Hand winching with an elastic band!

I actually did this, unintentionally, many years ago, about '82 to '84. I was out with a friend in the passenger seat but no other vehicle. Near the King River and William Hovell Dam. Wasn't a very steep track, just wet clay and slippery. It was drizzling rain as well. I slipped partially of the track with my first Hilux. I had a hand winch and thick poly..something rope as extension. I was winching away, but getting nowhere. Got tired so decided to jump in car and see if I could use the tension with some extra revs. Popped back on the road quite suddenly.
I remember some leaches attaching themselves to me during the process, found the blood leaking from a couple of tell tale spots.
Funny to remember and talk about, wasn't much fun at the time.

I guess if the winch is smaller in capacity than the snatch straps breaking strain & fitted the usual dampner over the cable it would be feasable but of course the problem with any hand winch is one can't get out of the line of fire should something let go as somebody has to hang onto the handle to make it work. It does go against the general line of thinking that only non stretch cables, tree protectors & extension straps should be hooked up to winches. I doubt it would be any more dangerous hooking a hand winch to an 8 tonne snatch strap than connecting a 9000lb elctric winch to a 4 tonne extension strap, something many here seem to have no problem doing.
Cheers Craig...........

I suppose it would be much the same as the very first vehicle recovery method over 100 years ago i.e one person drives the car while everyone else pushes.

Most straps are around 9 metres long and are supposed to stretch 20% more than their length which is about 1.8 metres. I don't know if the load on the strap is directionally proportional to the amount it is stretched but assuming it was, a 600 mm stretch on an 8000kg strap would give you a load of around 2660 kg. That is not going to break the strap, the vehicle recovery hook or any shackles and the winch sheer pin should still hold.

I don't know how much force an average size man can apply when pushing a bogged vehicle but assuming is was their own weight, which I doubt, that 2660 pull would be the equivalent of having over 30 men pushing the moment someone tried to drive the vehicle.

Maybe some of the engineers and maths experts on here can tidy up my figures a bit but this initially looks like it could be a safe and useful recovery method for someone on their own.

Brian