Finding a Great Car

Setting Up Your Truck or SUV for Safe and Effective Off-Road Recovery

17 March 2021 by Elaine Kelly

If you travel off-road in your truck or SUV, you should ensure that you know how to get the vehicle out if it gets stuck or breaks down. There are some essential parts and tools that can make the job of 4x4 recovery more manageable and safer. 

Tow Hooks

Not every truck or SUV on the market comes with tow hooks; the ones that do often use lightweight stamped steel hooks that are not really up to the task of off-road recovery. Upgrading the tow hooks on your truck is just a matter of visiting your favorite off-road center and purchasing a set of heavy-duty tow hooks that can bolt on in place of the original ones. 

If your truck did not have tow hooks on it, you might need to install the ones you purchased in a couple of holes on the frame. The hooks should come with the hardware and the instruction for installing them. If you are not sure how to install them, you can take the hooks and the truck to an auto repair shop and ask if they can install them for you. 

Recovery Straps

When you need to recover your truck, you need to use a strap explicitly designed for 4x4 recovery. The strap should have sewn-loop ends and never metal hooks on it, and it needs to be marked as a recovery strap, not a tow strap used on the road. 

A tow strap is designed to have some stretch in it, but a recovery strap used for off-road recovery will not give or stretch and when pressure or load is applied to the strap. This is important because when recovering a truck from a mud hole or off an obstacle, you need to tug or snap the strap a little to free the vehicle. If the strap stretches, it will not allow you to apply that sharp snap that pulls the truck loose, and you may not be able to get the vehicle out. 

Tool Kit

An off-road recovery tool kit should always be part of your off-road gear. Your tool kit should contain leather palmed gloves, basic hand tools, several straps of different lengths, hardware for attaching the strap to the truck, a small folding shovel for clearing dirt, rocks, and other debris from under the truck, and a good hi-lift jack to raise the truck off obstacles or changing a flat tire. 

Add a spare tire and some water, blankets, flashlight, and food that will keep for a long time in the truck, and you are ready for a trip into the woods. With these basic tools, you should be able to recover your truck and drive out or be prepared to wait out a night and get help in the morning if needed.

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