When it comes to working out what Recovery gear you really need who better to ask than a man at the retail coalface, Warren Adams of popular 4WD website www.4WDbits.co.nz(link is external)
Not only does Warren have years of hard-won (he started with an early three-door Range Rover!!) experience in the 4WD game, he remains actively involved side of things, both as a driver of the distinctive orange 4WDbits Nissan GQ race truck, and long-time class sponsor of the ORANZ NZ OffRoad Championship.
“The key questions you have to ask yourself,” he says, “are 1) what are you planning to do with your 4WD? And 2) where are you going?”
“I had a guy ask me that very question (what Recovery Gear do I need?) the other day. So I asked him what he was planning to do? The answer was he and his mate used their 4WDs for fishing and he wanted to launch his boat from the beach.
“They always took two vehicles so they had one to launch the boat and the other to tow it out if it got stuck.
“What they needed, then, were 1) Uprated recovery points, a tow strap and a tow strap extension.’
“Something like a set of Maxtrax recovery boards would be a good thing for them to carry too.”
Even the length of the Snatch Strap you have your heart set on can depend on where you live, and the use you put your 4WD to.
“If you are down south, where they do a lot of driving on shingle river beds there is a definite need,” says Warren, “for the longer straps so that if one vehicle gets swamped in a channel the other can still recover it from the bank.”
Not surprisingly the most popular Recovery items Warren sells are Shackles, Tow Straps, Snatch Straps and Joiners; simple back up pieces which don’t cost the earth yet which can – literally - be lifesavers should things turn pear-shaped.
If you’re still not sure exactly what you might need you can always take the easy way out and buy a kit put together by one or other of the big parts and accessory suppliers.
Warren sells a lot of Roadsafe kits and recommends the company’s Heavy Duty Recovery packages which sell for $294.99 (incl. GST) from his site.
“It’s good stuff,” he says, “ at a good price.”
To read every story in the May 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (April 13) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
