Since we arrived in Maine last November, I’ve knew I had to begin stocking up on my truck emergency items. The last thing I wanted was to have a really great pickup truck, that handled the snow with ease, stuck on the side of the road because of something stupid I, or someone else, did. If I was going to get stuck, I wanted to be able to get unstuck. That’s when I began making the list of items I would need to stock away in the back seat.
First was the metal shovel to dig any snow away from the belly of the truck if I ever got stuck. Check. Next was the shackles to use if someone needed to pull me out of a snow bank. Check. Next were some blankets, some tie-downs, some tools. You get the idea. The only thing I needed up until yesterday was an actual recovery strap. Can you imagine me sitting up on a snow pile waiting for a fellow Mainer to drive on by? When someone finally did stop to help, can you imagine my dismay when they told me they had no strap, chain or rope to do what we needed to do? Can you imagine how stupid and annoyed I would feel?
Very early on, sometime back in December, I put a Smittybilt recovery strap in my Amazon shopping cart. The strap was 2 inches wide and 30 feet long. It was rated for 20,000 pounds. I believe it cost almost $40. The price is why it sat in the cart for so long. I was procrastinating.
Last week, I started going through my checklist of summertime projects I need to finish up. The recovery strap surfaced, so I bit the bullet, logged into Amazon (this is after checking the local stores for straps ad nauseam) and almost purchased the strap I had stored in my cart. As I was looking through the pages, a Keeper recovery strap popped up. This one was 30 feet long, 4 inches wide, rated for 10,000 pounds and only cost $20. I bought the Keeper. I figured I really didn’t need the extra 10,000 pounds. If I ever do, I’m most likely doing something that would justify the extra $20. Yes folks, this is how my brain works. I think about things for months before I buy something. I just mull it over, and over, and over.
Anyway, I figured I’d take some pictures of this strap. While I was shopping, I really didn’t find any great pictures of what I was about to purchase. If someone else wants to buy a strap like this, they can get a feel of what they may be getting by checking out my photos below.
[…] These boots remind me of the old moon boots I had when I was a kid. They are thick walled and huge. I can’t drive in them – actually, I can hardly even get in the truck with them. I tried a few days ago as I was pulling my neighbor out of a ditch and had a heck of a time getting my feet beneath the steering wheel. When I finally did, I was concerned that my foot would get stuck on the accelerator and we’d both go flying up the road uncontrollably, attached to each other with my nice new recovery strap. […]