A snatch recovery puts more force on your rig than anything else you'll ever do off-road. Here's the actual physics -- measured, modeled, and explained in plain language.
Pulling a stuck truck out with a kinetic rope looks simple. The rope stretches, snaps back, and the rig comes free. What's hidden is the load. Peak forces climb into the tens of thousands of pounds, and they scale hard with how fast you hit the rope. Get it wrong and something breaks -- usually the weakest recovery point, sometimes a window. Get it right and it's the smoothest, safest tool on the trail.
An interactive, independently verified model of how peak rope force scales with recovery speed for four right-sized rigs -- and what happens when you mismatch the rope.
Read the Physics →More recovery references are on the way, including rope and strap selection, recovery-point ratings, and field technique. We publish them here as they're ready.