Kinetic rope question

[gatornek]

Been looking to start building my "off road recovery bag" for an upcoming trip to the Smokies in November. Got myself a "weekender" static line kit from ARB with a couple of gloves and D ring shackles. I also got my eye on some recovery boards.

But I do have a question on kinetic rope options. From what I can tell, is the suggested diamter rope for our vehicle, a 7/8ths? Or would it just be a better bet to get a one inch rope? I do understand that a 7/8ths Bubba rope might be just as strong as a one inch chinese rope because of the difference in quality, but I'm just talking 'in general'. Would the BS be better equipped with a 7/8ths, or a one inch?

Also, what about the difference in length. I imagine that this boils down to how 'far out' can you get recovery from. A 30 foot rope gives you much more leeway to get a successful recovery?

All opinions welcome. Thank you ahead of time.

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[Jmuns]

7/8 will be fine for the BS. It’s plenty of rope. Length is subjective and lots of people end up with both eventually. If you’re on narrow or roads with tight turns 20ft may be easier to use in tight situations, but as you mentioned the 30ft gives you a farther distance to pull from out of water or deep sand on a beach where solid ground is farther away.

I have a 20ft Bubba Rope in my BS

 

[gatornek]

7/8 will be fine for the BS.

What about if I'm the one doing the yanking? Should I worry if the vehicle is, say, an extended cab full size F150 or Silverado? Or would that type of situation call for a thicker diameter?

lots of people end up with both eventually.

Yeesh. Not sure where I'm going to stow my wife and kid.

 

[Jmuns]

What about if I'm the one doing the yanking? Should I worry if the vehicle is, say, an extended cab full size F150 or Silverado? Or would that type of situation call for a thicker diameter?

Yeesh. Not sure where I'm going to stow my wife and kid.

Bigger is always better right? A larger rope would handle the weight of a full size truck, but the BS has it’s limitations where a larger rope may not matter if you can’t get enough power behind it to break even a smaller rope.

Hopefully someone can chime in that’s pulled or attempted to pull a truck out of a bad situation.

 

[Horse n Buggy]

Yankum has a pretty decent quick reference for recovery rope sizes, realistically you should aim for recovering yourself or who you are traveling with as a priority instead of planning to recover full sized trucks because if you know what you are doing, the car will fail before the ropes do.



But if bigger is better, go for the 2-1/2” rope and figure out how to connect it later

And don't forget soft shackles

 

[Horse n Buggy]

Another thing to consider with kinetic ropes is, to get the benefit of the elasticity, the force of your vehicle has to be enough to overcome the entire length and width of the rope. So a shorter rope will less diameter would be better served by a smaller vehicle with less force at its disposal. A smaller vehicle pulling a long thick rope could lose some of the elastic benefits and react more similarly to pulling with a flat strap.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Another thing to consider with kinetic ropes is, to get the benefit of the elasticity, the force of your vehicle has to be enough to overcome the entire length and width of the rope. So a shorter rope will less diameter would be better served by a smaller vehicle with less force at its disposal. A smaller vehicle pulling a long thick rope could lose some of the elastic benefits and react more similarly to pulling with a flat strap.

QFT. Bigger isn't always better.

 

[AmazingSieve]

Sorry, don't have an opinion but I did get pulled out of this mess by one...Also, I'm not one of the old dudes attaching the rope, I was stuck in my car there...good times....

 

[gatornek]

Yankum has a pretty decent quick reference for recovery rope sizes, realistically you should aim for recovering yourself or who you are traveling with as a priority instead of planning to recover full sized trucks because if you know what you are doing, the car will fail before the ropes do.



But if bigger is better, go for the 2-1/2” rope and figure out how to connect it later

And don't forget soft shackles

That yankum reference is basically what I was going off. That and this video of a youtuber talking to "yankum" brass where it SOUNDS LIKE he is saying that as long as I'm using the RIGHT ROPE designed for my vehicle (which I guess the consensus is 7/8ths) then I can attempt a pull on anything and generate the MOST force. But whether I am ultimately successful or not, depends on a range of different factors, most of which, is probably the mass of the vehicle Im yanking on.

 

[gatornek]

Sorry, don't have an opinion but I did get pulled out of this mess by one...Also, I'm not one of the old dudes attaching the rope, I was stuck in my car there...good times....

Haha, I think I remember this thread. Didn't he give you a bad line, instead of obviously having you hug the fenceline?!?

 

[AmazingSieve]

Haha, I think I remember this thread. Didn't he give you a bad line, instead of obviously having you hug the fenceline?!?

Yea I’m still annoyed about that. I wanted to take the line to the right of car in the photo. It looked better and not to mention his Badsquatch almost got stuck in that same hole moments before…why he thought my car, which has far less clearance would make it out I have no idea.

So I started out on the line to the right and he kept waving me back to the shitty line and I decided I didn’t want to offend the guy so I followed him and got stuck…that hole ended up costing about grand in repairs and I couldn’t drive the car for a month until things got sorted out.

 

[Maxwellian]

I’d rather snap a rope than yank part of a vehicle off. I went 5/8”, and wouldn’t go over 3/4”. Too big of rope won’t stretch as much, and you’ll get higher shock loads over a shorter period. I’ve read size for the smaller vehicle either being recovered or doing the pull.

Other thing to keep in mind is that energy increases with the square of speed. Doubling your speed will quadruple the pull strength. Longer rope will stretch more, but you gotta be a bit more careful about speed when you hit the end of the rope.

 

[Maxwellian]

The 2.0L BS with 1100 pounds of payload only weighs 4800 lbs. Upper end of the 5/8” yankum rope’s rating, mid range of the 3/4”

 

[JerryC]

BS doesn't have a frame. Consider how much of "yank" you want to give it. A kinetic rope is going to lessen the shock but it won't remove all of the stress imparted to the vehicles.

I have no idea what it would take to tweak a BS body doing a recovery. I'd be really careful if it was stuck hard or I was recovering a heavier vehicle.

 

[gatornek]

I found this on Bubba Rope's website:

Frequently Asked Questions
which recovery rope do i need?

there is no official working load limit on using bubba power stretch recovery ropes. however, from thousands of successful recoveries we recommend that the best method in selecting the right rope is by multiplying the weight of the stuck vehicle by 3.5 or 4 times and then selecting the rope that has a breaking strength that is equal to or higher than that number.
for example: if you are going to be recovering vehicles similar in size to a Jeep which weighs approximately 4,000 to 5,000 lbs. our Renegade Bubba Rope with a breaking strength of 19,000 lbs. would be perfect for that application.


Their 3/4 inch rope has 19,000 lb break strength. So this might not be a one size fits all solution. And it when it comes to the Bubba Rope, their "Renegade" 3/4 rope is what they rate for the "Jeep Wranglers". So if it can work for the WRangler, it can work for the BS.

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