a nasty way to go, unfortunately quite common.
works the other way as well, towards the towing rig

 

One has to wonder why the 'experienced off-roader' wouldn't have wrapped the strap around the hitch itself, or even used the receiver pin as an attachment point (if that is allowable)? Either seems preferable to hooking up to a drop hitch to pull a several ton vehicle out of the mud.

Edit: in watching the video below, the guy stated while using the hitch pin is better than using the ball, it's not advisable, as the pin can bend, and may not be able to be removed.

 

I think some even hang things on the rope like a couple of heavy coats to slow down/deflect the "missile" in case the rope breaks.

 

Yes that’s old school from the winch cable days. Steel wire rope stores a lot more energy than synthetic line.

 

I think using the hitch pin is a no-no.

@everyone: Lots of us are acting like using a ball hitch for recovery is obviously stupid. I don’t think it’s so obvious. When you consider what the hitch, with its 10,000 lb. rating, is intended to do, it’s rather easy to conceive that pulling a 6000 lb. vehicle out of the mud would be no problem. I know that the ball hitch shouldn’t be used because I took a class in offroad recovery from a professional instructor. But before I took that class I had no clue and wouldn’t have thought twice about using the ball.

 

I guess you could say that guy got ball(s)

 

Wow. Thanks for posting this. I will get a recovery shackle. I was already thinking of one of those kinetic recovery ropes.

 

Just reminded me this video where they use tow ball the entire video even on a heavy pull..

 

Matt's tri ball is welded, idk about the other vehicles.

 

Kinetic ropes used stored controlled energy to recover stuck vehicles, recovery straps dump that energy in a non controlled manner making them unpredictable and dangerous.

 

The pros in my neck of the woods breaking down the incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3BkeeXlIo

 

Never use just the receiver with the tow pin, the double shear will not work as intended.

 

This is right on. You would think common sense would keep you out of trouble, but recoveries are full of variables that simply are not commonly experienced by most people. Common sense could/should lead one to say “this is probably dangerous, so I’ll just call Matt the professional to do it”. But even that might not be enough for some people, because some might not have the experience to even conceive the dangers involved. Simply not knowing something is enough to kill someone.

Whenever you are doing anything that can kill someone quickly and violently, experience is probably less important than good judgement. But to actually do these things safely, judgment and knowledge combined is what you want.

The guy using the drop hitch as a snatching point may have had tons of experience, but if his experience was just getting away scott free with using a drop hitch like this, then that “experience” was what killed somebody.

I’d like to think that I would have the judgement to recognize the danger of putting a jolt force on a big lever-arm like that, but seeing that metal fracture so cleanly really drove home the point of how it could go wrong (knowledge). I now know why they say not to snatch or tow from a ball…it’s not just slipping off the ball, it’s that the ball shaft is probably not going to bend…it’s going to break. I think I have the judgement to have recognized the lever action on the drop hitch, but I admit that judgement wasnt enough for me to imagine that the ball is also experiencing similar levering forces. I can imagine thinking I’d be safe if I just tied things to the ball real good, because I didnt understand why you’re not supposed to.

Another thing that some might not understand is that weight ratings are static. In a dynamic recovery, any motion can double, triple (or more, in “full send” situations) the actual forces experiences by the equipment or vehicle. And these forces may not be predictable.

A few lessons I noted in all this: Never put forces on something if you can imagine it bending. In other words, you cant bend a straw if you pull on both ends of it. Think through your actions to make sure you dont make a stupid mistake in setup or pick up the wrong strap. Listen to people that are more knowledgeable.

 

Toyota doesn't list a rating, I've snatched other 4R out of mud pits and it's held up fine with a rated receiver shackle.

 

https://ironman4x4america.com/kinetic-snatch-rope-20-940lbs-9500kg
Plus 25% off site wide. So it brings it down to ~$105. I think you saw the video of me using mine at the beach. If not let me know and I will add a link.

 

Thanks for the real world experience. I combed through my manual and while it provides the vehicle towing capacity and tongue weight limit, it doesn’t indicate if the receiver is a Class I, II, Iii, IV, etc.

 

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Not appropriate in this situation. I can only hope the wife of this fellow never sees your comment.