Slings really can hold a car

Just in case you were wondering if climbing gear really can hold a car...
We used this sling to pull a Honda Civic out of the mud via Toyota Tacoma. So, if you use your physics reasoning, it actually held more than the weight of the car since there was the force of the truck pulling AND the force of the friction of the ground against the movement of the Civic. I know we all KNOW our gear can hold a car, but it's pretty cool when you actually see it happen.

I trust this sling is now retired from any future climbing use at all. No use for rap anchors, nothing now.

I'm not a physicist but you didn't factor the weight of the Civic on the ground. The sling would have to hold the dead weight (held off ground) of the Civic to actually "hold the car". glad to know the sling did so well though!

Could someone who knows specifics chime in on this physics reasoning... I have pulled my GMC Jimmy on a piece of rope from walmart that was rated at 240 lbs just to see if it would break and it never did, we even shocked loaded it a few times at stop signs. Obviously there are some variables with a vehicle being stuck and whether they were trying to jerk it out or statically pull it, but its not like the sling is holding the weight of the car as though it's hanging in the air right, because its sitting on the ground, on wheels, that roll... anyone? because there doesn't sound to be any physics reasoning going on here.

CorinaCarlson wrote:Just in case you were wondering if climbing gear really can hold a car... We used this sling to pull a Honda Civic out of the mud via Toyota Tacoma. So, if you use your physics reasoning, it actually held more than the weight of the car since there was the force of the truck pulling AND the force of the friction of the ground against the movement of the Civic. I know we all KNOW our gear can hold a car, but it's pretty cool when you actually see it happen.

The bolded portion is not even close to being correct. The only way that you could know the force held by the sling would be to have a load-cell on it or some other way of measuring it since there is no way of calculating how much force would be required to pull the car out of the mud using only the information provided. I do however highly doubt that the sling ever experienced a force equal to the weight of the car while you were pulling it out.

i'm thinking corina doesn't have good physics reasoning. which is immediately obvious by her stating that the sling held the force of the truck pulling AND the force of the friction of the ground against the movement of the Civic. among other things....

CorinaCarlson wrote:So, if you use your physics reasoning, it actually held more than the weight of the car since there was the force of the truck pulling AND the force of the friction of the ground against the movement of the Civic.

No.

Woodchuck ATC wrote:I trust this sling is now retired from any future climbing use at all. No use for rap anchors, nothing now.

And why would that be your assumption? I would doubt very much that the integrity of the sling was compromised.

Yarp wrote: And why would that be your assumption? I would doubt very much that the integrity of the sling was compromised.

if you have ever used webbing for something like this you would understand his assumption. unless you are being sarcastic. and that i can understand.

CorinaCarlson wrote: So, if you use your physics reasoning,

awesome

Yarp wrote: And why would that be your assumption? I would doubt very much that the integrity of the sling was compromised.

Yarp, now's the time to edit with one of these:

Wow people get ripped up on this website. It's pretty awesome you were able to use a sling to pull your car.

Darren Mabe wrote: if you have ever used webbing for something like this you would understand his assumption. unless you are being sarcastic. and that i can understand.

No, I wasn't being sarcastic. I have used climbing gear to pull a vehicle out of a ditch. My buddy did retire the gear we used but I wouldn't have had a problem using it again. If it makes you feel better to throw it away then by all means do your thing but again, I'd doubt that the integrity of the sling was compromised. Would be interesting to see it tested and find it's failure point.

I as well have used climbing gear to pull a car out of a snowbank,a rope in particular because it happened to be in the trunk after ice climbing. I tripled it up and there's no way its strength was compromised, though a test would be interesting...

a fair approx of rolling resistance is something like 2% of the total weight (level ground). that means for a 4000 lb car it would take about 80 pounds of force to start it rolling, which makes sense considering a single person can push a car in neutral.

I once let some high school kids pull there half ton trucks around the parking lot with an old OP biner. No idea how much force it was with them pulling against each other but they had to back up and get a running start to break the biner. Pretty awesome when it exploded. Too bad the only video was on a cell phone and of terrible quality. Yeah, climbing gear is ridiculously strong.

thats what we kneeded to know Marc! awesome

I'm going to give Corina a pass on the physics, she's a cutie.

it's ok corina we all learned a little something today thanks to you...

Thanks for the corrections and clarification, y'all are so right (wow, it's been a long time since physics class and I am super glad that wasn't a test question on a test I was taking today - I would have gotten it WAY wrong). Unfortunately I am also much less impressed with our towing power, but it was still fun to watch. Happy climbing!

Still hope that the sling is retired, just cuz we don't know the stress or damage done from the tow action. Good to have extra pieces available for such car rescue needs.