Universal Recovery Kit

[RHeinz]

Long, long ago, I got tangled up in a downed barbed wire fence in the open Sonoran Desert. IIRC, it was a bitch to get untangled as it had wrapped around the steering knuckle. I now carry a serious pair of wire cutters and a 24” pry bar/screw driver.

Also, glad to see duct tape on the list.

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[Gypsy]

FWIW I used virtually ALL of my recovery gear for the first time weekend before last since running trails in the Bronco (almost 2 years now already and 39K miles).

Just a weird situation, unexpected (aren't they all!?), and neither I nor anyone in the group I was leading were the victim.

We were doing an intermediate trail nearby called Dutch John, things were going very smoothly for mostly a "new group of offroaders" I had with me.
We topped a hill and began into the next curve and I saw an F150 off the side of the trail, at an awkward angle.
Stopped and asked the obligatory "Are ya'll good?". Obviously they weren't but surprisingly not everyone wants help even if they need it.

Long story short, the F150 had non-functioning 4WD and not even AT tires. There was no way he was going the way we had come, as it was far more challenging than what he had made it through to that point.
I initially pulled him up out of the hole and onto the trail facing us twice. Hoping he would be able to back up into a wider spot up the trail and get turned around.
But the clay was so slick any attempt to turn the wheels just caused them to slide back down the ruts and right back off of the trail.

So plan B became apparent.
I used my tree saver strap, recovery strap (NOT a standard towing strap), two soft shackles, two hard shackles, snatch block, and extra 100' of synthetic winch line to angle off of a larger tree and pull him up onto the trail from the rear vs. the front.
After that, picking different trees and angles allowed me to turn him completely around and facing along with us, eventually down past the ruts. At one point I was having to pull him sideways against the mud with my wife in the Bronco, in 4L, in reverse to keep from being pulled down. Got kinda sketchy but never out of control.
About an hour spent in 98 degree humidity.
But in the end some good karma and an excellent lesson for the group in how, what, and what gear made it a successful recovery.
I bought it all piece by piece thinking I'd use it one day, but saying to myself "You probably will NEVER use any of this, ya know?".
Turns out I did.

Be prepared for the unexpected.
You can never plan for every instance that could happen, but some basic stuff can go a long way to driving home or not.

Thank you for sharing, my husband is the same way.

 

[Imonamoose]

Sorry to bother you but I have a few questions. Do you have any recommendations for:

1. Basic portable tool kit, we have a mini one for the Jeep not good enough.
2. Is there any particular size for the Shackles
3. Is 40,000 lbs. good enough for a snatch rope
4. Is 3"x30' tow strap good enough.
5. Standard or X-long recovery boards I think we are going with fold ups.

Thank you for all your help.

1. Sockets, allans, vice grips, and torks. Start there and build.
2. soft shackles rated for Trucks will be fine.
3. 1"x30' kinetic rope is what your are looking for.
4. Good.
5. Recovery boards are a fashion statement that are seldom if ever useful. Airing down tires is way more valuable to get unstuck or deal with an issue on trail. Save your money on the recovery boards and get a compressor and regulator that you can conveniently air up and down with.

6. Shovel.

Also, i will add a couple snatch blocks and a come-along hand jack are cheap alternative to expensive vehicle mounted winches. Proper air down, a hand jack, a kinetic rope w/soft shackles, and patience can get you out of nearly anything.

 

[Gypsy]

1. Sockets, allans, vice grips, and torks. Start there and build.
2. soft shackles rated for Trucks will be fine.
3. 1"x30' kinetic rope is what your are looking for.
4. Good.
5. Recovery boards are a fashion statement that are seldom if ever useful. Airing down tires is way more valuable to get unstuck or deal with an issue on trail. Save your money on the recovery boards and get a compressor and regulator that you can conveniently air up and down with.

6. Shovel.

Also, i will add a couple snatch blocks and a come-along hand jack are cheap alternative to expensive vehicle mounted winches. Proper air down, a hand jack, a kinetic rope w/soft shackles, and patience can get you out of nearly anything.

Thank you. We have everything. We did get a Viair compressor. Aren't snatch blocks for trucks that have winches which we don't have. Is a hand jack the jack that comes with the Bronco? We are looking to get a Bottle Jack.

Thanks again.

 

[dgorsett]

Why they do sell recovery kits, most are overpriced, incomplete and/or have unnecessary items. You can probably find a basic kit and then just add to it as needed. And yes, most recovery gear is "universal" and not vehicle specific. I suggest you do some research and read up on recovery basics. However, a good recovery gear starter kit includes, but certainly not limited too:

1. shackles (hard, soft or both depending on recovery points and other gear)
2. snatch rope
3. tow strap
4. gloves
5. basic tool set
6. tire plug kit
7. storage bag or tote
8. small shovel
9. gorilla tape
10. tarp
11. a wheeling buddy
12. spare inner tie-rod

Other items to consider:
1. winch
2. tree saver
3. recovery boards
4. air compressor

Judging by your question I am going to assume you are an off-roading novice (no problem as we all had to start somewhere and sometime). Considering meeting up with a local off-road group to get some experience and see what they are packing for gear. Also, maybe go to one of the Off-Rodeos to learn more about your Bronco and recovery gear / methods. I am sure others will chime in with their gear suggestions and fill in any blanks I may have missed.

Excellent list, very complete and one could not go wrong following it. I have 11 out of your 16, I have to add some Gorilla tape for sure. I also always carry tire chains and a handyman jack, both can be controversial here. But some kind of jack capable of lifting you off high center may be the most important item, along with the knowledge to operate it.

 

[Imonamoose]

Thank you. We have everything. We did get a Viair compressor. Aren't snatch blocks for trucks that have winches which we don't have. Is a hand jack the jack that comes with the Bronco? We are looking to get a Bottle Jack.

Thanks again.

When I say "hand jack" what I am referring to is a hi-jack with chains/cable hooks or a come-a-long cable ratchet... not a traditional vehicle jack to lift the truck and change a tire.

These tools with a solid pully/snatchblock set up can let you pull trucks out by hand.

 

[Gypsy]

Excellent list, very complete and one could not go wrong following it. I have 11 out of your 16, I have to add some Gorilla tape for sure. I also always carry tire chains and a handyman jack, both can be controversial here. But some kind of jack capable of lifting you off high center may be the most important item, along with the knowledge to operate it.

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When I say "hand jack" what I am referring to is a hi-jack with chains/cable hooks or a come-a-long cable ratchet... not a traditional vehicle jack to lift the truck and change a tire.

These tools with a solid pully/snatchblock set up can let you pull trucks out by hand.

Thank you.

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

Our kit is almost done, just missing extra tie rod. Should you carry driver, passenger, or both. Thanks

A spare tie rod is an over abundance of caution and you also have to know how to replace one on a trail.

Question to ask is if you are running larger than stock tires? If so, that’s where the tie rod damage has most occured. If you have the stock tires or no larger than 35s, you shouldn’t need to worry much about tie rod failure.

Other thing is what type of obstacles do you plan to take on in your brand new Bronco? Unless you plan to climb rock walls or other serious rock obstacles where you’ll over throttle the truck, you are unlikely to break a tie rod in all but the rarest of circumstances.

Forums tend to magnify the minute details of everything. Lots of OCD guys hang out on forums. Be careful of going too far down the rabbit hole.

It’s good to always Carry tools and recovery gear, but most of your worries are likely to be software, tire damage, dead battery, stuck in mud or water, etc. These are all mostly simple fixes if you’re not alone out there. Software stuff tends to reset once you turn off the engine and restart/reboot the system.

It’s ok to not have everything on day one. Most of us grow into knowing and saving up for many of the things we carry with us.

 

[Gypsy]

A spare tie rod is an over abundance of caution and you also have to know how to replace one on a trail.

Question to ask is if you are running larger than stock tires? If so, that’s where the tie rod damage has most occured. If you have the stock tires or no larger than 35s, you shouldn’t need to worry much about tie rod failure.

Other thing is what type of obstacles do you plan to take on in your brand new Bronco? Unless you plan to climb rock walls or other serious rock obstacles where you’ll over throttle the truck, you are unlikely to break a tie rod in all but the rarest of circumstances.

Forums tend to magnify the minute details of everything. Lots of OCD guys hang out on forums. Be careful of going too far down the rabbit hole.

It’s good to always Carry tools and recovery gear, but most of your worries are likely to be software, tire damage, dead battery, stuck in mud or water, etc. These are all mostly simple fixes if you’re not alone out there. Software stuff tends to reset once you turn off the engine and restart/reboot the system.

It’s ok to not have everything on day one. Most of us grow into knowing and saving up for many of the things we carry with us.
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Going down the rabbit hole is something I am very familiar with and do. I usually dislike to shop but when it comes to our Jeep and Bronco I have no problem. Of course when it comes to Fly Fishing there is no end to the rabbit hole for him.

Thank you for all you help, my husband actually stopped me from going down the rabbit hole after the boxes started coming in He put the brakes on pretty darn quick. So he had a decent tool kit but did need the metric set, had a recovery bag, did need the snatch rope, had a tow rope, now have two had gloves, gorilla tape, tarp, shovel, flares, needed shackles, hard for the Bronco, soft for the Jeep, got 2 hard and 4 soft, got air compressor, got deflator kit, got good tire repair kit, had a good first aid kit. So I wasn't too bad. Since we live in Florida we always are ready for Hurricane season. Few things left but like you said we will learn plus we will talk together before ordering

Again thanks for your help.

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