Broke my tow rope...

[ArtHummer]

So I was driving around over the weekends and stumbled on a stranded Chevy Tahoe almost on the middle of the interaction. i decided to stop and tow him out of the road to the nearest parking lot. I had this tow rope laying in my track.

It is not the best thing to have but it did helped me to pull some cars out of the ditch.

So I hooked it up to the guys SUV and tried to pull him out... First, slowly I made sure that the line is tight and then tried to give some gas to start moving. I have noticed that we were moving very hard. That was strange, because before I just had to step on the gas just a bit and I would tow large suv with no problem... I had slow down just a bit let other cars pass. I've noticed that there was a little slack in the line and to make it tight again I just let go of the brake and let my truck to roll on idle... and then... whooomp... I look back and the line broke...

I was like... whaaat??? how did it brake so easily I didn't even step on the gas?!?!

I got out of the truck to make a nut on the rope and finish to do what I've started. And I was shocked to hear from the guy "oh, I don't know what happened, but my truck started and now i can move by myself"...

So, apparently when I was towing him, instead of putting it on the neutral he left it in the "drive" and tried to "help" me. When I stopped, he was able to drive by himself for another few feet, this making the slack on the rope even more than I expect. And when I tried to pull him I was pulling him when his transmission was engaged. (He could've as well press the damn brake)

I was so frustrated... The lesson is DO NOT ASSUME that everyone knows that when your car is towed, you have to put it in neutral.


Another thing is, i looked on the rope and it is not broken, but some how got untied... this is strange to... I guess I have to get a better tow strap

 

[rebell_h3]

some people are just to smart

 

[deserth3]

Thread the end back into the rope again or just throw a couple of half hitches in there and call it good.

 

[alrock]

Might be time to invest in a recovery strap for these situations vs using a tow rope

 

[Expendable]

I'm getting a 40,000lb recovery strap before I take my truck on a trail.

my dad has one and has used it to pull out a refrigerated box truck stuck in pismo beach.

 

[twinmill28]

Yeah, that whole part about not expecting people to know what to do-------it never fails to amaze me because I take that for granted every time and every time I discover people don't know what to do.
Common sense is not really so common........

 

[08H3]

Sounds like you were using a tow rope as a recovery strap. Glad it didn't turn out worse. We had a guy in a nearby town last winter end up with one of those hooks through his head. Be careful out there.

 

[Scarsman]

I bet he had his parking brake on. Being a Tahoe, it will have had an automatic transmission. If his truck was dead it would make no difference to you if it were in drive, neutral, or reverse. It would roll the same if the motor was off.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk

 

[ArtHummer]

I bet he had his parking brake on. Being a Tahoe, it will have had an automatic transmission. If his truck was dead it would make no difference to you if it were in drive, neutral, or reverse. It would roll the same if the motor was off

This is the thing. When I stopped and offered him a help I noticed that could not start it. The starter was cranking, but engine did not fire... After the rope snapped and I got out to check what happened, his engine WAS WORKING... And he was pushing on the gas and tried to move by himself (that's why the slack in the rope got larger then I expected it to be)... I have no idea when he got it started, but his engine was off when I hooked him up... I think he decided to "roll-start it" while I was pulling him... And some how it did start...
Well, besides that his engine would not start, I think he broke something in the transmission. When line broke, he was able to "kind of" drive. He was pressing the gas pretty hard but his truck was moving very slow. Like his transmission wasn't catching a gear.

Sounds like you were using a tow rope as a recovery strap. Glad it didn't turn out worse. We had a guy in a nearby town last winter end up with one of those hooks through his head. Be careful out there.

Yea, I know. This rope is not the best thing to have and I do plan on getting a nice heavy recovery strap. But with this rope I was able to pull a Suburban out of the ditch last winter and i actually had to jerk him out of it a few times and the rope did stud up to it. Actually I was surprised that it did... But this time it was just nice road I had to pull him for like 25 yards. I was able to make only 4 and it snapped.