K-Strap: Wheel Wrap Technique
THE PROCESS
Survey the scene to figure out where you want to go with the vehicle and what you have for rigging to work with.
POSITIONING
Making a smiley face (the longer end being in the front). Keeping each hand on each side of the strap, one side goes around the tire followed by the other side going past the 12 o’clock position.
In result, one side of the strap will end up sitting at 10 to 11 o’clock, and the other side will sit around 1 to 2 o’clock. (This will ensure that the straps create an ‘X’ shape on the back-side of the tire.
As the strap comes around the front, we are going to drop the top side down through the bottom loop. This creates the ‘choke’ on the tire that allows us to hold on to the entire wheel assembly to pull it out.
Once the strap is in position, you will need to make some fine-tuned adjustments:
You’ll want to get your wear pads in place. These are meant to go right along the face of the tread. These pads will take the abuse away from the strap.
While adjusting the wear pads, make sure the strap stays down as low as possible.
WHERE SHOULD THE STRAP RUN ACROSS IT’S SELF?
During most of your pulls, you’ll want to have the strap centered with the center of the hub. So that it puts an even load on the wheel assembly and keeps it from wanting to rotate.
The exception would be if you would like to pull straight up, you’ll want to move the strap where it positions just a little above center. This will prevent the wheel from rolling through to find its center of gravity when lifted.
SAFETY FEATURES
The Tell-Tails
These are part of the internal structure of this strap. In the event that the strap has been overloaded, the tails will start to disappear inside the cover. If less than half inch is exposed, the sling should be removed from service.
Fiber Optic Thread
If you cover one end, it will not conduct light out of the other end of the thread. To check this, move your thumb on and off of the other end of the thread to see if the light is blinking. If you do not see the light blinking, it is time to get rid of the strap.
