Kedah 4x4

Tuggum straps are elasticised towing straps used to extract a vehicle by another vehicle. Because of the stretchability of tuggum straps the tow vehicle can move under power and ‘jerk’ the vehicle from its bogged predicament. Off-roaders use tuggums as the first option when debogging a vehicle. This is the lazy way out because:

· Tuggums are dangerous. One mismatched component or weak mount can be disastrous. Tuggum straps have killed people.

· Tuggum straps have a limited life and are expensive. Depending on the load, about twenty pulls and a strap becomes ‘stretched out’. Using it for tuggum operations after this is extremely dangerous. The stress is absorbed by the stretch. No stretch=major stress.

Selecting a tuggum strap:

· Don’t go a cheap route.

· Protective sleeves on the end loops are a good idea especially if they slip, or better, if they can be removed easily for cleaning and replacement.

· Breaking strain rating is important but know the weight of your vehicle. When fully loaded, a vehicle may weigh 3000kgs. A breaking load factor of four should be estimated. Therefore: 3000x4=12000kgs minimum breaking strain is required.

· A stretch of 20% is sufficient. Most good straps have a rating of 20-30%.

· Tuggums should be more than six metres long. The longer the strap the higher percentage the stretch and longer the working life. Eight or nine metres is ideal.

· Buy all the attachment accessories you need to avoid having to jury-rig equipment not designed for the job. When breakages occur it is more often attachments. Buy the best quality gear.

Tuggum straps are unpredictable:

· The actual stretch is determined by many factors: moisture content of the air, previous pulls and their loads, the time the strap has had to rest, how well was the strap cleaned.

· An average strap doing one hard pull stretching to its full capacity needs between 6 and 24 hours to recover (contract to its original length) Time needed depends on previous work load. A newer strap recovers faster.

· When a strap stops recovering fully - to within 90% of its original length it is ‘tugged out’. Using it as a tuggum and relying on its stretch, which at this point may be as low as 5%, is dangerous. The strap is now good as a pull strap. It can also be used as a winch strap but the small amount of stretch left in it may not be ideal.

More facts about tuggum straps:

· Genuine tuggum straps (those made for the job) are polyamide, not polyester.

· Cargo carry straps (broad green straps) sometimes sold as kinetic straps are often not suitable and when used shock-load the vehicle and attachments.

· The more moisture, the longer the stretch but the breaking strain is decreased.

· Sand and grit in the webbing accelerates the wear and decreases the breaking strain.

· Tuggums with a built-in indicator filament (a strip of coloured material is woven along the length of the strap. When it breaks the tuggum is ‘stretched out”) have been outlawed in most countries. The system is unreliable and must not be trusted.

Tuggum straps cannot be told apart from non-stretch straps unless they are labelled. Using the wrong strap could be disastrous. Novices beware. Only experts in polyamide technology would be able to tell the difference by just looking.